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GARDEN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT STAFF

 

STAFF

Blair Randall, Executive Director
Suzi Palladino, Program Director
Nicole Brisebois, Youth Programs Manager
Hilary Gordon, Sustainable Landscape Education Manager
Crescent Calimpong, Programs Associate

INTERNS

Courtney Lee, Youth Leadership and Outreach Intern
Brittany Williams, Sustainable Landscape Management Intern (Summer/Fall 2011)

 

BlairBlair Randall
Executive Director
blair@gardenfortheenvironment.org
(415) 731-5627

 

 

 



Blair wants you to get your hands dirty in a garden. He is an advocate for urban organic gardening and local sustainable food, and is a graduate of the Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture (2005) at The Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Gardening and Composting Educator Training Program (2003). A Bay Area native, Blair has worked as an educator in the San Francisco Bay Area for the last 9 years and is a course instructor in the Gardening and Composting Educator Training Program. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sculpture & Photography from the University of California, Santa Cruz (1999). He served as Director of Victory Gardens 2007+ (a collaboration with artist Amy Franceschini), advisor to the Slow Food Nation Victory Garden in 2008 and currently is a business advisor for Little City Gardens. Blair is also an active member of the SF Bicycle Coalition and an enthusiastic orchardist.
(Photo: Stacy Ventura)

SuziSuzi Palladino
Program Director
suzi@gardenfortheenvironment.org
(415) 731-5627

 

 

 



Suzi made her way from small-town North Carolina into the city lights of San Francisco in January of 2005. After spending several months traveling and working on organic farms in New Zealand, Suzi landed in SF in January 2005 ready to plunge into the urban sustainable agriculture movement of the Bay Area. She has a long history of working with youth and has a deep-rooted passion for ecological sustainability, environmental stewardship and food justice activism. Prior to the GFE, Suzi spent her days as an Environmental Educator for a local public elementary school as well as a Garden Educator for the Koshland Park Community Learning Garden of the Hayes Valley/Western Addition. Since the Summer of 2006, she has been managing the school programs at the Garden for the Environment. Suzi helps maintain the garden, manages the Compost Education Center and teaches urban sustainable agriculture classes including the Gardening and Composting Educator Training Program.
(Photo: Stacy Ventura)

NicoleNicole Brisebois
Youth Programs Manager
nicole@gardenfortheenvironment.org
(415) 731-5627

 

 

 

 

Back in the city after a five-year stint on Catalina Island as the garden coordinator in an educational vegetable garden, Nicole brings her enthusiasm for composting and youth gardening to gfe. Originally inspired by her internship at San Francisco’s Department of the Environment, she created and designed an outreach project for Catalina’s offseason to continue to motivate youth to garden in their home communities along California’s coast on the sustainable living bike tour. When she is not growing and eating vegetables, you might find her bike touring and commuting, teaching her cooking class or enjoying the park.
(Photo: Stacy Ventura)

HilaryHilary Gordon
Sustainable Landscape Education Manager

 

 

 


 

Hilary Gordon is Sustainable Landscape Education Manager at the GFE. A life-long gardener, trained at the City College Horticulture program, she has worked as a professional landscape gardener from 1984 until the present. Meet her in the garden Wednesdays 10-2 and Saturdays 10-4.

CrescentCrescent Calimpong
Programs Associate
crescent@gardenfortheenvironment.org
(415) 731-5627

 

 

 

 

Hailing from Northern California, Crescent moved to San Francisco in the winter of 2010 and is so glad to have found GFE and the amazing community it offers. A graduate of UC Santa Cruz with a double major in Environmental Studies and Art, Crescent has always been attracted to complimentary duality! Prior to GFE Crescent worked in Northern California advocating for salmon and working to restore the areas they call home. Through her work she discovered that restoration is not only about restoring a place but also about restoring the community and people that surround that place. When Crescent isn’t with GFE, she can be found working with Save the Bay’s Community Based Restoration Program. 
(Photo: Robin Jolin)