Casey O’Leary
Casey helps individuals and organizations rekindle their sense of wonder and enliven their ideas about what is possible by reconnecting them with the reality that they are natural creatures who belong here on planet earth. Her lifework is to ideate and enact projects that mimic the ecosystems where we live, and to help humans find pleasurable and meaningful work within them.
She combines her decades of experience as a stage performer, professor, urban farmer, entrepreneur, team-builder, and guide to craft experiences that inform, inspire, and invigorate.
Innovative Seed & Food Systems Entrepreneur
What started as a tiny seed of hope has grown into one of the largest worker- and grower-owned seed cooperatives in the country. Snake River Seed Cooperative’s innovative model is pushing the boundaries of what business can do to support and sustain a regional ecosystem and economy! Casey is proud to have co-founded this seedy, life-affirming organization, and currently serves as the Co-op’s CEO.
Casey also helped to found Taproots Farm Hub, an incubator farm commons which is working to secure long-term affordable land tenure for the next generation of southern Idaho farmers. Providing beginning farmers with training & mentorship as well as access to shared infrastructure, equipment, and markets increases regional resilience and creates genuine community rooted in the soil and food that feeds us.
Urban Farmer & Educator
More about Casey:
Casey holds a B.A.S. in Horticulture from Boise State University and a Masters in Environmental Education & Science Communication from the University of Idaho.
She started her urban farm, Earthly Delights Farm, when she was 24 years old.
She was a horticulture professor at the College of Western Idaho from 2021-2025 and holds a CTE horticulture credential.
She is a Cultivating Success certified farmer mentor
She is an INLA Certified Horticulture Industry Professional.
Outside of work, she enjoys hiking, riding her bike, cross-country skiing, and looking at tiny things on the ground.
She’s a lover of pretty much all vegetables…except zucchini. You can keep that.
Forest Bathing Guide
Casey is a certified Forest Therapy Guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy. This unique practice, also called Forest Bathing, is a simple but profound way of coming into deeper relationship with the beings with whom we coinhabit the earth, and provides participants with many scientifically-documented health benefits. "Therapy" sessions are actually slow walks (or sits) which typically take place outside and span 1-3 hours in length. Learn More!