Our Team
Timm Esque
Timm Esque started volunteering with Reap Goodness in 2020 and is currently the leader of the Heartland Trial at Boyce Thompson Arboretum. He also teaches embodied leadership and co-hosts a podcast called Mind & Body@Work through the company he co-founded – East Valley Leader Lab.
Timm spent his formative years in a variety of roles at Intel Corporation, eventually becoming an internal consultant to high stakes project teams. Later Timm published his key learnings at Intel (No Surprises Project Management, 1999) and consulted to teams globally, including Fortune 100, small businesses, nonprofits and US AID. He has consulted and/or presented in 21 countries.
Anne Ellis, PhD
Landscape designer and consultant Anne Ellis has worked in industrial, academic and government research, and holds earned degrees in Organic Chemistry, Business Management, and Environmental Policy. A certified Master Gardener, she earned credentials as a Landscape Designer through the ASLA-accredited Desert Botanical Garden in 2020.
Anne focuses on xeriscaping and desert-adapted plants with an emphasis on native desert plants. She has been gardening and planting trees since childhood and has now been gardening in the desert for over 25 years.
Cyndi Ruehl
Earning advanced degrees in Ecological Restoration and Environmental Psychology, and as a retired water resource specialist with the state of Arizona, Cyndi has concentrated her career in natural resource planning and conservation in the Sonoran Desert. Her love of the desert has led to a 40-year study of ethnobotany; the traditional uses and relationships of the desert plants’ uses as food and medicine.
Michiel 'All Mike' Montiel
Michiel 'All Mike' Montiel is a veteran, indigenous leader, and community organizer with a deep commitment to transforming local food systems through regenerative practices and cultural knowledge. As a founder and collaborator on multiple food forest and agroforestry projects in Arizona, 'All Mike' works to create sustainable, community-driven models that restore ecosystems, build food sovereignty, and reconnect people to the land. He has helped launch cooperatives, mutual aid networks, and educational initiatives focused on resilient desert agriculture, drawing on both traditional indigenous wisdom and innovative ecological design. His work centers on empowering communities—especially those historically marginalized—to reclaim their right to healthy, abundant, and culturally rooted food.
Edmund Williams, PE
As a civil engineer, Ed got involved with sustainability. As he got more involved, he realized that most sustainability initiatives are inadequate to the scope of the problem. He also realized that the bulk of our problems are directly related to a decline of the ecological systems that maintain air and water quality, climate, water cycles, and much more. He decided to search for solutions that would rebuild the life-sustaining ecologies of the world while still addressing the triple bottom line and creating three foundation of a movement that could make a real difference. Out of those efforts, he created the LEHR Garden.