About
Our Society & Board Members
For the Love of Mushrooms
Our Mission is to promote the understanding, protection and enjoyment of mushrooms and other fungi.
We unite community members interested in all things fungal. We host lecture series, cultivation seminars, organize cooking demonstrations and forays. And, of course, there’s the annual Fungus Festival to further share knowledge of this valuable resource. The Mycological Society of Marin County strives to get folks back outside to rediscover their hunter-gatherer instinct, especially if it’s raining!
Have other questions? Email us at myco@mycomarin.org
Members-Only Content
Become a Member and Get Exclusive Access!
Join our community and get access to events and benefits available only to members. Enjoy secret foraging trips, special cooking sessions and more. Receive access to content on our website not available to the public. Get insights into better foraging. Enjoy delicious and unique mushroom recipes. Most importantly, connect with members who are passionate fungi experts.
Our Board of Directors
Kevin Sadlier
President — Founder
Kevin founded MycoMarin in 2015 and has served as President and Vice President. His passion for mycology and forming a close-knit community to expand the benefits of mycology on several levels is what fuels the organization today. An avid teacher, horticulturist and forager, Kevin resides in Mill Valley and enjoys everything the Bay Area, especially Marin County, has to offer.
Xander Wessells
Co-founder
Xander, co-founder of MycoMarin, is a naturalist and avid forager. Her love of the outdoors and cooking made mushroom hunting a natural path. The result has been a widening knowledge of the important relationship between people and fungi. A landscape designer and horticulturist, Xander brightens the lives of numerous residents of Marin County.
Cherry Allen Driscoll
Treasurer
Cherry joined MycoMarin in 2018. Hunting for mushrooms in the wilds is her passion. Cherry brings deep experience in business finance, capital raising, and the associated management. She is a recent transplant from Texas, and now lives in Mill Valley. She is enamored of foraging in general, and exploring the wilds of Marin is an activity that brings her great satisfaction.
Edmond Allmond
Secretary
Edmond Allmond joined MycoMarin in 2018. He is passionate about fungi as food and medicine. Edmond is equally enamored of Marin’s open spaces and enjoys hikes through the flora of the region. A successful communications and marketing maven, recently of UC Berkeley, Edmond also has a successful global career on concert stage and television as a pianist, composer and conductor. He has more than 35 years giving back as a mentor, educator and activist.
Eric Multhaup
Culinary Chair
Eric Multhaup came to California as an impoverished Stanford graduate student, and learned to forage for any and everything under the tutelage of European graduate students who appreciated the abundance of California nature. From 2008 to 2019 he was on the Executive Council of the Mycological Society of San Francisco, and co-chair of the Hospitality Committee. He moonlights making mushroom ikebana and arranging mushroom songs.
Finola Diaz
Membership Chair
Finola joined the Mycological Society of Marin County and quickly became the membership Chair. She was a culinary judge for seven years for the competitive Dominican Gastronomic Festival, where her passion for food creation and presentation were showcased. Finola is a retiree of both American Airlines Dominican Republic and PG&E’s Solar Department. She loves mushroom foraging and cooking as well as reading, entertaining and camping.
Else Vellinga
Science Advisor
Else, mycologist, has described 22 new mushroom species in California. Her most recent work is at the University and Jepson Herbaria at UC Berkeley, and at UCSF, on the Microfungi Collections Digitization project. She received her training at the National Herbarium of the Netherlands, and earned her PhD at the University of Leiden. Addtionally, Else is a researcher and professor with the Bruns Laboratory at UC Berkeley.
The main motivation for her taxonomic work is that it lays the basis for efforts to include mushroom species in nature management and conservation plans. She has proposed several species for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a global database of endangered species. She concentrates especially on Macrolepiota procera, or Parasol mushrooms. Else is an avid knitter and uses mushroom dyed yarn for her creations.