Skip Wiener, Executive Director: skip@urbantreeconnection.org
With masters’ degrees in both Science and Landscape Architecture, Mr Wiener has worked in the public and private sectors as a landscape architect since the 1970s. In 1989 he started the Urban Tree Connection and worked with children in the Chester and Philadelphia School Districts, developing environmental community service-learning projects. The Urban Tree Connection was incorporated as a nonprofit in 1997 and has grown into a team effort with the support of those listed below.
Ryan Witmer, Farm Manager: ryanleewitmer@gmail.com
Ryan grew up farming in Ohio and later graduated from Messiah College with a degree in Environmental Studies and Public Policy. In 2008 he conducted research in Havana, Cuba, through the University of British Colombia, on the policy and formation of Cuba’s urban agriculture; and in 2009 he was awarded the Murray Library Research Grant to investigate ‘The Viability of Urban Agriculture in a Developed Capitalistic Country’ at International Development and Research Center in Ottawa, Canada.
Annie Preston, Programs Director: anniepresto@gmail.com
Annie is an undergraduate in Environmental and Urban Studies at Temple University and this is her second season working at the farm and coordinating UTC youth programs in Haddington. She manages the summer teen work program, neighborhood cooking classes, and the Pearl Street kids programs where she serves as a mentor and friend to over 40 children.
Dylan Baird, Business Manager: neighborhoodfoods@gmail.com
Dylan is a recent graduate of Temple University’s Fox School of Business. His main focus is social entrepreneurship, which combines his passion for social justice with his love for business. He manages the distribution of produce from the farm, establishing and maintaining partnerships with local businesses as well as overseeing the operations and marketing for UTC farm stands. He also manages the neighborhood farm stand and coordinates other community programs.
Lisa Barkley, Data Base Manager: lisaathome2@gmail.com
Lisa, a two-time AmeriCorps volunteer, works for Girl Scouts of America delivering afterschool programs, and is a 50-year resident of the Haddington Community, West Philadelphia, locus of UTC’s oldest and most successful garden site.
Raheem White, South Philly Farm Manager: raheemwhite90@yahoo.com
Raheem attended The Philadelphia Center for Arts and Technology (PCAT) and studied Landscape Design with UTC staff member, Awinda Otieno-Pala. In March of 2011, he worked for several months at the Farm site as a PCAT intern, learning farming, landscaping and construction skills, and soon after joined UTC as a farm assistant. In this 2013 season, Raheem will be the farm manager for a new South Philadelphia growing site.
Awinda Otieno-Pala, Horticulturalist and Programs Assistant: vanopa@gmail.com
Vanessa Awinda Otieno-Pala was raised in Nairobi, Kenya. She graduated from Temple University with a B.S. in Horticulture, and a second Bachelors in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting. Ms. Otieno-Pala worked as an intern at Bartram’s Garden in South Philadelphia, teaching gardening, and once she joined the UTC staff, helped oversee after school programs and taught a summer PYN Work Ready program in West Philadelphia. She also helped develop and teach a landscape design program for the Green Jobs Training Program funded by Foundations Inc. Awinda says, “I strongly believe in shaping the ideas and concepts I learned throughout my career into teaching tools that can be used to strengthen or grow communities.”
Quinzell (Que) McCall, West Philly Farm Manager: quinzellmccall@gmail.com
Que was raised mostly in North Philadelphia with a few years spent in West Philly not all that far from the Haddington neighborhood gardens. Inspired by his fifth grade teacher who kept him supplied with books and who he still maintains a connection with, Que is quite a reader. He studied at the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Technology (PCAT), met Raheem and Awinda there, and became a UTC staff member after a stint as a PCAT intern at the Farm. In 2013 he will be managing UTC’s Neighborhood Foods Farm at N53rd Street and Wyalusing Avenue.
Jamal Bell, Farmers Market Manager: jamalbell5532@gmail.com
Jamal grew up in West Philadelphia, north of Market Street, but he can trace his gardening roots back to his great grandfather, a sharecropper in Georgia, who taught farming to former slaves. As an outreach counselor for the House of Umoja, he has run a farm program for at risk youth for the past several years and joined the UTC staff as the farmers market manager in 2012. He has helped with construction projects at the Farm as well. His goal is to see UTC expand as a neighborhood farming program.
Sue Witte, Volunteer Coordinator: suegwitte@gmail.com
Sue attended Vassar College, is a graduate of the Horticulture School of the Barnes Foundation, and as a professional gardener, she designed and maintained small gardens. She is also a children’s librarian at the Bala Cynwyd Library and a member of the book selection committee for Philadelphia Reading Olympics.
Adeline Ansell, Curriculum Development: adelinera@gmail.com
Addie joined UTC in July 2012 as its second Philly Fellow. This year she is working with the Programs team to design, pilot and evaluate new curriculum for youth and expand opportunities for year-round teen leadership and empowerment. Addie is a recent graduate of Bryn Mawr College, where she studied Growth and Structure of Cities with a concentration in Environmental Studies.
Misako Scott, Office Manager: misako@urbantreeconnection.org
Misako has a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of the Arts and has worked as a cabinetmaker, director of Small Computers in the Arts Network, and as an assistant both to physicians and educators.
