Gulch Team
Meet the Gulch Team
The Gulch Environmental Foundation team is a collaboration of business leaders, environmental scientists, conversationalists, and farmers. Their collective experiences offer unique perspectives and insights into addressing how regenerative farming and soil heath can combat climate change.
Angel Lance
Founder
Angel Lance is a visionary founder and CEO, with an impressive track record of creating and leading successful companies that solve big problems. In over two decades of serial-entrepreneurship, she has launched and scaled four self-funded, profitable private enterprises from the ground up, demonstrating an unparalleled business acumen, and commitment to living her passion for environmental stewardship.
Angel is the founder of Motive Power, 10/6 Professional Services, and the National Public Utilities Council, organizations that expedite the clean energy transition, and manage billions of dollars of initiatives in Fortune 100 companies across a variety of industry verticals. At the heart of Angel’s success lies pragmatism; she was determined to start a foundation that did what is said it was going to do and communicated openly about its financials and impact. Putting her own money where her mouth is, she figured out that by signing up for all administration costs of the foundation personally, she could remove the tension of what foundation typically need to keep to themselves and be able to report accurately on impact related activities.
Thus the Gulch Foundation was born.
Angel’s book, Seeing Green: How to Save the Planet and Profit From Sustainability, is available from Forbes Books, online and wherever books are sold.
Julie Hewitt
Executive Director
Julie Hewitt joined The Gulch Environmental Foundation in May of 2026. She serves as the Executive Director where she leads efforts to advance regenerative agriculture, environmental restoration, and innovative approaches to carbon drawdown and other environmental outcomes through Rainmaker Farm, the Foundation’s demonstration and research farm in northeast Oklahoma.
Julie has spent more than 25 years working across the agricultural industry. Her career has included roles in agricultural research, corn product development, food ingredient marketing, seed sales, strategic planning, and business development. With one foot in the cornfield and the other in the boardroom, Julie has built a career connecting people, solving complex challenges, and helping organizations achieve meaningful, long-term impact.
At The Gulch, Julie is focused on building partnerships that demonstrate the power of regenerative agriculture to restore soil health, increase biodiversity, strengthen rural communities, and create scalable environmental solutions. She is passionate about connecting agriculture, conservation, education, and business to accelerate meaningful change.
Maia Mattsey
Farm Operations Lead
Maia is the Farm Operations Lead for Rainmaker. She came to the farm by an unconventional path. Her early studies focused on cellular and molecular biology, and she began her career as an internal medicine physician. She later transitioned to higher education, teaching university-level English courses ranging from literature to research and technical writing. More recently, she joined Motive Power, a sister organization to The Gulch, as a grant writer.
As she learned more about The Gulch and Rainmaker Farm, Maia saw an opportunity to bring these varied experiences together in a new way. Today, she helps develop the systems that support thoughtful, effective farm management and coordinates farm planning and operations, infrastructure projects, documentation, and reporting. Across this work, she strives to keep the farm’s day-to-day activities aligned with the broader environmental and stewardship goals of The Gulch Foundation.
Maia’s roots are solidly Midwestern, although admittedly more urban than agricultural. Still, she knows the satisfaction of pulling carrot tops from dark soil to discover a burst of bright orange below—the result of careful watering, patience, and a healthy dose of hope.
She brings that same combination of curiosity, care, and persistence to her work at The Gulch and Rainmaker Farm. Drawing on her background in the life sciences, a knack for developing and maintaining organized systems, and an enduring appreciation for all things green, Maia helps keep the Foundation and farm’s many projects organized, grounded, and growing.
Kellan Hostetler
Farm Manager
Kellan Hostetler is a 5th generation farmer and rancher, and a full-time owner operator on his own family farm/ranch, which is neighbors with Rainmaker Farm. He combines that hands-on knowledge with a degree in Agribusiness from Oklahoma State University and has become an invaluable member of our team. He has a wide variety of skills and experience, and if he can’t do something himself, he always knows someone who can. Kellan leads land management activities at Rainmaker, ranging from prescribed burning to planting. He is also the Herd Manager when we use prescriptive grazing in our grassland area. He is always thinking outside of the box, applying his conventional farming background to the novel farming methods we try at the Rainmaker. Kellan is a master at finding solutions, a way to make things happen within the overall goals of the project, always with an eye to also making this a successful business. He is also an exceptional educator, giving talks to school groups and other visitors to Rainmaker about farming and ranching.
Marty Williams
Agriculture Advisor
Marty Williams is a seventh-generation Oklahoma farmer and nationally recognized leader in conservation agriculture. A recipient of the 2023 Leopold Conservation Award, Marty brings a lifetime of farming and ranching experience to The Gulch, including expertise gained through his own diverse no-till farming operation. His practical knowledge of soil health, conservation, and regenerative farming systems provides valuable guidance for Gulch’s agricultural projects, and he is a compelling educator and speaker on soil science and conservation principles.
Marty holds a Bachelor of Science in Plant and Soil Sciences from Oklahoma State University. His commitment to improving the land for future generations has earned him numerous honors, including Oklahoma State University’s Master Agronomist Award, one of the university’s highest recognitions for leadership and public service in agronomy and soil conservation. He has also been recognized by The Progressive Farmer as one of America’s Best Young Farmers and Ranchers.
In addition to his work with Gulch, Marty serves as president of the Noble County Conservation District, helping advance soil and water conservation practices among local producers.
Marty and his wife, Crystal, co-manage their family farm with their two children. Together, they were recognized by the Oklahoma Farm Bureau with the Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award. Across his work, Marty remains focused on strengthening agriculture through conservation, stewardship, relationships, and a commitment to leaving the land better for the next generation.