About KDC
Our Team
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The KDC Team

We have a small, but experienced staff with over 50 combined years of experience, ranging from grassroots organizing to running cooperatives to non-profit administration to Fortune 500 consulting.

​KDC also has a unique team of professional consultants, all with many years of cooperative business experience. Our highly skilled experts are available to assist clients with all aspects of business development. We have centers of excellence in business planning, financial forecasting, and legal advising

Peggy Fogarty
Peggy Fogarty, M.S., Executive Director of KDC is the board/organization liaison. She oversees KDC’s funding plan, finances, operations, systems, projects, clients, and our team. Employed by KDC since 2005, she has served as the ED since 2014. Her experience includes over 19 years of program development and administration, 15 years teaching in adult education, and 7 years as a produce farmer. Her focus has been on increasing KDC’s impact and developing systems to measure and report on the success of KDC’s clients. She has been instrumental in expanding the reach of the organization regionally and in the diversity of the projects KDC engages in.

Peggy’s entrepreneurial spirit, vision and ability to leverage community partners are key ingredients to KDC and her client’s success in import phases of development and expansion. Her leadership skills have contributed to the re-establishment of our local food system. A resource to business owners, she brings her skills of developing social infrastructure, including board development, strategic planning and the writing of internal policy, bylaws and marketing agreements. Peggy has worked as an Extension Educator with Penn State in Agricultural Economic Development and as the Program Coordinator. Ms. Fogarty received her MS from the University of Arizona in Family and Consumer Sciences and a BA from Rutgers University in Anthropology and Urban Studies.

Autumn Vogel
Autumn Vogel joins the KDC team as a Cooperative Development Consultant. She brings a combination of cooperative development, small business development and community organizing experience. Autumn will take leadership in the creation of a rural home care business owned by caregiver employees, specifically socially disadvantaged groups in economically distressed areas, thereby raising wages and job quality for caregivers. Additionally, she will provide general technical assistance to cooperative clients, including educational activities related to cooperative basics, governance, equity development, and management.

Autumn is fully connected with her community as she is a founding member of the Northwest Pennsylvania Investment Cooperative - a commercial real estate purchasing and renovation cooperative as well as a board member of Common Roots – a housing cooperative conversion enterprise in Meadville, PA. Autumn is a trained community organizer through the Midwest Academy and serves as a Community Heart & Soul project leader supported by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the Orton Family Foundation.

Pittsburgh native, Autumn worked as a Community Development Coordinator for the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Meadville organizing local business owners to form an Independent Business Alliance. Her team launched several business development programs guiding entrepreneurs them through business planning, pro forma financial statements, and market research, resulting in the launch of seven new and expanded businesses within a year.

Ron Gaydos
​Ron Gaydos, Cooperative Development Consultant, is Principal of Scenius Strategies, an economic development, organizational strategy, and special projects management firm. In 2015 Ron co-founded the Pittsburgh Chamber of Cooperatives, the Pittsburgh region’s hands-on resource for cooperative business.

Ron was introduced to cooperative economics through the EF Schumacher Society, now the national New Economy Coalition, in study sponsored by several Pittsburgh community leaders. He has recently trained in consent-based governance and with other Chamber members also conducts consent-based decision making and training sessions  among cooperatives and workgroups interested in non-hierarchical collaboration.

Ron is a longtime advocate for equity, inclusion, and fairness in community economic development. His work on major community development projects is known for these emphases. He has started three businesses and has served as a consultant for many other business owners.

For three years he was a member of a cooperative household that harmoniously (mostly) managed everyday living, upkeep and renovations, and household social events. When it came time for his son to go to elementary school, Ron and his wife got together with 4 other families in an informal after-school co-op, having five more children at home one day a week for after school snacks, homework time, and activities among all five families. Ron also founded and operated a labor exchange and business referral network of community-based business owners known as The Rainbow Trust Collective.​
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After graduate study at the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University, Ron began to work on several high-profile projects involving former industrial sites and their conversion, workforce development, and technology-assisted community discourse. This project management experience organizing complex initiatives, coupled with his fervor for business practices and economic policies that create shared value, has led him to strive be one of the leading proponents of cooperatives in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Tony Ricci 
Tony Ricci, Cooperative Development Consultant, is a founding member of Tuscarora Organic Growers Co-op (TOG), Pennsylvania Certified Organic (PCO), and Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), and has been actively involved in the growth and development of local food networks in central Pennsylvania since he began farming. Tony also served as the sales manager of (TOG) from 2000 to 2008.  In that capacity, he was responsible for day to day sales, production planning and marketing.  He was also an essential team member for designing and maintaining practical database solutions for the operation of TOG.
 
Tony is co-owner and operator of Green Heron Farm in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania.   He has been farming organic vegetables since 1984.  Tony offers a wide range of marketing and logistics expertise in both retail and wholesale production and distribution.  Tony has participated in many farmers markets over the years, including the Takoma Park Farmers Market in Maryland.  He currently manages the Huntingdon Farmers’ Market in Huntingdon PA and serves as president of the Huntingdon County Local Food Association, which administers the market.

Hanna Mengel
Hanna Mengel, KDC's Program Assistant, is a recent graduate from Lock Haven University where she studied Health Sciences and Psychology. She worked with KDC over the past few summers and became a full-time employee in January 2020. Hanna supports all aspects of KDC projects including the Home Care and New Jersey Livestock feasibility studies by conducting research, reporting results, and assisting with grants and contracts. She supports day to day operations such as maintaining our client and financial records, handling communications, responding to client requests and maintaining the KDC website and social media platforms. She enjoys learning about cooperative development and working with the KDC team. 

Hanna is passionate about wellness and enjoys exploring various techniques and practices that promote wellbeing. In her free time, she enjoys attending different fitness classes, attempting new recipes, and spending time with loved ones. Her future plans are to go to graduate school for Health Psychology. 

Jen Christopher
Jen Christopher is KDC's IT consultant. She has seven years of experience in the IT industry, with a background in systems integration, software deployment, and technology based business solutions. She has worked with several Pennsylvania based cooperative businesses, including Weavers Way, CreekSide, Swarthmore and Mariposa. Her specialties include point of sale systems, web design, data reporting and analysis, employee training, technical documentation, and inventory management. 

Prior to working with KDC, Jen was Director of IT at CreekSide Food Co-op. During that time she also provided point of sale system and general IT support to Swarthmore Co-op. She briefly worked for an IT company in New Orleans before becoming a full time independent consultant

KDC Board of Directors
KDC continues to be governed by a volunteer board of directors mostly comprised of professionals in rural development, economic-community development, and education.  They are a hands-on board and regularly assist in KDC projects.