When Lilly joined GAR Bennett two years ago, she started as a worker safety trainer. In her new role, Lilly can now identify strengths and weakness in their worker safety program and make changes to better serve our growers. While still serving as a part time trainer, Lilly also works hands on with our growers to address their concerns or needs centered around the growing season. She manages and coordinates the other trainers as well, strategically planning their calendar and the logistics behind each training. Her number one goal is to ensure our trainers are fully equipped with the knowledge they need to keep our growers and their employees safe on the farm.

Lilly’s passion for agriculture stemmed from her father. While growing up in Mexico, her father grew sorghum and corn. When he migrated to the U.S., he worked as a landscaper and later moved to Winton, Calif., where he now works at Foster Farms in Livingston. Her father also has a passion for woodworking and would often take Lilly with him to pick up supplies at the local Home Depot. Lilly was fascinated with the floral section so her dad would be sure to take her over to check out the flowers and foliage each time they made a supply run. Of course, Lilly would also get a king-sized candy bar on each trip as well. As Lilly got older, she joined FFA at Atwater High School. It is here where she joined the horticulture judging team and her love of plants truly flourished. After high school, Lilly pursued a degree in agriculture education with an emphasis in animal science, and a minor in plant health at Fresno State. While going to school full-time, she also worked at a local nursery to help with tuition. Lilly graduated in 2015, starting her first “adult job” with a fertilizer company and then the Fresno County Ag Commissioner as an Agriculture Standards Specialist. She originally started on the quarantine side, inspecting packages flying in from around the world, and then moved over to the pesticide division. Lilly came to love the pesticide regulation side and luckily found an open position with GAR Tootelian, Inc. (GAR) in 2018.

If you don’t catch Lilly in the office, you can typically find her Monday through Friday at Orangetheory Fitness pumping iron. Lilly also loves to cook and spend time with her “fur babies,” Bell and Holly.

Lilly is excited to learn more about the different sectors of agriculture because of the merger.

“Now that we offer more services, it’s an opportunity to learn a new sector of the agricultural industry. By learning about the irrigation side, I can become more knowledgeable about what our growers deal with in their farming operation.”