The Soil Revolution Conference2026 Conference

Shannon Francis, is a Hopi and Dineh from the Southwest homelands of Arizona and New Mexico. She is Towering House clan born for Red Running into the Water clan. Her Hopi clans are Massau’, Bear Sand, and Snake Clan.

Shannon comes from twelve generations of farmers, ethnobotanists, and seed keepers. As a certified Permaculture Designer and Instructor, Shannon weaves TEK Traditional Ecological Knowledge with innovative science. She loves to educate on caretaking of land, water, and soil resources; preserving Native heirloom GMO-free seeds, zero-waste philosophy, and how to live more harmoniously with nature.

Shannon is the Executive Director for Spirit of the Sun, Inc. in Denver.. Shannon served on the Four Winds council as Board Chair and continues to serve on the Elders council for American Indian Movement of Colorado (AIM). Spirit of the Sun received the 2020 Human Rights Award from Youth Celebrate Diversity. Shannon received the Justin B. Willie humanitarian award (2014) on the Navajo Nation as well as the Cesar E. Chavez female leadership award (2015) for her work with Indigenous, food justice, and community building projects.

Shannon has six wonderful children and seven amazing grandchildren that are her inspiration to make this a better world for all future generations to come.

Maggie joined the Central Grasslands Roadmap Initiative team as the director in early 2024 from the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT). The CGRI is a multinational conservation collaborative focused on improving the enabling conditions for grassland conservation across North America. In this role, Maggie is deeply committed to learning and understanding the implications of conservation delivery throughout the 700 million acres central grassland biome. She works with agencies, corporate partners, NGOs, producers, and sovereign indigenous nations. In her prior role, Maggie served CCALT as the Director of External Relations. While at CCALT she facilitated conservation easements, supported annual conservation easement monitoring, fundraised and managed the Leopold Conservation Award. Prior to pursuing work in the conservation space, Maggie was a member of El Pomar Foundation’s Fellowship Program, and spent a year in central Oregon as an Americorps volunteer working alongside the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District to develop and implement the Agora Platform, a project sourcing mechanism designed to better connect funders with rural community projects and needs.

Maggie is the current president of the Colorado State Conservation Board, serves on the Central Colorado Conservation District Board, the Pikes Peak Cattlemen's Association, and the Conservation Easement Oversight Commission.

She actively manages her family's cow calf operation in south central El Paso County.

Robert Sakata serves as the first ever Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Water Policy Advisor, a brand new position approved during the 2023 legislative session. Not only is he the liaison between CDA and other state agencies who work with agricultural stakeholders on water issues but also works to strengthen relationships with water organizations around the state while encouraging dialog among diverse groups. He was born and raised in Colorado and grew up on his family farm and has served in a wide range of agricultural and water focused positions beyond his farm. He has served on the Agriculture Groundwater Protection Advisory Board, the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission, the InterBasin Compact Committee, and the Colorado Water Conservation Board. He has also served on the Metro Basin Roundtable, Colorado Foundation for Water Education Board of Directors (now known as Water Education Colorado), Colorado Water Congress Board of Directors, and several mutual ditch company boards He has been active and served in leadership positions in numerous farm organizations including the National Onion Association, The Western Growers Association, and he helped form both the Colorado Ag Water Alliance and the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, where he served as the founding president. He was awarded by the US Vegetable Grower Magazine with the 2014 Grower Achievement Award, was recognized by the Colorado Farm Bureau with the Service to Agriculture award in 2022 a recognition he cherishes since his father received the same award in 2013. In 2020 the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers recognized the work he did to help start the organization by naming the annual CFVGA Member of the year award after him. In the first part of 2026 Robert served as the Acting Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture and currently is the Senior Advisory to the Commissioner while continuing to fill the role as Ag Water Policy Advisor, and Department of Agriculture Behavioral Health program lead. Robert is honored to serve the amazing people in agriculture across the state.

Todd Olander is a fifth-generation farmer and first-generation maltster from Northern Colorado. Raised on his family’s farm, Todd grew up producing small grains and forage crops and today operates Olander Farms, where his family has farmed for 100 years.

Over the past several years, Todd has been working to rethink how the farm grows grain, incorporating reduced and no-till practices, cover crops, rotational grazing, livestock integration, biological inputs, and more efficient use of increasingly limited water. Much of that work is still just that, a work in progress. Todd approaches regenerative agriculture as a farmer testing what makes sense on his ground, learning from what doesn’t, and trying to build a more resilient operation for the next generation.

In 2016, Todd and his wife, Emily, founded Root Shoot Malting to create a local market for grain grown on the farm. Today, Root Shoot supplies craft breweries and distilleries with Colorado-grown malt while giving Todd a direct connection between decisions made in the field and the quality of the finished product.

Through Olander Farms and Root Shoot, Todd is exploring how soil health, water conservation, livestock, local markets, and value added agriculture can work together to help keep a family farm viable for another generation.

Steve Olander has spent more than 50 years farming in Northern Colorado. Since 1975, he has grown Olander Farms from 500 to roughly 1,500 acres, raising livestock and growing barley, wheat, corn, alfalfa and specialty crops. He also built a custom harvesting operation that covered thousands of acres each year. Throughout his career, Steve has continually adapted; from early crop trials and new harvesting technology to reduced tillage, cover crops, livestock integration and a growing focus on soil health. He brings a practical, in the field perspective shaped by decades of figuring out what works, what doesn’t, and how to keep a farm productive for the next generation.

Helen Skiba is a Colorado native, former English major, and returned Peace Corps Volunteer. She is a dedicated grower and tender of soil, and brings a background in soil science and poetry to her field work, as well as a passion for intricate color and texture in her floral designs. Helen developed her design style over many years of wedding work, but she also enjoys making a super-efficient market bouquet. She holds a Master’s of Agriculture from Colorado State University, where she completed her thesis in combination with her Peace Corps service in an indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She's a spreadsheet Queen 👑 and also a member of the Fraternal Order of Grammar Police. Helen serves as the Regional Director for the South and Central Region of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers (ASCFG), helping others create strong, sustainable farm businesses. She also directs the Farming Families Fund through the Flatirons Farmers Coalition, which provides microgrants and capacity building to new farmer parents.

Chad Reznicek is the Behavioral Health State Specialist with CSU Extension, Co-Director of the Colorado AgrAbility Project, committed to helping expand and improve behavioral health support and resources in rural communities. Chad spent 20 years as a licensed therapist, providing behavioral health services in diverse settings with special focus areas in suicide prevention, trauma, mood disorders, and substance abuse. Both of Chad’s parents were raised on farms and he grew up in a small town in central Nebraska with a deep respect for agriculture as the heart of our rural communities.