The Gardening The Community Springfield Massachusetts

GTC STAFF & BOARD MEMBERS

Toussaint Paskins is GTC's Assistant Director of Youth Leadership & Agriculture. Toussaint has played a key role in the development of Gardening the Community in the past as the former Food Access Manager and through other leadership roles. Since transitioning from GTC, Toussaint has been serving as a science teacher at a Springfield public school, and has still pursued farming knowledge by working with Sodexo as a Farm Manager and Youth Educator. Inspired by the great words of Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, "By Any Means Necessary," Toussaint is working to expand food justice in Springfield and beyond, starting with food access. Toussaint hopes to grow in his farming abilities and skill while helping to build the strength and stability of GTC's youth program. If you see him on site don't hesitate to say hi - he is a very friendly person!
Click here to email Toussaint!

Andrew Laurion is GTC's Youth Program coordinator and a longtime member of the GTC community. A local urban farmer and woodworker, Andrew believes in GTC's mission, and is proud to be part of this 20-years-and-growing organization. He will be focused on youth development, and healthy, sustainable communities, and will be working with the youth at GTC to help develop their roles as local leaders. Andrew also works as NOFA's bioremediation project coordinator, and will continue working on projects with the youth leaders from Gardening the Community and Home City Housing with the goal of making soils healthy and viable for food production.

Click here to email Andrew!

Brandon Robinson is the Food Access Manager for GTC. His best memory was the first time he entered the farm as part of a summer jobs program right after high school. That is when he became aware of GTC for the first time and the powerful movement he was about to be part of. Working with GTC gives him great joy, and makes him feel both empowered and held accountable. Thanks to GTC, he has discovered his passion, which is food justice, growing food and sustaining the soil. He wants GTC to be here when he has children so that they will know the importance of healthy eating. The best part of his job is k nowing that it brings important benefits to the community -- whether its from teaching youth a new skill or selling affordable and great quality produce to a neighborhood family. Brandon has lived in Springfield since moving from Puerto Rico.
Click here to email Brandon!

Jess Flohr is the Systems & Communications Coordinator. Born in Hartford and raised in San Francisco and Niagara Falls, Jess moved back to New England to complete an undergraduate degree at Smith College in Government/Environmental Science & Policy and archival studies. She is passionate about urban agriculture and public policy, especially at the intersection of environmental and racial justice. Jess is committed to building an equitable community in the broader valley through other work at Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity. Hobbies include hiking, visual art, and trying to keep houseplants alive.
Currently, Jess is covering some of GTC's transition process around development and fundraising work, and can answer questions about those areas as well.
Click here to email Jess!

Monique Owens is Accounting Clerk with GTC. Monique is a born and raised Springfield Native who is proud to receive all her education from their public schools and local colleges. She has been a part of the GTC family since August 2018 where she found her drive to address social injustice in her community through their work. She works for the City of Northampton as a grants administrator for affordable housing and plans to grow in her career path of addressing and serving her and local community needs.

Click here to email Monique!

Tracey Thomas is GTC's Farm Store Manager. She is a native of Springfield, and grew up dancing with the dance legend Frank Hatchett. After graduating high school, Tracey moved to NYC to aspire her dreams of being a professional dancer and teacher, and fulfilled those dreams by teaching and performing across the country and overseas.Her love for family and community brought her back to Springfield with her children, where she opened her own business. The Tyie Thomas Center for the Performing Arts was owned and operated by her for 18 years. Tracey then worked at Chef Wayne's Big Mamou for 25 years, where her love for food and nutrition started to grow. During her time at Big Mamou she accepted a position at The YMCA of Greater Springfield as head of community outreach and Director of Senior Programming, where she focused on the awareness of healthy living by educating seniors the importance of the symbiotic relationship between nutrition and consistent physical activity. C lick here to email Tracey!

MM Baker is GTC's TerraCorps member for 2021-2022. Born and raised in Memphis, TN, MM is new to the area and is thrilled to get to know the many communities of the valley! MM is passionate about the healing power of positive relationship to land, food, and community, as well as the importance of sustainable agricultural practices and their impacts on racial and environmental justice. MM enjoys spending their free time sharing meals and music with friends, rock climbing, and spending time outside with their beautiful puppy.

Click here to email MM!

Click here to email Liz O'Gilvie, GTC's Board chairRobin Claremont is Treasurer of the Gardening the Community Board. Her day job is Director of Family Giving and Engagement at Amherst College. Robin got involved with GTC because of her life-long passion for the environment, agriculture, and social justice. She is an avid gardener and loves the reward for long hours in the garden that comes from that first bite of a fresh snap pea, tomato, or pepper.

Tory Field

first got to know GTC in 2005 when she was working as an organizer for Arise for Social Justice. In 2010 she co-founded Next Barn Over Farm with Ray Young, and soon after began a collaboration with GTC that continues today - growing vegetables for the GTC EATS farm shares. In recent years she has worked for Other Worlds, sharing stories centered on food justice and food sovereignty movements including writing "Harvesting Justice: Transforming Food, Land, and Agricultural Systems in the Americas." She has worked for Abundance Farm in Northampton, Natural Roots Farm in Conway, and the Springfield Food Policy Council's "Grow-A-Garden" program, and has co-facilitated anti-racism workshops for various organizations. She is currently excited to be studying plant medicine and finishing a Masters in Divinity program at Union Theological Seminary where her work focuses on earth-based spiritual traditions and the intersections of ecology, spirituality, and transforming systems of oppression. She is honored and grateful to be a part of the GTC family.

Bettye Anderson Frederic is the former Deputy Commissioner for the Springfield Department of Health and Human Services (SDHHS). She is a career Public Health Practitioner as a Nurse and Administrator. She is an HBCU alum of Dillard University and a graduate of Boston University. Her ensuing work has centered on social justice, health equity and disparities in health care and health outcomes especially as it relates to clinical trials and research issues. Throughout her career she has practiced in acute care settings, taught at the college level and worked to promote community and population-based health services. In recent years her focus has been on food justice and continuing to sound the alarm for nutrition and the pivotal role it plays in the health of our residents, and the need for high quality, reasonably priced, accessible foodstuffs in food desserts (food apartheid). Volunteering is a big part of what she does these days, at the food pantry around the corner from the farm store and at a meal feeding program for the homeless and anyone wanting/ needing a meal. She volunteers with the Springfield community gardeners' network out of the Mason Square Branch Library, as well as the Massachusetts Master Gardeners, the community faculty at Baystate Health in the Population-based Urban and Rural Community Health (PURCH) program, and the gardens of friends and colleagues.

Jeffrey Markham Jr. is Program Manager at the Center for Community Health Equity Research, University of MA, where he is helping lead a research project with MOCHA (Men of Color Health Awareness) to address health disparities with men of color in Springfield. .He has also worked at the Caring Health Center looking at the relationship between food insecurity and chronic disease and working with young people. This is where he first became introduced to GTC and the power of healthy food access and its impact on health. He thinks a lot about land as it relates to restoration and reparations for the black community, and is excited to share his passion, research, evaluation and marketing skills with GTC.

Awilda Sanchez

is a retired nurse who now works as the Parent Facilitator at Brookings Elementary School located just around the corner from GTC's Walnut Street Farm in Springfield. She is a passionate advocate for the power of eating fresh fruits and vegetables and the impact this can have on people's health. Before Awilda became involved with GTC she had diabetes and osteoarthritis and walked with a cane because she was always in so much pain. She decided to try changing her diet as a way to address the root causes of her health problems, and began receiving a Farm Share from Gardening the Community youth who biked it to her home every week. After several months she lost weight and was able to walk without her cane; she has been diabetes free for 3 years. She advocates for food gardens at schools and in her neighborhood whenever she can.

Jihan Stone has been working with Gardening The Community for 3 years as a youth in our program. She enjoys everything we do including gardening, public speaking, selling fresh and affordable produce, and most of all helping our community be healthier. These days you can mostly find her working in the Farm Store where she handles the register and many other tasks. She was surprised to be chosen to be a board member, but she is taking on the role and is loving it.

Liz Wills-O'Gilvie serves as chair of the GTC board, Chair of the Steering Committee of the Springfield Food Policy Council, PVGrows Steering Committee member and as a Project Advisor with the team that developed and is implementing the 2015 Massachusetts State Food System Plan. Best of all, she is a school garden asst. coordinator and teacher and works with organizations across the country to help build the school and community garden movement. Her work in the food system, public health and community building across racial and socio-economic lines is built on 25 years of experience working on Community Economic Development efforts in marginalized communities. Driven by her belief in the possibility for community revitalization through slow and steady partnership development, Liz uses lessons learned from brick and mortar development in her work with people, schools, gardens and farms. Liz is a critical thinker about issues relating to class, race, gender, culture and privilege. Her work in Springfield is personally driven by her families' nearly 90 year history of living in the city where she now lives, works and shops with her husband Ed, a public school teacher and their son Evan, a budding urban farmer/superhero. In her free time Liz borrows one of Evan's capes while gardening, biking, and dreaming of change!

Sabrina Woodgett is a lifelong resident of Springfield. She retired from MassMutual after 28 years where she was a Director in the Retirement Services division. Sabrina also graduated from Tufts University with a Biology degree. She has been involved with GTC since 2016 and takes extreme pride in assisting with planting the first cover crop on the Walnut garden site and sharing ideas and strategies on various GTC committees and events. Sabrina is passionate about sustainable and organic farming. She enjoys planning, nurturing, and growing on her 18.5 acres in the Berkshires, which she named Sugar Shack Farm after the first structure built on the property. The building was constructed by using trees cut and milled on the property, with a foundation created from the rocks and boulders collected by her uncle. Other current Board members include Aumani Harrisand Mabeline Velez.

Past Board Members

Olivia Brown
Danielle Brown
Glenroy Buchanan
Steve Jablonski
Jeszmeraldy Lopez
Ruby Maddox
Tyler Martin
Laura Masulis
Tyrra Minto
Mohamed Mire
Sister Anna Muhammad
Debbie Murray
Moises Ramos
Elieser Rodriquez
Shirley Rodriguez
Hajarah Taylor
Chris Tinson
Calla Vasalloupolis
Hermine Levey Weston