Kristen "K" Castrataro was six months old when she first accompanied her family to the cornfield, sitting in her playpen while they picked hundreds of bushels of sweet corn. 

 

Over the next four and a half decades, farming remained a constant in her life, both by necessity and by choice. She worked full-time and/or part-time in a variety of agricultural pursuits, including:

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• Working on fruit and vegetable, dairy, and horse farms

• Engaging in field work, agritourism, and farm marketing efforts 

• Accepting leadership roles in local producer organizations

• Serving commercial producers as the Agricultural Extension Agent at the University of Rhode Island

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K founded Pen Light, LLC in February 2024 to help farmers manage their personal, professional, and interpersonal stressors and experience greater satisfaction, efficiency, and peace.

 

 

Qualifications 

• BA in English and MA in teaching from Wheaton College (IL)

• Associate with Proteknôn Foundation providing consulting services on child protection, safeguarding, and mental health and psychosocial support

• Certified mediator with the Rhode Island Center for Mediation and Collaboration

• Certified Journal to the Self® instructor from the Therapeutic Writing Institute

• Certified Journal Facilitator from the Therapeutic Writing Institute (in progress)  

• Columnist: "Farmers First," Country Folks and Country Folks Grower

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