CROPS partners with Indigenous and rural communities to reach economic, health and social equity. By empowering Indigenous youth and elders, with a focus on passions, strengths, and needs, we have generated over $150M in grant funding for arts, broadband, culture, economic development, education, healthcare, language, victim services and more. We pair these fundraising successes with capacity building and technical assistance to ensure sustained impact.

Helping to grow Tribal and rural communities through culturally diverse partnerships and co-generational leadership.

Founded in 2004 by Beverly Santicola and her late mom, Ardella Paulsen, CROPS is a grassroots nonprofit, 501c3 charitable organization addressing rural poverty. Guided by a dynamic Board of Directors, CROPS partners with underserved rural communities and indigenous populations to reach economic, health and social equity. Services include fund development, project facilitation, economic development strategic planning, intergenerational leadership development and fiscal sponsorship. CROPS’ work with rural youth and elders has resulted in Santicola being selected twice for the prestigious Encore.org Purpose Prize Fellowship, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and Atlantic Philanthropies.

Beverly Santicola

Beverly Santicola, Executive Director, originally a farm girl from Indiana who learned how to drive a tractor, plant seeds and grow crops at a young age, has turned her agricultural childhood and lifetime work experiences into a purpose driven mission to grow a new generation of leaders for the future of America.

She is an award-winning capacity builder, film producer, social entrepreneur, idea generator, problem solver, program developer, project facilitator, public speaker and grant writing consultant.

Over the past ten years, Santicola has focused her expertise and energy in the arenas of community development, youth leadership, and collaborative partnership building for government agencies, national associations, Indigenous tribes and Native Hawaiian nonprofits. Together with her team of professional grant writers, she has generated more than one billion in grant funding for clients.

Santicola has been nationally recognized for social innovation and leadership excellence by the US Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs in connection with the Tiwahe Initiative. In 2010 and 2014 she was honored by Encore.org as a Purpose Prize Fellow, for a youth-led Intergenerational rural development project she designed called ‘Growing Rural’. Honoring extraordinary people ages 60 and older who tap into the power of life experience to build a better future for us all, the Encore Purpose Prize was sponsored by the Atlantic Philanthropies and John Templeton Foundation.

Dr. Susan Thomas, Ph.D./JD

Dr. Susan Thomas, Ph.D./JD, Chair, is a senior attorney with a municipal law firm, Messer Fort, PLLC, in Frisco, Texas. Susan represents small and medium sized cities and towns across the DFW metroplex and assist those jurisdictions with a wide array of general municipal legal services. Prior to entering the practice of law, Susan served as the executive director of a regional government organization working with cities and counties to promote economic and community development. Before that, she worked at the City of Fayetteville, Arkansas as the public information officer, government channel manager, and policy advisor to the mayor. Susan also served as the inaugural director of the Delta Research and Design Center in Clarendon, Arkansas, a community and economic development outreach program of the University of Arkansas that served cities across a 22-county region in eastern Arkansas. She has taught undergraduate and graduate level classes in American National Government, Public Administration, and Public Policy and has directed strategic planning and vision planning sessions for multiple cities and non-profit organizations in both Arkansas and Texas. She earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Public Administration, Master’s of Public Administration, and Ph.D. in Public Policy all from the University of Arkansas. She graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, William H. Bowen School of Law, Magna Cum Laude and is licensed to practice law in Texas.

Susan was born in Little Rock, Arkansas but grew up in Plano, Texas and graduated from Plano East Senior High School before returning to Arkansas for college. Weekends and holidays are spent with family, grilling, fishing, and watching the Razorbacks.

Eileen “Taffy” Lafferty

Eileen “Taffy” Lafferty, Vice Chair, grew up in the He Dog Community on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation and is an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. Taffy is the Acting Director and previously, the Loan Fund Director at Black Hills Community Loan Fund in Rapid City, South Dakota. She has worked with Native CDFI’s in the Northern Plains Region. Taffy is a consultant, trainer, and grant writer for American Indian Tribes and organizations. She has worked with 19 Tribes and numerous organizations/programs on economic development, housing, funding, and training. She studied business administration at the National American University and fine arts at Sinte Gleska University. Taffy is on the Board of Directors for the Center for Rural Outreach and Public Service, Inc. She enjoys traveling, art, cooking, sewing, and sports when she is not working.


Dr. Melita Rank

Dr. Melita Rank

Dr. Melita “Chepa” Rank (Hunkpati Oyate), Board Member, is the Chief Executive Officer for the Fort Thompson Indian Health Services (IHS) Health Center in South Dakota.  With a doctorate as a licensed social worker, she is passionate about transformative and innovative best practices to address grand challenges facing tribal communities and people.  She is leading the development of Integrated systems to foster well-being, suicide prevention in indigenous nations, and holistic services to create a culture of wellness within tribal nations.

Chepa has spent the majority of her career honored to work in public service in various capacities, primarily across tribal nations.  She began her career working with families in child protection/child welfare services, eventually transitioning to administrative roles.  Her research interests include enhancing tribal community capacity by fostering a culture of wellness, building bridges of economic and social development for tribal communities to reduce disparities, designing collective impact approaches to improve health and utilization of data for programmatic decision-making.


Jodi Prout 

Jodi Prout, Board Member, is a community development professional with 20+ years of experience implementing place-based policy, systems & environmental (PSE) changes to create sustainable, healthy communities through a holistic and community-driven approach that connects policy and practice. Her expertise includes workforce development, sustainable development, community health assessment, land use policy, community engagement, quality assurance/evaluation, subrecipient monitoring, and grant writing. In 2009, she spearheaded a grassroots health monitoring initiative, bringing together 20+ public, private, social service and faith-based sector stakeholders to develop community health indicators to guide local redevelopment efforts. In 2011, this partnership formalized as the Blue Island Community Health Coalition. In 2012, Jodi led a group of volunteers in the construction of a community garden on a city-owned lot in a USDA “food desert”. The garden provides entrepreneurial opportunities for participants to create, grow and serve their own community and has sparked new friendships over food.

Select Presentations

APA Illinois State Conference 2015: "Blue Island Brownfields Initiative"

Brownfields 2015: "Green Urban Zones: Green Infrastructure Planning in Resource Constrained Communities"

Illinois Public Health Institute 2013: "Attracting, Engaging, and Sustaining Coalition Membership to Maximize Impact"

APA-Chicago Metro Section 2012: "Integrating Food and Health into Local and Regional Planning"

CEED (UIC) 2012: "Local Food System as a Strategy for Economic Development"

Brownfields 2011: "Environmental Justice Initiatives"

Nathan Lillie

Nathan Lillie, Board Member, is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and holds a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources from Oklahoma State University. With over 18 years of experience in federal service and tribal consulting, Mr. Lillie has become a trusted leader in the field of natural resources management, workforce development, and policy advising. Having initially served at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for 16 years, Mr. Lillie developed an extensive background in managing a broad spectrum of natural resource programs, including forestry, wildland fire management, natural resources and land use practices. He played an instrumental role in shaping regulations, policies, and strategic initiatives to protect, conserve, and utilize Indian lands and resources effectively. As a subject matter expert, Mr. Lillie provided expert advice on developing workforce solutions and overseeing the management of critical programs across the Department of the Interior (DOI) and Indian Affairs (IA). In addition to leading BIA’s efforts on high-level workforce planning initiatives, including collaborating with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on a strategic workforce plan addressing Mission Critical Occupations (MCOs), Mr. Lillie has been a driving force behind reshaping organizational structures, filling leadership gaps, and streamlining staffing decisions to maximize resource utilization and mitigate institutional knowledge loss. As a key advisor to senior leadership, he played a pivotal role in analyzing Executive Orders, aligning objectives with BIA’s strategic goals, and ensuring phased implementation across OTS programs. After leaving BIA for a private engineering firm, Mr. Lillie applied his expertise in managing multi-million-dollar projects, including a $6.5M Water Assessment initiative and overseeing $10M in grants for Tribal clients. Here, he worked closely with Tribal communities to implement crucial programs aimed at improving infrastructure, water resources, and community health, while providing strategic oversight of a team of professionals and contractors. Mr. Lillie also facilitated the company’s deployment of advanced tools to enhance project management, tracking, and reporting across a variety of government and Tribal projects.

Harry E. Cummins, III 

Harry E. Cummins, III, Ex-Officio Board of Directors, a former General Motors employee for over 32 years, attended the Universities of Michigan and Toledo where he completed coursework in business management, financial management, government, accounting, data processing and team facilitation. Cummins is professionally licensed and maintains licensing credentials as a Boxing Promoter, Boxing Matchmaker and Boxing Cornerman. As founder and President of the International Boxing Club, Cummins has coached over 5,000 at-risk youth since 1998. Harry’s passion is to create “Champions Inside and Outside the Ring” so all of his programs have an academic, philanthropic, physical and vocational skill building component. In 2012 Cummins partnered with the University of Toledo to create an innovative boxing program for people with Parkinson’s disease called “Knock Out Parkinsons” which has won numerous awards and recognition. Harry has won many leadership awards and was featured by Encore.org in an article that honored people over 60 who start a second career to make a difference; and in two professionally produced films called “The Promise I Kept” and “The Final Bell.”

Board of Directors

  • Beverly Santicola

    Executive Director

  • Dr. Susan Thomas, Ph.D./JD

    Chair – Texas

  • Eileen 'Taffy' Lafferty

    Vice Chair – Oklahoma

  • Melita Rank, PhD.

    Native American Member – South Dakota

  • Jody Prout

    Board Member – Wisconsin

  • Nathan Lillie

    Board Member - Oklahoma

  • Harry E. Cummins, III 

    Ex-Officio Board of Directors