Amber joined the Center and the UVM Extension staff in 2020 to give technical assistance to farmers for grazing and pasturing livestock. Most of her work is in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, but she does visit other regions of the state as well.

Amber’s love of farming started in West Virginia where food was a major part of her family's Italian culture. Everyone enjoyed gardening, chickens, cows, cooking, canning… and giving each other lots of advice. She grew up off the grid in Central Maine and spent much of her early 20s as a canoe guide in Northern Maine and the wilds of Canada.

She majored in Environmental Studies and Visual Art at Bowdoin College and went on to teach public school before she found her calling as a farmer. She spent two years apprenticing on a cattle ranch and a grass-based dairy and creamery in Colorado with the Quivira Coalition. Quivira is non-profit that brings together ranchers, environmentalists and scientists to find innovative solutions – and to make progress for the sake of the land, the animals and the people on the land.  This is the work that she is dedicated to.

Amber worked for many farmers and managed farms from Colorado to Vermont. She feels lucky to have worked with a wide variety of animals, landscapes, and people. Amber, her husband Chris, and their kids own and run a sheep farm in Barnet, Vermont on the banks of the Connecticut River.