Staff
Sara is a youth educator for Wasatch Community Gardens and an AmeriCorps volunteer, assisting with our City Sprouts youth summer camps and Growing Greens field trips. She is a recent transplant from Riverside, California, where she interned with a local nonprofit dedicated to youth empowerment at low-income high schools. In her new role at WCG, Sara is committed to creating a space where community members can come together and send their kids to grow and learn. Although she is new to urban gardening, she looks forward to learning from her coworkers and to hopefully raising her own chickens in the near future!
Susan works with local leaders starting or running community gardens. This includes overseeing our annual Growing Community Gardens training for garden leaders, administering mini-grants to community gardens, and facilitating access to resources, information and events for gardeners in the our community gardens network.
Susan earned a masters degree in Horticulture and Agronomy at the University of California, Davis in 2010. Her interests include gardening and hiking in the Wasatch.
Carly coordinates Wasatch Community Gardens' educational workshops and community events, providing thousands of Salt Lake residents with the knowledge and skills to grow their own food. Carly received her Associate of General Studies degree in 2006. An experienced organic gardener, she has been in the horticulture industry for the past 14 years, working in nurseries and landscape ventures, including the start up of the small, organic, Duckelberry Farm in Beaver Creek, Oregon. Carly has shared her organic gardening passion and expertise with Wasatch Community Gardens since 2009 and continues to help people learn to grow their own food.
Jennifer Hamilton
Giles Larsen
Salt Lake County Community Garden Coordinator
801-359-2658 ext.16
Giles first got acquainted with the inequities of the modern food system while rescuing produce that would otherwise have been thrown away, and redistributing it to the low income and homeless of Salt Lake City. Later, Giles would help develop more ecological and affordable alternatives as a founding staff member of the Community Food Co-op of Utah, and as a small-scale market gardener. Giles continues to work with disadvantaged populations, such as refugees, to grow food that nurtures the earth, community, and spirit.
Aaron is a youth educator with Wasatch Community Gardens and an AmeriCorps volunteer. He teaches our City Roots youth gardening classes. A former newspaper journalist, Aaron was brought to the grow-your-own-food-movement table by the Great Recession. He most recently worked in Virginia where he managed a greenhouse range staffed by motley crew of folks with a variety of special needs. He smiles every time he thinks about them. He chose to move to Utah because he loves traveling the Great American West and figured Virginia would be alright without him for a little while.
Brit recruits, trains, and supervises over a thousand volunteers annually. She also works with hundreds of our community gardeners to ensure their understanding of organic principles and the orderly maintenance of our gardens. Brit has been practicing and teaching organic gardening techniques for the past ten years, and joined Wasatch Community Gardens after graduating from the University of Utah with a double major in environmental studies and gender studies. She is currently working on her MA in community leadership.
Elizabeth Pedersen
Liz is a youth educator for Wasatch Community Gardens and an AmeriCorps volunteer, assisting with our City Sprouts youth summer camps and Growing Greens field trips. She came to WCG with a Bachelors in Landscape Architecture and a desire to work with her community to create a strong food culture. Liz grew up in Salt Lake and loves the pioneer spirit that is an undercurrent in the city. Gardens have been a part of her childhood (and adulthood!), and she is excited to help teach the next generation of Wasatch Front gardeners!
Lindsey works with Wasatch Community Gardens' individual, foundation, government, and corporate supporters to ensure that the organization has the funds it needs to successfully execute its community gardening and education programs. She has 13 years of fundraising experience and has worked with a variety of local and international nonprofits. She earned a B.S. in Environmental Studies and Women’s Studies at Bowdoin College in Maine. She joined the Wasatch Community Gardens' staff in 2010. As a new mom she doesn't have any free time - but if she did, she would spend it hiking, skiing, traveling, and working in her organic garden.
Bill Stadwiser
Claire leads Wasatch Community Gardens in its commitment to promoting youth and community gardening and education. She has nine years of experience running programs in various nonprofits and community foundations. She is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles with a Master’s degree in library and information studies and a concentration in community food security. While Claire began her tenure at WCG with zero gardening experience, thanks to her knowledgeable co-workers she has become an aspiring, if not always successful, urban gardener.
