Nadja Berneche is Gardening Matters' Program Director

Starting in June 2010, Nadja joined Gardening Matters from her position as Service-Learning Coordinator at Metro State University, and previous to that serving in similiar capacity at Macalester College. A resident of St. Paul, Nadja has pursued her interest in community gardens and urban agriculture, leading her to be a homestead grower (and distributor), starting a garden in her neighborhood, and recently nominated to the The Saint Paul - Ramsey County Food and Nutrition Commission. Welcome on board!

Kelsey Barale, GreenCorps Member

In October 2009, we welcomed the newest team member to Gardening Matters, Kelsey Barale. She is assisting Gardening Matters in supporting community garden development as a Minnesota GreenCorps member. Minnesota GreenCorps is an environmentally-focused AmeriCorps program coordinated by the MN Pollution Control Agency. Prior to joining the Gardening Matters team, Kelsey worked on a farm in California and was a running coach for two years in Northfield. She has brought a strong positive attitude, good team spirit and a keen attention to detail.

Margaret Shields, ON LEAVE WHILE TRAVELING ABROAD

Margaret is a recent graduate of Hamline University in St. Paul where she studied Spanish and Latin American Studies. She is influenced in her work by extensive study and travel in Latin America, where she interned at a local foods and fair trade market in Ecuador, witnessed the impoverished banana growing regions of Central America, and volunteered on a permaculture and seed-saving project in Guatemala. Compelled by these experiences upon returning to the US, she worked on a CSA farm in MN, and then founded a student organization at Hamline that seeks to engage students with their community and foster discussion about environmental and food justice on and off campus. The manifestation of SPROUT’s mission was the establishing of two small community gardens near Hamline’s campus that are in their second growing season this year.

Kirsten Saylor is Executive Director of Gardening Matters

In 2004-2005, Kirsten worked with community gardeners to develop the Twin Cities Community Garden Sustainability Plan. In the summer of 2005, McKnight funded the implementation of the plan’s core recommendation, establishing a network of community gardens. This was GardenWorks, which was later spunoff to be an independent organization and renamed to Gardening Matters in 2008. Kirsten has a background in community food security, farming and food systems, sustainable agriculture and received her masters in Applied Anthropology from Oregon State University in 2003.

As of June 2010, Ila Duntemann, the cofounder of Gardening Matters, stepped down from her position as Program Coordinator. Ila's dedication and commitment over the last five years has been integral to the establishment and services of GardenWorks and then Gardening Matters. With her energy, we have been able to help hundreds of people and organizations in making community gardens that are more sustainable and assets to their community. Our best wishes to Ila!