About Magnanimous Urban Grow
Nickie Stowell -Co-Owner and Operator
Magnanimous Urban Grow, LLC (MUG) is a woman-owned, beginning farmer enterprise co-led by Nicole Stowell and Dionne Holmquist, combining executive leadership, hands-on cultivation experience, and deep expertise in regulated cannabis and hemp markets. Together, they bring a unique blend of retail operations, production agriculture, and compliance-driven system design to build a scalable and resilient rural food system.Nicole Stowell brings over 15 years of executive leadership experience, including serving as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Information Officer of a rural healthcare system. Her background includes oversight of multi-million-dollar budgets, organizational strategy, compliance programs, and enterprise-wide operational systems. She has led complex, multi-department organizations through strategic growth, process improvement, and technology integration, consistently aligning operations with financial performance and long-term sustainability.
In addition to her executive leadership experience, Nicole has played a central role in cannabis and hemp-related business development through consulting and operational system design. Her expertise includes regulatory compliance frameworks, SOP development, facility buildout planning, and implementation of operational workflows within highly regulated environments. She has extensive experience managing cross-functional projects, developing documentation systems, and ensuring compliance across multiple regulatory standards.
Nicole is a Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (ASQ) and holds a Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) Grower Training Certificate, positioning Magnanimous Urban Grow for institutional procurement and future GAP certification readiness. She leads financial planning, grant strategy, compliance alignment, and infrastructure development for MUG, including aggregation systems, cold storage planning, and distribution network design. Her leadership ensures that the operation is built on a strong foundation of financial viability, regulatory compliance, and scalable systems.
Dionne Holmquist - Co-Owner
Dionne Holmquist is a highly accomplished executive, social entrepreneur, and consultant originally from Chadron, Nebraska. She possesses an adaptable and deep skillset, honed over two decades of diverse, hands-on experience. Her background includes navigating high-compliance sectors and various state and tribal jurisdictions. Notably, she has been instrumental in the creation of therapeutic centers, alternative education models, and multiple cannabis/hemp enterprises.
Dionne is a seasoned industry practitioner with extensive experience across the full cannabis and industrial hemp value chain—from cultivation through consumer sales. Her expertise includes indoor and outdoor cultivation strategy, crop planning, post-harvest handling, product development, and operational scaling within regulated environments. She possesses significant experience in compliance management, SOP creation, and navigating complex regulatory frameworks across state and tribal jurisdictions.
Collaborating with global partners, investors, and leaders in regenerative agriculture, industrial hemp, and cannabis has provided her with a unique perspective on the social, health, and wellness aspects of these industries.
Leadership Roles and Community Impact
Dionne currently serves as the Director of the Biobased Solutions Initiative with Makoce Agriculture Development on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. In this key role, she advances regional regenerative agricultural initiatives and the development of sustainable, culturally aligned food systems for tribal communities. Her work involves research and development focused on regenerative agriculture and creating small-scale farm models that integrate biobased solutions—utilizing local agricultural feedstock to improve soil health and create sustainable housing and energy systems.
Dionne is also the Co-Founder/Co-Owner of Magnanimous Urban Grow in Chadron, Nebraska. Her leadership is instrumental in bridging production with market access, ensuring cultivation efforts align with demand, distribution channels, and community needs, strengthening Magnanimous Urban Grow’s ability to build sustainable markets and deliver culturally relevant, locally sourced food.
Board Memberships
Dionne serves on the advisory board for the BioWRAP project. She is also an active Board member for Hi Phi Earth, where she holds the roles of Secretary and Treasurer and acts as the liaison between the board and the economist advisors.
Dionne is highly skilled in stakeholder engagement, partnership development, and community-based program implementation, with a strong ability to align diverse partners around shared goals and measurable outcomes.
Sarah Downey – Operations, Logistics & Agricultural Systems Consultant
Sarah Downey provides critical operational and agricultural systems support, bridging on-farm production with logistics and delivery execution. She brings a strong background in regulated delivery environments, high-volume logistics, and documentation-driven operations through her work with UPS and healthcare service providers, where she consistently managed complex routing, time-sensitive deliveries, and compliance-based documentation systems.
In addition to her logistics expertise, Sarah is an active farm operator and owner of Kenai Farm, where she manages all aspects of small-scale agricultural production, including crop planning, irrigation management, land preparation, and seasonal production cycles. Her hands-on experience includes hemp cultivation support, field operations, and assisting startup farms in developing efficient production systems, layout design, and workflow optimization.
Sarah plays a key role in aligning production with distribution by translating field-level realities into efficient operational processes. Her expertise supports harvest coordination, packing workflows, inventory handling, and route efficiency—ensuring that products move seamlessly from cultivation to end user. She brings a practical, systems-oriented approach to improving labor efficiency, reducing bottlenecks, and maintaining consistency across production and delivery processes.
Her combined experience in agriculture, logistics, and compliance-driven environments strengthens Magnanimous Urban Grow’s ability to execute reliable, scalable operations, particularly in rural settings where coordination, timing, and efficiency are critical to success.
Our Mission and Goals
MUG, is a dynamic and innovative produce production farm with a dedicated mission: to supply fresh, high-quality agricultural products directly to local institutions. This core operation is founded upon the principles of regenerative agriculture, a whole systems approach that focuses on enhancing and restoring soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem vitality, moving beyond simple sustainability. By prioritizing practices like minimal tillage, cover cropping, and complex crop rotations, MUG ensures its farming methods actively improve the land.
Furthermore, MUG is rapidly evolving beyond its role as a production farm. It is emerging as a vital center for research and training, strategically positioning itself to become a key hub for agricultural innovation in the region. The organization is intensely focused on the development and promotion of resilient, equitable bio-regional food systems. This concentration involves applied research into crop varieties best suited for the local climate, water conservation techniques, and developing effective, localized supply chains.
Through its training programs, MUG aims to empower the next generation of farmers and food system professionals, disseminating the knowledge and practical skills necessary to implement regenerative practices and build robust local food economies. In essence, MUG is not just growing food; it is cultivating a model for a healthier, more localized, and more sustainable agricultural future.
Magnanimous Urban Grow's Strategic Collaborators
BioWRAP
Our co-owner, Dionne Holmquist Serves on the advisory board for BioWrap.
The long-term vision of BioWRAP is to create localized advanced biopolymer feedstock production, manufacturing, and use systems which support socioeconomic resiliency, positive bioeconomic cycles, biotechnology adoption, sustainable crop production, and soil health in EPSCoR states. More information is available at https://thebiowrap.rap.com.
Hi Phi Earth
Our co-owner Dionne Holmquist is a board member for Hi Phi Earth. From Brooklyn to Brownfield, HI PHI EARTH was founded to build, test, and deploy new models for regenerative farming, soil restoration, bioregional innovation, and future agri-hood communities. More information is available at https://www.hiphi.earth
Makoce Agriculture Development
Our co-owner Dionne Holmquist is the Director of the Biobased Solutions Initiative at Makoce Agriculture Development. Their mission is to develop Indigenous Agriculture and Food Systems designed to regenerate equitable, healthy communities, economies, and our environment. More information is available at https://makoceag.org