Lisa Nishimura

BUSINESS MANAGER


Lisa (she/her) manages the business and finance side of Growing Gardens and joined in late 2022 after ten years in retail buying and planning. She is excited to be able to combine her business background with her passion for sharing food with her community. Her interests include baking and cooking for family and friends, growing veggies, practicing yoga, and biking around town.

*日本語を話す*
(I speak Japanese)

Iva Dubyak

CULTURE AND OPERATIONS MANAGER

As the Culture & Operations Manager, Iva supports the people and operations of Growing Gardens by listening to and centering the needs of staff.  They are deeply inspired by their coworkers, the impact that they have on local food systems, and in collaboration with the communities we work with. Iva can often be found reading science fiction, studying trauma-informed approaches to massage therapy, or playing with their dogs by a body of water.  (Pronouns: they/them)

*Govorim Hrvatski*
(I speak Croatian) 

Dashiell Hock

FINANCE AND CULTURE COORDINATOR

 
Dash is originally from Eugene, Oregon and has lived in Portland for the past seven years, working in various capacities for many of your favorite food-related businesses. His love for food and passion for food justice has guided him to Growing Gardens, where he hopes to help strengthen our local food system and end systemic hunger.

Rachel Powers

GRANTS MANAGER

Rachel is a writer with a deep interest in regenerative food systems, food justice, and community-led change. With 15 years of storytelling experience in copywriting, marketing, fundraising, and communications, Rachel works with all program leaders and teams to manage grants and secure funding for Growing Gardens projects. She is inspired by Growing Gardens’ creative, respectful, and collaborative approach to social justice action.

Bee

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Bee brings a wealth of strategic consulting and project management experience to the team at Growing Gardens. With expertise in planning, launching, and scaling online education platforms in the alternative healthcare sector, Bee is thrilled to combine their skills and personal passion for fundraising as our new Development Manager.   

Jack Nakashima

DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR

Jacklyn  "Jack" Nakashima (she/her) is a community connector, organizer, and hospitality professional. Although she has spent a decade in Portland, Chicago will always be her home and have her heart. She has spent over 14 years working in every aspect of a restaurant while more recently, Jaclyn’s main focus has been fundraising in the form of social justice centered bake sales and free community events. She hopes to uplift and center the BIPOC communities while also creating space for joy, art, healing, and as always, good food.

Amoreena Guerrero

YOUTH GROW
DIRECTOR
 

As the Youth Grow Coordinator/Educator, Amoreena supports other garden coordinators and educators create successful and engaging garden-based programs for many schools and their students. Working with other adults to expand opportunities for students to learn outside is her number one professional goal. She comes to Youth Grow with a Master’s degree in Education and 15 years of teaching experience, both indoors and out. When she’s not out in school gardens, you might find her with her family, or at the dojo teaching a weekly Ki-Aikido children’s class. (Pronouns: she/her)

*Hablo Español*
(I speak Spanish)

Betsy Lattig 

YOUTH GROW
LEAD EDUCATOR 
Faubion School

Betsy Lattig was born in Portland, and spent half of her childhood growing up in the rugged beauty of the Oregon coast. Betsy is a passionate educator, sparking joy for learning in both children and adults. She has spent the past 15 years teaching art, ecology, and gardening in the Portland area. Beyond her love of children and education, Betsy also enjoys gardening, painting, hanging out with her lovely teenage boys, and spending time with friends and family in nature. (Pronouns: she/her)

Ceci Orozco

YOUTH GROW EDUCATOR
Lent School

Ceci is a lifelong learner, mother, mover, facilitator of embodied practices, and bilingual educator. Currently, she is studying a master’s degree in Sustainability Education and Leadership at PSU. Ceci is from la Tierra del mariachi y el agave: Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Her Mexican roots and family traditions have drawn her closer to connecting with nature’s abundance, beauty, and teachings. This has led her to share with students and her community earth-based practices and holistic education resources. After moving to the Pacific Northwest in 2015, Ceci received her certification as a yoga instructor, and years later she completed a 300hr Ayurveda Clinical Foundations certification. She has taught yoga and meditation in Spanish to the Latino community in town and is excited to combine her passion for movement and mindfulness with garden-based education. When she’s not in the classroom or the garden or at a yoga studio teaching, Ceci enjoys exploring the great outdoors of the PNW, playing racquetball, traveling, and engaging in rituals of self-care.

*Hablo Español*
(I speak Spanish)

Kathy Berry

YOUTH GROW EDUCATOR
Davis/Glenfair Schools

Kathy (she/her) started out volunteering as a parent in an afterschool class taught by Growing Gardens when her daughter was in elementary school over 10 years ago. She then envisioned a garden transforming that same school. She was involved in that transformation process by getting garden beds built and teaching a garden class. She grew as the garden grew — evolving from a volunteer into a garden educator and now a Growing Gardens staff member. She loves teaching health and nutrition, watching young individuals thrive in a growing environment and being part of an organization that supports so many communities and is teaching life skills.

Kelly Smith

YOUTH GROW EDUCATOR

Kelley grew up on the east coast and moved to Portland for graduate school. While studying Nutrition at National University of Natural Medicine, she fell in love with gardening and wanted to connect the two. After interning with FoodWaves and Wild Lilac, she knew she wanted to be a part of the Farm to School initiative. New to the West coast, she loves exploring and hiking but also spends a good amount of time indoors cooking and reading. This is her first year serving with FoodCorps and she is so excited to share her passion with elementary school kids!

Allison Yoder

YOUTH GROW EDUCATOR

Allison, who is originally from the Midwest, is an avid home gardener who also enjoys baking, hiking, and going to concerts with her partner. She has a Master’s degree in Social Work from PSU, and has worked in a variety of social services settings over the last 10 years, most recently managing a youth mentoring program serving elementary-school students in Gresham and Rockwood. Allison‘s love of gardening and enthusiasm for the outdoors inspired her to become a Master Gardener volunteer in 2019, and she recently completed the Seed to Supper facilitator training. 

Corey Pierson

YOUTH GROW EDUCATOR
David Douglas High School

Corey has benefited from school garden programs as a student since he was in 2nd grade. Now, after moving from Maryland to Portland, finishing college, and learning about food systems and farming through an internship at a local orchard, he is excited to bring those special experiences to a new generation of high schoolers! In his free time, he loves to hike and snowboard on Mt. Hood, cooks new recipes, tries desperately to grow houseplants, and writes electronic and classical music.

*Hablo Español*
(I speak Spanish)

*日本語を話す*
(I speak Japanese)

Matt Laughter

YOUTH GROW LEAD COORDINATOR 
Davis / Glenfair Schools

Matt has been an elementary school educator and after-school program coordinator in East Portland since 2008. In past years, he has supported the Hunger Relief programs in both the Reynolds and David Douglas School Districts. In 2022, he had the opportunity to take on the garden coordinator role for Davis and Glenfair Elementary. Between the two sites he manages roughly 30 garden beds, teaches gardening classes, offers parent cooking classes, serves garden produce in the cafeteria, and coordinates volunteer events. He looks to grow a community that cherishes and supports the garden spaces for the next generation of students and educators.

Angeles Martinez

YOUTH GROW COORDINATOR & BILINGUAL EDUCATOR
Powell Butte School

Coming from Puebla Mexico, Angeles’s first language is Spanish but has lived in the United States for the past 19 years. She loves children and being out in nature, admiring flowers, planting fruits and vegetables, and the like. Combining these two loves makes her an excellent community organizer for our Powell Butte neighborhood. She loves helping others become more self-sufficient through gardening and appreciating nature.

*Hablo Español*
(I speak Spanish)

Cat Ayala

YOUTH GROW COORDINATOR & EDUCATOR
Kelly Elementary School

Lindsey Gohd

YOUTH GROW COORDINATOR & EDUCATOR
Whitman Elementary School

Carla Manuel

YOUTH GROW FOOD CORPS MEMBER

Carla is in her second year with FoodCorps as the Growing Gardens Service Member at Scott Elementary in Portland. With a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts and management in hand, her career evolved from corporate settings to leading K-12 students in culinary and garden lessons. She has over three decades of industry experience that ranges from school and community settings to luxury hotel properties. She has managed kitchens for corporations, opened and managed kitchens for small business startups, led local non-profit events, and instructed intercity youth. She is excited to contribute to supporting rising youth leaders in culinary, garden and building community strength. Striving for nourishment, equity and racial & social justice are intrinsic values for her.  Working with the FoodCorps and Youth Grow familia dedicated to the same aspirations is super exciting!

*Hablo Español*
(I speak Spanish)

Juan Cruz Padilla

YOUTH GROW
GARDEN COORDINATOR
Powell Butte Elementary School

Juan (He/Him) has lived in the PNW for 7 years. Since transplanting from Miami, FL he has walked the plant path, learning the names of the many plants and fungi who live here, becoming a permaculture designer, and most recently a school garden coordinator. Juan loves mountains, tennis (he’s a tennis pro), sharing food, learning history of ancient cultures, and writing. Gardening is his way of slowing down and remembering that the world is fully alive and aware. Juan believes in the ability that communities have to empower themselves through reclaiming our relationship to nature. 

*Hablo Español*
(I speak Spanish)

Yasmín Abduljalil 

YOUTH GROW
ACTIVITY COORDINATOR
Lents SUN Garden Club 

Baby Yasmín was inspired to grow her own when she would hear stories about her father’s farm in Harar, Ethiopia: *in Yasmín’s dad’s voice* “the sweetest, most juiciest mangoes!" And diving into the mystic Rumi poems about beautiful gardens. Working close to our soil is aligned with being closer to the Creator. She is passionate about us returning to our roots, of BIPOC communities having access to our given right to be in charge of our own foods! And guess what? We are sharing knowledge. We making it happen! Planting a seed whilst smoothly playing her funky jazzy flute with the flow of being a seamstress, danzante, big sister, and archer in training.

*Hablo Español*
(I speak Spanish)