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Stephen Dorsch
Field Director Stephen has had his heart and his hands dug deep into the soil of the Pacific Northwest for over a decade. From mapping the surficial geology of Washington State’s three big National Parks to pursuing a degree in Holistic Landscape Design from Bastyr University, Stephen has experience working at all scales from watershed to homestead. He discovered The Common Acre in 2014 as he explored turning the parking strip at his home in Seattle into a community garden and never looked back. |
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Keri-Lynn Steinberg
Farm Coordinator Keri-Lynn has been growing with The Common Acre for the last 8 years and is passionate about community gardens as a key to healthy neighborhoods. She believes it’s a right to have a space to garden and nurture your connection to the Earth. Keri is learning all she can from The Common Acre’s community and loves making the urban garden oasis at the Cascade People’s Center a welcoming place for all. |
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Omaretta Sharpley
Farm Coordinator Omaretta has worked formerly as the Community Educator/ Outreach Specialist with Tilth Alliance Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands with a focus in the Rainier Beach/South Seattle communities, to engage youth, adults, and families in hands-on classes, volunteer and other learning opportunities around growing food, environmental stewardship, and cooking and sharing food. She believes in food security and that growing your own food is like growing your own money. A life long South Seattle resident, she has worked with multiple communities providing domestic violence advocacy, HIV AIDS testing and counseling, housing, and health consultation. She is also a certified Colon Hydrotherapist, Doula, and trained organic gardener. |
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Nat Mengist
Farm Coordinator A first-generation Ethiopian born in Moses Lake, WA, Nat graduated with a B.A. in the University of Washington’s eclectic Comparative History of Ideas program in 2015, and a Master’s in Education Policy in 2016. Then, as a children’s garden coordinator, he spearheaded the first racial equity team at Seattle Tilth while simultaneously running a monthly youth leadership program at the Ethiopian Community in Seattle. Nat dreams of farming and philosophizing with friends, and seeks future opportunities in both doctoral and consultative work that cultivate equitable, community-based, and land-conscious partnerships. He loves flowers, books, and dancing! |
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Tiffanie Toms
Community Cultivation Tiffanie Toms serves as the Community Cultivator for The Common Acre. Her work deepens the relationship between Monica’s Village Place residents and the 24+Main garden through outreach, education and compassionate community building. Tiffanie brings over a decade of experience in the non-profit sector having filled multiple roles as grant writer and executive assistant for the GD Association which provides affordable housing and supportive services in Seattle’s Central District. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of H.O.P.E. Center Resources providing hygiene packets to individuals facing homelessness. Tiffanie has deep roots in Seattle and has lived in the Central District for over 30 years. |
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Ashley is Unangax̂ and Black and Filipina. Ashley grew up in Bellingham Washington with her grandparents and was involved in her local Unangax/Aleut community through a Unangan dance group, Sngagim Axasniikangin (Dream Dancers). As a first generation college student and Gates Millennium Scholar she attended Western Washington University and earned a Bachelor’s of Arts in Human Services. In 2015, she earned her Masters in Social Work from University of Washington with a concentration in Community-centered Integrative Practice and in 2020, she earned her Masters in Urban Environmental Education. Ashley is co-founder of Alagnax̂ Farm, a farm located in South Seattle serving BIPOC community members through access to culturally relevant foods, greenspace and educational workshops.
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Bob (he/him) found his way to ecological work while living in a garden cottage surrounded by skyscrapers, as writer-in-residence for Seattle's Hugo House in 2004-2005. The founder of The Common Acre, Bob originally worked intensively with the chronic homeless and mentally ill, edited Real Change newspaper, and worked for many years in community radio. Co-founder of several start-ups, including the beekeeping business Survivor Bee, Bob recently shepherded Seattle's successful bid to be recognized as a UNESCO City of Literature. He currently lives in Burien with his wife and son.
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Demarus Tevuk is a researcher, writer, and educator with a strong background in traditional ecological knowledge, native pollinators, native plants, science, and engineering. Demarus is an Inupiaq from Nome, Alaska and her childhood with indigenous communities across North America greatly influenced her research on the definition of sustainability from the indigenous perspective. Demarus earned her degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Washington and she has a certificate in Permaculture Design. She produced case studies on climate change projects led by tribes that were funded by EPA Region 10 grants. Demarus loves to pick berries and gather traditional food and she is an avid fiber artist and loves to sew, spin yarn, weave, knit, and design knitwear.
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Mari Shibuya is an artist, muralist, facilitator, and visual thinker passionate about the power of creativity to seed a fertile space for transformation. Coming from a background in psychology and philosophy, Mari fuses their passion for mental wellness with their deep belief in creative self expression as an avenue for individuals to gain authorship in their lives and in their communities by cultivating self confidence and leadership through self expression. Mari’s work as an artist focuses on community building through public artwork and visually exploring the regenerative and healing power of creativity. In their work as a visual thinker, Mari creates illustrations and graphic recordings for organizations committed to social justice and environmental work such as ZERO Energy Oregon, Zero Youth Detention King County and the University of Washington Ocean Nexus Center that depict the content of trainings and the mission, vision and values of the organization. Mari has the honor of leading creative empowerment work for organizations such as Partners for Youth Empowerment (PYE), Young Women Empowered (Y-WE), Urban Artworks, Gage Academy and The Art of Resistance and Resilience Club at Franklin High School.
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Tony Johnson, born in California and raised in rural Michigan, identifies as Afro-indigenous and Swedish. They carry on in the family tradition healing and service to the community, beginning in the food industry in their teens. Since graduating with a BS in Geology and an environmental concentration from WWU in 2013, he has been working and learning in the non-profit field for 7 years, spending half of that time in Guatemala tutoring and volunteer coordinating for the educational non-profit, Safe Passage, before moving to Detroit where he worked as secretary to the board and managed, Buckets of Rain, an urban ag non-profit. Working to lean on and evolve this accumulated knowledge and experience, while also learning herbalist practices and beginning an art practice, Tony is dedicated to reimagining, creating, and cultivating systems of relating to self, others, and the land which tend to the needs of all beings involved.
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Will Peterman
Bee Researcher Will Peterman is a writer, photographer, and bee nerd. He studied pollination ecology and artificial intelligence in graduate school at UCSD, then spent fifteen years in software development before returning to entomology as the lead of the Western Bumblebee Project (beesearch.org). He is currently studying the quirks of bee vision and working on conservation strategies for native, ground-nesting bees. |
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Evan Sugden, PhD
Bee Research Lead Evan Sugden, PhD earned his MA in biology from the University of Utah and his PhD from the University of California-Davis. Evan has done post-doctoral work in Sydney, Australia; worked as an apicultural development agent in Dubai; and helped detect and study Africanized bees in Texas for the USDA. Since 1998 he has taught at the University of Washington, where he also manages the UW apiary. A consultant through his business Entomo-logic, Evan is also a certified SCUBA diver and has explored marine environments on the Great Barrier Reef (Australia), around Bermuda, and in both the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. |