Our Team

Corrin Messing

Facilitator & Director

With years of experience serving justice-impacted youth in Sonoma County, she has led trauma-informed life skills groups as a Lead Facilitator & Prevention Specialist with Verity inside Los Guilicos Juvenile Hall since 2019. In 2024, she co-created the facility’s first Culinary Vocational Education Program, connecting youth to hands-on skills, healing practices, and pathways to reentry support. Corrin’s work bridges community partners, schools, and mentors to ensure every young person has the tools, relationships, and opportunities to thrive.

Ari Rosen

Head Chef

Chef Ari Rosen is the chef of Groundwork for Youth’s Culinary Program, where he leads youth in hands-on cooking, mentorship, and farm-to-table learning. An accomplished restaurateur, Ari also facilitates emotional healing circles in California’s prisons through Inside Circle. He brings the same authenticity and heart to both spaces bringing his passion for farm-to-table cooking and his deep commitment to healing work into the kitchen, helping justice-impacted individuals discover their potential.

Jorge Flores

Chef & Facilitator

Chef Jorge Flores is the Head Chef at Costeaux French Bakery in Healdsburg and co-creator of the first-ever Culinary Program inside Los Guilicos Juvenile Hall. With lived experience that mirrors the challenges many young people face, Jorge uses the kitchen as a place of discipline, creativity, and healing. He is also the founder of From Ashes We Rise, a circle-based healing program that operates under Corazon Healdsburg, where he helps youth and adults process trauma, build trust, and chart new paths forward.

  • Michael Degen

    GUEST CHEF

    Chef Degen started his culinary training in San Francisco at the California Culinary Academy, and Michelin starred Acquerello restaurant. 

    He relocated to Healdsburg in 2009, and honed his pizza skills at the beloved SCOPA. After winery & corporate chef positions he decided to go to the source of wood-fired ovens to be the Culinary Director at Healdsburg’s Mugnaini Wood Fired Ovens.

    Today you can find Chef Degen catering or teaching culinary classes.

  • Melissa McGaughey

    GUEST CHEF

    Melissa has spent 16 years in the hospitality industry, from starting as a young baker with her grandmother to leading large pastry programs for renowned names like Bien Cuit in New York and Gjusta in Los Angeles. A graduate of pastry school, she opened her first bakery at age 23 in Denver before winning the Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship in 2019. Melissa is also passionate about brand development, retail restaurant design, and leadership training. Since moving to Northern California, she has worked at SingleThread as the Hotel Pastry Chef and baked for farmers’ markets, hotels, and wineries. In 2020, she and Sean bootstrapped Quail & Condor, a thriving retail bakery. Together, they opened Troubadour Bread & Bistro in 2022, and recently Threefold Bakery in Breckenridge, CO.

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