To help you make decisions on who to vote for on 10-17-13 here are the candidate bios:
RAY FIGUEROA (current board member)
My Accomplishments
My accomplishments as NYCCGC President include bringing a renewed focus on grassroots organizing by strategically reaching out across social justice movement & organizational silos, structuring decentralized general membership meetings, and introducing a sliding fee for membership – all so that the Coalition could be more consistently mission-driven particularly in the area of community organizing. Now, we’re beginning to regain credibility. I added substantively to the North Star Grant that helped us hire our 1st E.D.
Why I Would Like to Continue to Serve on the Board
My vision for NYCCGC includes inspiring the growth and development of our community gardens via a galvanized constituency of civically engaged gardeners whose rights are respected and whose green/healing work is valued by all - gardener and non-gardener alike. I look forward to continuing to leverage my 20+ years of CG experience in the service of this vision while on the NYCCGC Board.
My Background Highlights
Strong advocate for community garden preservation and a great believer in the contributions being made every day by community gardeners to the re-vitalization of their communities and to the overall vibrancy of New York City – I’ve spoken out on behalf community gardens at Occupy Wall Street, on the steps of City Hall, at Community Board meetings, in testimony before City Council
Coordinator of an Alternatives-to-Incarceration (ATI) mentoring program for court-adjudicated youth engaged in our Youth Community Farm at Brook Park which to date has helped prevent the incarceration of approximately a dozen youth and literally saved two young people from being killed, and we recently launched a youth-based landscaping/urban agricultural entrepreneurial initiative that further engages some of these same ATI youth in earning income through a green business enterprise (2011 – Present)
Policy Advisor to the NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL’s FoodWorks initiative: “FoodWorks: A Vision to Improve NYC’s Food System –
Accomplishments and New Ideas” – I recently testified before CITY COUNCIL on Urban Farming & Economic Development (Fall 2013) NYCCGC Constituent Member of the Citywide Steering Committee on Participatory Budgeting (2013-2014 Cycle)
Co-recipient of a $300,000.00 capital grant for Solar Powered (food production) Greenhouse on NYCHA public housing land in the
South Bronx (Spring 2013)
Member of the MAYOR’s Inter-Agency Taskforce on Urban Agriculture (2012 – Present)
Project Advisor to the comprehensive report by DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE and ADDED VALUE on the state-of-the-art of urban agriculture in New York City: “Five Borough Farm – Seeding the Future of Urban Agriculture in New York City” (July 2012)
Featured on JUST FOOD’s Vista – “Bronx Food Justice” (June 2010)
Featured (along with South Bronx youth) in SALON Magazine – “The Bold New Faces of Urban Agriculture” (May17, 2010) Presenter at the BRONX BOROUGH PRESIDENT’s Food and Sustainability Summit (Spring 2010)
Recipient of an in-kind grant from COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY’s INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL & ECONOMIC RESEARCH – Built Environment and
Health Project underwritten by the NYC Partnership for Environmental Public Health (2009 – 2010)
Featured (along with South Bronx youth) in the NEW YORK TIMES – “In the Bronx, Less Asphalt More Vegetables” (August 7, 2009) Community gardening/urban farming work with the young people of the TRUCE Community Garden in Harlem highlighted in the
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES/INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE Report: “Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity” (2006)
Presenter along with community gardeners from South Africa, Cuba, and Bosnia at a special international conference convened by the AMERICAN COMMUNITY GARDEN ASSOCIATION in Toronto (2004)
Coordinated a successful petition drive engaging the young people of the TRUCE Community Garden in Harlem – gathering over
1000 signatures which they in turn presented to their local COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE that ultimately helped to save their community garden/urban farm from real estate development (2003)
Co-recipient of the Innovator Award from CORNELL UNIVERSITY’s INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT in recognition of my work engaging Harlem youth in a community-based organic farming project and in the development of one the first farmer’s markets in Harlem (1996)
Recipient of the Neighborhood Environmental Action Award & Grant from the CITIZENS COMMITTEE FOR NEW YORK CITY in recognition of my urban farming work engaging youth from throughout Harlem including the community of El Barrio (1993)
CHARLES KREZELL (current board member) began gardening in New York City in 1996 as a founding member of DeColores Community Garden on E.8th St in the East Village. He joined NYCCGC in 2010 to work for the preservation of all community gardens in NYC. In 2011 he became a member of the NYCCGC board and he founded LUNGS (Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens) a coalition of community gardens on the Lower East Side. In 2012 he began serving as the treasurer of NYCCGC. In 2013 he was elected president of LUNGS, began a garden-run CSA and organized the Second Annual LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival in 33 gardens on the Lower East Side. He also makes a mean margarita.
JILL POKLEMBA: (new candidate)
Jill joined The Fortune Society in May 2010 and has over 10 years of experience working in the human services field, with a particular emphasis on public policy analysis and advocacy, fund development, and communications. Prior to joining Fortune, Jill was the Director of Communications and Fund Development for STRIVE International, where she was responsible for public and private grant writing for New York headquarters and its network of over 25 national and international affiliates. She has also worked as a Senior Policy Analyst for Income Security and Workforce Development for the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA). In each of these positions, Jill has been a staunch advocate and supporter of Green Pathways out of Poverty and programs that offer sector-based skills training related to green construction and environmental sustainability, including urban agriculture and community gardening. She has raised over $7 million in the past 4 years specifically for these types of Green programs. Before moving to New York City in 2007, Jill lived in Albany, NY where she worked for the NYS Assembly Office of Program & Counsel on the Committees on Social Services and Children & Families as a Legislative Analyst/Committee Assistant and for NYS Comptroller H. Carl McCall as a Program Associate in the Speechwriting Unit. Jill obtained her Master’s in Public Policy (MPP) from Rockefeller College at the University at Albany, SUNY and her BA in Psychology from the College of William and Mary.
