The VGN team delights in spreading the promise and practice of growing food. Together with a strong network of partners, members and volunteers, we strive to make sure that every Vermonter has access to the space and resources to grow some of their own food, and the information and support needed to be successful.
Staff
T Hanson, Co-Executive Director, Philanthropy & Communication
Carolina Lukac, Co-Executive Director, Programs & Partnerships
Cedar Schiewetz, Nutrition Program Manager
Angela deBettencourt, Garden Education Manager
Audrey Tassey-Ayer, Chittenden County Garden Coordinator
Nic Stevens, Washington County Garden Coordinator
Ava Murphey, Addison County Garden Coordinator
Adrian Jin, SHECP Intern
Mica Vasseur, UVM Agroecology Fellow
Izzy Wright, Garden Apprentice
Noelle Hasan, UVM Agroecology Fellow
To reach us via email: (first name)@vtgardens.org
T Hanson joined VGN in January 2024 as the Co-Executive Director; Director of Philanthropy and Communications. Most recently, as Executive Director at Cornell Cooperative Extension in upstate NY, T spearheaded a new land stewardship educational model. She led a campaign to purchase a 107-acre farm and launched it as the new staff headquarters and demonstration site: Hilltop Community Farm. The farm is used to demonstrate agricultural climate action techniques through improved soil health, cover cropping, rotational grazing and use of emerging crops like dryland rice and food forest edible nuts and berries. Included is an agrivoltaics (sheep grazing under solar panels) system, a beginning farmer incubator program and a watershed management series of ponds and riparian buffers.
After graduating from Boston University with a master’s in computer science, T started her career working for IBM as a Systems Engineer in Phoenix where she learned many business management skills. Her IT path took her to Dallas for technology planning and architecture at American Airlines/SABRE. Motherhood found her home caring for her four children. She found inspiration (and sanity!) exploring outdoor trails and parks where the kids could dig in the dirt and turn over rocks in nearby streams. She became a Master Naturalist and started leading local hikes and plant talks. T transitioned to non-profit work with National Audubon Society and Texas Trees Foundation acquiring many operational and fundraising skills. In 2018, T made her transition back to her Northeastern roots and moved to the Mad River Valley. She worked in Development at the Green Mountain Club and was a board member for Community Harvest of Central Vermont exploring many local farms through gleaning. A self-professed tree hugger and locavore, T can most often be found experimenting with native plants, hiking/biking or at a local farmers market.
T looks forward to helping VGN expand their state-wide presence and to connecting more community members to the land as they learn to grow food.
Carolina Lukac joined VGN in February 2015 and became the organization’s Co-Executive Director of Programs & Partnerships in October of 2023. She moved to Vermont from the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere, Mexico City, where she was born, raised and spent many years gardening on rooftops. Carolina co-founded and co-directed a nonprofit organization that became the point of reference and inspiration for the urban agriculture movement in Mexico. She honed her skills as an educator and became immersed in designing school garden programs for bilingual schools. In 2015, Carolina moved to Vermont to join her partner and explore agriculture in a very different landscape.
Carolina’s work at VGN has focused on hands-on garden education programming. She managed our Gardens for Learning grant, taught the Community Teaching Garden for five growing seasons, piloted our first garden programming at affordable housing sites, structured our gardening with seniors program, and mentored many generations of interns and apprentices. During the past three years, Carolina has materialized a vision of shared gardening into what is now Seedsong Collective Garden. She is also responsible for managing our partnership with New Farms for New Americans and developing a farmer-to-farmer mentorship program and demonstration farm plot.
Carolina holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Vassar College and numerous certifications in garden-based learning, agroecology, Waldorf education, and herbalism. She serves on the board of directors of NOFA-VT and The Family Room, and is very actively involved in parent councils at her son’s Waldorf school.
Cedar Schiewetz joined VGN in Spring 2022 to fill the newly created position of Garden and Nutrition Program Manager. They come to the organization with over a decade of experience teaching science and ecology in both public, private, and alternative educational settings. They grew a passion for gardening as a young adult while attending college in the mountains of Arizona and working in a local farm-to-table cafe; which grew some of its produce (including prickly pear fruit) on its roof, something they still find amazing to this day. They’ve gardened for seven seasons in VT, and brought their passion for local and ecologically grown food to their work with students across the region, incorporating our chlorophyll filled distant cousins into many a lab and lesson. One of their favorite parts of gardening aside from the beauty of the plants is the diverse ecological community of pollinators and birds that a well planned garden supports.
Angela deBettencourt joined VGN in Spring 2020 as the Apprentice for the Thriving Gardens Course (TGC), later becoming the Lead Instructor for the 2021 & 2022 seasons. In January 2023, she was hired full time to help connect gardeners across the state to gardening resources and each other in addition to teaching the TGC. Angela’s ties to VT started as a student at UVM where she focused her studies in ecological agriculture, receiving a Permaculture Certification and studying coffee ecosystems in Panama, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico. Since UVM, she has grown vegetables at organic, biodynamic, and hydroponic farms across the country from Martha’s Vineyard to CO to VT’s very own Intervale Community Farm and High Mowing Seeds. Angela leans heavily on the knowledge she gleaned while farming when she teaches, and is currently pursuing a certification in UVM’s Master Gardener Program. Her favorite part of gardening has been getting to know vegetables and everything that goes into growing them on a more intimate scale and is excited to continue learning from the garden.
Audre
y Tassey-Ayer joined VGN in 2023 as the Chittenden County Garden Coordinator, but she first connected with the organization in 2019 when she took the Thriving Gardens Course to boost her own gardening skills! Since then, she’s put everything she learned into practice in her own garden, with over 6 seasons of backyard gardening under her belt, as well as two seasons of production work with Red Wagon Plants.
Born and raised in Vermont, Audrey has always found comfort communing with plants. While she grew up helping her mom in the garden, her own passion for gardening didn’t fully bloom until she moved back to Vermont post-college and was lucky enough to move into a Burlington apartment with a big backyard and raised beds. She believes that knowing how to grow your own food is one of the most empowering (and satisfying) skills a person can have, and she’s thrilled to be able to spread the seeds of wisdom she’s collected over the years! With a background in food service, she has a deep appreciation for local food systems and a passion for eating good meals. Besides gardening, in her spare time, Audrey enjoys making pottery, cooking meals from the veggies she grows, singing, taking walks near the lake, bragging about her cat, and pretending she can photosynthesize. Audrey is excited to return to VGN’s Growing Food, Growing Community program for a second season, and loves being able to connect with other gardeners and pass on the skills she’s learned with the greater community!
Nic Stevens grew up in Vermont but got his bachelors in sustainability from Pacific University in Oregon. Since graduating Nic has been working on small organic veggie farms across Oregon and Vermont and plans on owning a farm of his own someday. His favorite plants to grow are hot peppers and cantaloupes, and In his free time he enjoys rock climbing, skiing, photography, and canoeing.
Ava Murphey joined VGN for the Spring 2024 season as the Garden Coordinator for Addison County. She has spent the last 9 years working on farms in various parts of the country, primarily working with diversified vegetables but also with chickens, pigs, cows, sheep, and goats. In 2017, Ava attended the University of Vermont’s Farmer Training Program and then went on to work for the program for 5 seasons as an Instructor and then as the Farm Manager. Most recently, she co-led a micro goat dairy operation with her partner and is a part of a number of community-wide efforts to share and flow food at no charge within and beyond the community of Huntington, VT where she lives. She also loves learning about and practicing all the different ways to preserve and process foods from the garden– fermenting, canning, drying, and beyond! Ava is excited to learn more this season and dive into getting to know the many growers and food-lovers out there!
Adrian Jin is a summer intern with the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty. He is a junior at Middlebury College, studying Sociology and Economics. He hopes to work on providing access to food for under-privileged groups like impoverished families and new migrants. In his spare time, he enjoys skiing, backpacking, water polo, and tennis.
Mica Vasseur is an Environmental Science major at the University of Vermont. He found the Vermont Garden Network through the Agroecology Extension Fellowship at UVM. They got involved with agroecology through a summer job as a farmhand on a small organic produce farm in Massachusetts. In college, Mica was introduced to the idea of food sovereignty, and fell in love with the concept and potential applications of the practice. Additionally, Mica is fascinated by the biophysical processes involved in food production and ways to make agriculture more sustainable without compromising on the quantity of food produced. To him, the transdisciplinary approach of agroecology feels like the missing piece in their life, and in Environmental Science more generally. He hopes that this opportunity to work with VGN helps us all work toward a future we can be proud of!
Howdy, my name is Izzy and I am from Winston Salem, North Carolina. I am a Senior at UVM studying Environmental Studies, Agroecology, and Place Based Education. I grew up gardening with my parents and grandparents and am excited to share the joy of growing food with VGN. In my free time I like seeing live music and playing with my dog Corduroy.
Board of Directors
Vermont Garden Network is guided by a dedicated Board of Directors who provide leadership, governance, and fiscal oversight. VGN board members and staff partner in outreach, fundraising, and program evaluation. If you are interested in exploring Board Membership please contact Carolina, Co-Executive Director.
Hannah Harrington, President
Annual Fund Manager, Feeding Chittenden in Burlington
Joseph Kiefer, Vice President
Food Justice Consultant (state-wide), based in Montpelier
Meghan Tedder, Secretary
Program Director, Evernorth in Burlington
Caroline Aubry, Treasurer
Project Manager, Tetra Tech in Burlington
Christen Meyer, Director
Operations and Proposal Coordinator, Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC) in Burlington
Jessica Metcalfe, Director
President, Green Mountain Evaluation in Mount Holly
Vermont Garden Network is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, age, or disability in employment, volunteer and board member recruitment, or the provision of services. VGN is committed to diversity among its staff, board, and volunteers.
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