Giving Grove Affiliate Conference

Ashley Williamson

Ashley has a Master in Social Work Advocacy, Policy and Administration from the University of Kansas and is passionate about connecting people, ideas and policies. She is always looking forward to a good podcast, book, or the next time she can work in her ever-expanding vegetable garden.

Erica Kratofil

A social worker with 15 years’ experience in nonprofit fundraising and administration, Erica brings a background in food security, housing and homelessness, and education to The Giving Grove. She is passionate about community engagement and enjoys volunteering with her family.

Sarah Sikich

Sarah joins us after spending the previous ten years running her own freelance design and communications business and enjoys being able to combine her professional experience with one of her dearest hobbies, gardening. As a volunteer at the first Giving Grove little orchard, she has experienced firsthand the importance of a little orchard in an urban area and felt drawn to help further spread Giving Grove’s mission.

Matt Bunch

Matt has worked in the Hort field since 1994. He has a background in retail, municipal, and botanical garden settings. He has been with KCCG Giving Grove program since 2013.

Adrienne Runnebaum

Adrienne is passionate about service and investing in our communities through meaningful engagement and sustainable resources and opportunities. Adrienne enjoys exploring KC’s many parks and nature trails with her family, gardening, listening to music from all genres, and is always looking for her next great read.

Fred Conrad

Fred has been managing Community Garden programs in metro Atlanta since 1997. Over the course of a year, we provide funding, technical support, mechanical support, workshops and trainings, in-kind donations, run an extremely robust volunteer program, and dabble in food policy and planning. Of the roughly 300 active community gardens in NW Georgia, we interact with about half of them each year and provide direct service to somewhere between 125-150 autonomous neighborhood food gardens. He has been a member of five community gardens. Additionally, he is currently on the board of the American Community Gardening Association and has helped coordinate several of our annual conferences. This volunteer work has given him the opportunity to visit community gardens and meet urban growers from all over North America. He also has a certificate in Horticultural Therapy and has been a Certified Organic grower.

Flannery Pearson-Clarke

Flannery worked with Food Well Alliance in Atlanta, GA. Her primary role with orchards is to coordinate volunteer groups to assist with planting and maintenance projects. Through a lot of hands-on learning and the Giving Grove resources, she has been growing her understanding of orchards and how to care for them. She also assists with the annual Fruit Tree Sale that helps fund Food Well's orchard project.

Richard Hodges

Chris Smyth

Chris directs the Common Orchard Project in Cincinnati, Ohio. He teaches Permaculture Design at the University of Cincinnati. He co-owns a Regenerative farming business called the Southern Ohio Chestnut Company, with 1,500 chestnuts and 1,000 pawpaw in the ground to date. Some particular interests are Plant Propagation and Grafting, different attempts at community engagement, and regenerative agriculture. Also, if you want to talk theater, improvisational comedy, mythology, and nature-based facilitation, he is all ears!

John Kirr

John has a background in urban planning, and recently shifted to this work through an AmeriCorps vista opportunity.

Geri Strong

Geri is the Giving Grove program director at Grow North Texas. She transitioned from careers in healthcare administration/strategy and municipal government utilities to pursue a passion for community orchards/food forests and community empowerment in 2021. She has been able to use her experience in project management, operational finance, and relationship development to launch the first and only community orcharding organization in the North Texas region. With the GNTX team and support from Giving Grove National, they are striving to put community orchards in every neighborhood across the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Their goal is 15-20 orchards per year for 10 years.

Adrianna Rogers

Switching gears from a public-school employment administrator to an urban farmer, Adrianna discovered a passion for growing vegetables and fruit in 2018. Since then, she has been learning to grow a variety of edibles to help feed her community and inspire others to grow as well. In 2021, she began participating in the Grow North Texas Farm Success program and has expanded her knowledge in growing and building a successful urban farm. She is excited to continue to cultivate her small acreage in South Dallas County and thrilled about the possibilities that urban agriculture can contribute to support her community.

Creighton Hofeditz

Creighton Hofeditz grew up in Morrison, Colorado, and started a career in theater before switching paths with a permaculture design course at the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute in 2011. He worked with Peter Bane during the editing process of 'The Permaculture Handbook' and was a contributing author on Jerome Osentowski’s book 'The Forest Garden Greenhouse'’ He served as the intern coordinator at Bullocks’ Permaculture Homestead in Washington State, learning much of the tree care and nursery skills that he has practiced and taught in Colorado in the 10 years since. He is the Director of Permaculture and Perennials at Denver Urban Gardens, leading their new Food Forest Initiative, and has been the lead organizer of the Denver Permaculture Design Course since 2015. He is a brand new father of a baby daughter and loves music, performing, and getting things done.

Niki Barouxis

Naim Edwards

Hailing from Harrisburg, PA, Naim earned biological science degrees from Morehouse College and the University of Michigan. He studied how to manage urban gardens to support insect diversity with a focus on ants. Naim directs Michigan State University's first urban ag facility in Detroit. He also served in the Peace Corps in Ecuador.

Stathis Pauls

Stathis Pauls is a Michigan State University Extension Program Instructor at the MSU Detroit Partnership for Food, Learning, and Innovation located in Wayne County.

Kido Pielack

Kido is a native Detroiter who has been working in the field of Urban Agriculture for the past 15 years. His passion for plants and people led him from a career in organic landscaping to an apprenticeship in Urban Agriculture and studies with the MSU Student Organic Farmer Training Program to his current position at KGD. Kido manages the adult education and infrastructure-related programming, including the Urban Garden Education Series, The Little Orchard Program, and The Sweet on Detroit Beekeeping Program. He also coordinates efforts to support Detroit gardens with infrastructure improvements, including rainwater catchment systems and hoop houses. In addition, Kido is a board member for the Michigan Organic Food and Farming Alliance. He loves sharing his skills with others and believes that in the classroom, everyone has something to share, and there is always something new to learn.

Kay Thomason

Kay worked at two farms before finding a home at KCCG. She is way happier working with perennials and ditching annuals.

Madeline Marchal

Madeline (Mad) Marchal is the Urban Agriculture Manager at Louisville Grows (Louisville, KY). She has worked at small-scale production farms across the country, has landscaped hundreds of backyards, and has sold produce and herbs at countless farmers’ markets. In her current role with Louisville Grows, she manages a greenhouse nursery, coordinates plant sale community events, and facilitates Louisville Grows' Community Garden Grant Program.

Brittany Beyer

Brittany loves the outdoors! She is big into hiking, paddle boarding, and walking. She works outdoors in the garden for her job. She is new to trees but loves working with them. She used to be a teacher, so she can work with kids and adults in education. She is a mom, so lots of experience with that. Love baking and cooking for others. She loves to socialize and work with her community.

Molly Baurain

Molly is the Kansas Garden and Giving Grove Program Manager at The Big Garden. She is based in the Kansas City region and serves all of Kansas. She starts community gardens and orchards (through the Giving Grove affiliate program) at local churches, city parks, nonprofit agencies, community partner organizations, and more. She has been in the horticulture field for over 10 years and runs a homestead as well. She raises chickens, tends to a large garden and greenhouse, and preserves food. She hopes to get goats and bees in the future!

Kimberly Bracken

Kimberly Bracken is the Giving Grove Manager at Tree Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has been studying permaculture gardens and design for over 10 years and has her Permaculture Design Certificate from Phipps Botanical Garden. Kimberly designed and built 4 edible teaching gardens at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh and a large quarter-acre permaculture food forest with fruit and nut trees on Pittsburgh's Northside. She is passionate about creating food access for underserved populations and teaching families and kids about ways to make healthy food delicious. She recently worked with a small neighborhood nonprofit as their Food Justice Advocate, creating food distribution programs for those in need. In her free time, she enjoys biking, cooking, gardening, quilting, reading, and board games.

Clara Kitongo

Clara is a Pittsburgh transplant from Uganda. She is currently the Tree Equity Manager at Tree Pittsburgh. Previously she ran the One Tree Per Child Pittsburgh program, which engaged children in tree plantings and education in Allegheny County. Clara also has a background in a variety of sectors, including banking, education, and local government. She attained a Master of Public Policy and Management from the Heinz School of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Mathematics from Chatham University. In her free time, she enjoys biking, hiking, singing, reading books, and getting to know new people.

Melissa Spear

Melissa Spear has led non-profits working in environmental conservation and sustainability for over 20 years. Supporting organic farmers, educating consumers on the health, environmental and social benefits of organic agriculture, and advocating for policies, programs and resources to grow the organic and regenerative agriculture sector has become her passion since moving to Washington and joining Tilth Alliance as Executive Director almost 5 years ago. Melissa has an MBA from IESE business school and a Masters in Forest Science from the Yale School of the Environment. She is also the mother of two amazing human beings and a staunch supporter of LGBTQ+ rights. She has enjoyed exploring Washington’s many farms and forests and loves being outdoors backpacking, hiking, snowshoeing, kayaking, and XC skiing whenever possible.

Katie Lane

Katie is the Director of Operations at Unity Gardens, a nonprofit in Indiana that connects our community to fresh food, nature, and one another through free-pick gardens, free classes, events, and beautiful green space. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2022 with a degree in political science and sustainability and has been working at sustainable farms for the past four years. Unity Gardens joined the Giving Grove program this past spring.

Dean Gunderson

Dean is the Director of Education, coordinating our adult educational materials and classes, and manages the Giving Grove program. His favorite thing about working at Seed St. Louis is getting to work with and learn from so many different people and getting to help them to grow food for their families and communities