Staff

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Jilliann Sundberg is the Executive Director for Blue Watermelon, with over a decade of experience in classrooms and farm-to-school concepts. As an educator, she saw how connection to gardens positively impacts students and strengthens communities. She migrated to the cafeteria to join the movement of professionals who are reimagining school food, serving up change one local product at a time. She believes that “student and school success” must include positive relationships to food, especially as we task the next generation with making the world a better place. Joining the leadership team at BWP was a pivotal next step to move the needle on this mission, alongside our amazing staff, volunteers and partners.

HEAD OF PROGRAMS

Erin Fang serves as Head of Programs for Blue Watermelon Project. She began her career in the classroom teaching 6th grade English, then spent several years working in the nonprofit sector before moving on to work in higher education. Throughout her career, her focus has remained on community empowerment and support, which she is excited to continue with BWP. In this role, Erin supports volunteers, manages program development and evaluation, and is a champion for the amazing mission and work being done in our community! 

PROJECT MANAGER

Kayla LaLone serves as the Project Manager for Blue Watermelon Project. She began her career in school nutrition a decade ago diving into federal programs focused on nutrition education, menu planning, food procurement and operations. School food is where she found her passion for people; they are the heart and soul serving students each day. Scratch cooking, farm-to-school, local purchasing and clean label initiatives became a huge part of her mission. She believes all students deserve nutrient-rich and delicious foods at school to fuel their minds and feed their bodies.

SCHOOL GARDEN CONSULTANT

Lou Rodarte (a.k.a. Mr. Pikle) is a School Garden Consultant for Blue Watermelon Project and is with the founding school and school garden hub for the Chef in the Garden. Lou has over 14 years of experience in school gardens and supports partner schools as an advisor via site visits and technical assistance via Slack.

CULINARY CONSULTANT

Sasha Raj, as a Culinary Consultant, works with our guest chefs each month, assists with in-person Chef in the Garden visits, oversees monthly kit packing events, and audits per kit costs to ensure we do not exceed budget or overuse materials.

CONTEST COORDINATOR - FEEDING THE FUTURE

Sarah Martinelli is a registered dietitian who started her career working in school kitchens. Sarah now teaches in the nutrition program in the College of Health Solutions at ASU where her work focuses on school nutrition programs. As the contest coordinator for Feeding the Future, Sarah works students and chef mentors to ensure their recipes meet USDA guidelines. Sarah also contributes to the development of the Chef in the Garden curriculum.

VIDEOGRAPHER

Chuck Emmert is the videographer for the Blue Watermelon Project’s Chef in the Garden series. For more than 45 years, Chuck Emmert has been a visual storyteller in the Phoenix area. At KPNX, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, Chuck led a talented group of video journalists that prided itself on fair and accurate storytelling with a flair for using video and sound to tell the story, garnering 8 Emmy® Awards in the process. Emmert has been the videographer on overseas documentary projects including segments in hostile areas like North Korea. He is credited with pioneering helicopter news coverage in one of the country’s first live airborne camera platforms with legendary pilot Jerry Foster of SKY-12 at KPNX. Then, in partnership with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, he directed a yearly thirteen-episode television series. ‘Arizona Wildlife Views’ that aired on PBS. The series chronicled the diverse native animal life in the desert southwest. Emmert continued to implement this storytelling-driven programming philosophy at know99 Television in Phoenix, a youth and education orientated cable channel. This opportunity offered the chance to create a video journalist mentoring program, crafting an advanced videography training curriculum for gifted high school and college student video journalists. Chuck is in the classroom as well, having served as adjunct professor in videography with the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication. Check has transitioned to a new era of storytelling, serving as a videographer for the nation’s fifth-largest city, Phoenix. He is the principal content creator for the city’s Instagram account, attracting more than 100,000 followers in the process.