Festival Speaker Schedule and Bios
We have an exciting group of speakers this year! We will continue to update this list with speakers and presentation titles as more guests confirm, and we'll post speaker times closer to the event. In the meantime, scroll down to learn more about our speakers, and be sure to check back for updates. Schedule subject to change.
Sunday May 12
- 10:30 a.m. | Maxine and Maurice Theriot | Everyone Can Have a Green Thumb
- 11:45 a.m. | Tina Marie Wilcox & Susan Belsinger | The Herbal Apothecary
- 1:00 p.m. | John Rivers | Soil Health, Planet Health
- 2:15 p.m. | Chris Battle | Urban Gardening for Food Security
- 3:30 p.m. | Ashlie Thomas | Holistic Approaches to Wellness: Gardening for Nutrition
- 4:45 p.m. | Gardening and Community Health panel discussion (Maile Auterson, John Rivers, Chris Battle, Gibron Jones)
Monday May 13
- 10:30 a.m. | Gibron Jones | Making New Models for Healthy Food
- 11:45 a.m. | Maile Auterson, Dr. Katie Davenport-Kabonic, and Dr. Kristi Crymes | Food as Medicine
- 1:00 p.m. | Stephen McComber | Seed Keeping and Planting by the Moon
- 2:15 p.m. | Bob Rider | Making Aquaponics the Heart of the Farm
- 3:30 p.m. | Crystal Stevens | Diversified Income Streams on the Farm
- 4:45 p.m. | Q & A with BC gardeners
Maurice & Maxine Theriot
Everyone Can Have a Green Thumb
Maurice Theriot is a Master Gardener with a strong passion for community service and outreach. He has been instrumental in the establishment of multiple community gardens as well as numerous backyard vegetable garden projects around the United States. As a Small Farms Specialist with Lincoln University's Innovative Small Farmers' Outreach Program (ISFOP), Maurice prioritizes empowering historically under-resourced populations to achieve greater levels of independence through sustainable farming practices.
Together, he and his wife Dr. Maxine Theriot, a fellow Master Gardener and wound care specialist physician, are the founders of Theriot Farms Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides training and educational resources to teach people how to grow their own food and become less reliant on corporate food supply chains.
In their presentation, they will offer a guide to the fundamentals of vegetable gardening.
Tina Marie Wilcox & Susan Belsinger
The Herbal Apothecary
Herbal enthusiasts Susan Belsinger and Tina Marie Wilcox met in 1996 when Susan went to present two herb programs at the Ozark Folk Center, where Tina Marie is herbalist, head gardener and coordinates all kinds of wonderful herbal events. Susan cooks, writes, takes photos and teaches; her latest book the perfect bite: focus on flavor was published in 2022.
Having herbs, gardening, botanizing, foraging, good food and fun in common—Tina Marie and Susan hit it off—and that was the beginning of a long-distance friendship. Gardening from their respective homes, Susan in Maryland, and Tina Marie in Arkansas, they’ve exchanged a lot of seeds, plants, roots and ideas over the years. They have collaborated on presentations and workshops across the country, from the Smithsonian to Epcot and have done many programs for herbal organizations and businesses, conferences and botanic gardens. They co-authored the creative herbal home, which celebrates their living the herbal life and have written for national publications like Mother Earth Living, The Herb Companion, The Herbarist, Herbs for Health and GRIT, as well as the Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Regions Guides.
Tina and Susan are both members of the International Herb Association, Herb Society of America, American Botanical Council and United Plant Savers—and they both share a passion for all things herbal.
John Rivers
Soil Health, Planet Health
John is founder and CEO of 4R Restaurant Group in Florida and the founder of 4Roots Farm, an 18-acre urban farm in Orlando, Fla. After a successful career in business, as well as the restaurant business, John is now focused on championing soil health and healing the broken food system.
Chris Battle
Urban Gardening for Food Security
Rev. Chris Battle is the founder of BattleField Farm in Knoxville. In 2019, he left the pulpit after a 30-year career in the traditional role of pastor, and today his ministry is focused on reducing food insecurity and economic injustice, especially in East Knoxville.
Battle works with other churches and organizations seeking to establish gardens on their grounds and has recently begun utilizing a food truck to distribute fresh produce to underserved communities.
Presently, he serves as the CEO of the Knox County Community Gardens & Growers Alliance. He is a founding member of Rooted East, and the Lead Pastor of The CUT (Church Under the Tree). He has been featured on NPR’S “All Things Considered” and People Magazine. He recently authored a book titled, “I Ain’t Coming to Your D@#! Church But, I Will Come to Your Garden.” He and his wife, Tomma, are the parents of 19 children.
Ashlie Thomas
Holistic Approaches to Wellness: Gardening for Nutrition
Gibron Jones
Making New Models for Healthy Food
Gibron is the founder of HOSCO SHIFT and the North Sarah Food Hub in his home city of St. Louis. The nonprofit is focused on increasing access to healthy local food, and creating markets for farmers and jobs in communities that need them most.
Maile Auterson
Food as Medicine
Maile Auterson is a fourth-generation Ozarks farmer. As Founder and Executive Director of Springfield Community Gardens (SCG), she uses asset-based community development models to facilitate grassroots resilience and collaboration around healthy food access. Her efforts since 2010 have seen the orchestrated expansion of SCG from one garden to a network of 17 community gardens, two market farms that serve as training sites, and a hospital farm that serves as a training farm for institutional growing. Maile has overseen the delivery of over 2 million pounds of fresh produce to food-insecure neighborhoods. She is doing policy and field research on rural poverty in the Ozarks and advocates for teaching sustainable agroforestry practices as a way to diversify income on small family farms. Maile inspires people through her service and commitment to socially equitable food systems, and her work has been locally and nationally recognized.
Joining Maile will be Dr. Katie Davenport-Kabonic and Dr. Kristi Crymes.
Dr. Davenport-Kabonic, DO, FAAFP is a family medicine faculty physician at the CoxHealth Family Medicine Residency in Springfield, MO.
As a physician member of the Health Scripts program partnership with Springfield Community Gardens, she and physician partner Kristi Crymes, DO facilitate weekly food distributions and shared medical appointments for clinic patients, centering generative conversations on whole food plant-based nutrition to reduce food insecurity and foster community.
Dr. Kristi Crymes is the Associate Program Director and faculty at the CoxHealth Family Medicine Residency in Springfield, MO, where she directs the Lifestyle Medicine Program. Dr. Crymes is board certified in family medicine and lifestyle medicine, and she has a passion for practicing and teaching the kind of medicine that brings lasting health to her patients and her community. She is a member of the Community Partnership of the Ozarks Food Collaborative and partners with her multi-disciplinary colleagues and Springfield Community Gardens to develop and deliver the HealthScripts program. This program is a relationships-first, farm-to-clinic, food-is-medicine approach to reduce nutrition insecurity and prevent, treat, and reverse chronic disease. She is a food forest gardener, a permaculture design student, and a mom of three boys whom she hopes will inherit a healthier planet.
Stephen McComber
Seed Keeping and Planting by the Moon
As a traditional Haudenosaunee seed keeper, Stephen McComber has shared his knowledge with international audiences. He is also a renowned artist, proud grandfather, and works as a native elder for Corrections Canada. Stephen will share stories of his seed keeping work and collection, as well as describe the practice of planting by the moon.
Bob Rider
Making Aquaponics the Heart of the Farm
Bob Rider is a founder of Olive Branch Aquaponics. He has over 15 years of experience in aquaponics, and he loves sharing his knowledge with others. Olive Branch believes that their aquaponics system is the beating heart of their farm, generating beneficial “byproducts” that are used in place of store-bought options. Join Bob and his team as they explain how these byproducts, such as fertilizer, pesticides, fungicides, and soil amendments are repurposed to enhance every aspect of their farm's ecosystem. Discover how they close the loop.
Crystal Stevens
Diversified Income Streams on the Farm
Crystal Stevens co-owns Flourish Farmstead and runs Flourish Folk School and Flourish School of Botanicals with her husband, Eric Stevens. She teaches classes and programs on herbalism, foraging, gardening, and cooking, and is a regular presenter at conferences and fairs. Crystal will discuss a myriad of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs to transform your yard into an edible oasis, increase biodiversity, attract pollinators, and offer a continuous harvest through planting fruit and nut trees, perennial natives, heirlooms, and medicinal herbs. She is the author of three books, including Your Edible Yard. She and her family live along the bluffs of the Mississippi River in Godfrey, Illinois.
Music Contest!
Bring Your Voices and Your Instruments!
Old-Fashioned musicians -- solo acts and groups -- are invited to compete for cash prizes at 2:00 p.m. Sunday on the Opry Stage. Sign up before noon. Contest rules and more information >>
Music Schedule
Music Schedule TBA
Complete music schedule and any additional speakers will be announced at a later date. Be sure to check back closer to the event!