– OUR STAFF –
* Dave Madan – Founder + Executive Director – dave@getoutma.org
* Liz Moniz – Educational Programs Coordinator – liz@getoutma.org
* Marcus Johnson-Smith – Communications + Outreach Coordinator – marcus@getoutma.org
* Anna Norcross – Grant Coordinator – anna@getoutma.org
– OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS –
* Katrina Kazda – Managing Director, Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts
* Jess Liborio – Urban Farm Manager, The Food Project
* Dave Madan – Founder + Executive Director, theMOVE
* Karan Singh – Co-Founder, ginger.io
* Nyjah Wyche-Alexis – Health & Wellness Community Outreach Coordinator, YWCA Boston
MARCUS JOHNSON-SMITH | Communications + Outreach Coordinator
marcus@getoutma.org
Marcus grew up in Cambridge MA and graduated from Northeastern University in 2010 with a BS in African American Studies. He is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Corporate and Organizational Communication from Northeastern. From 2010 to 2012, Marcus worked at The Boston Foundation reviewing and recommending grants under the foundation’s Health and Wellness impact strategy. He is active in the greater Boston nonprofit community, serving on several advisory boards including Innercity Weightlifting, REEL Entrepreneurs, and Celebrate CRLS.
Favorite Meal: Chicken salad with green & red peppers with a sprinkle of lemon juice
Secret Talent: Legos
DAVE MADAN | Founder + Executive Director
dave@getoutma.org
Dave grew up in Cambridge MA and graduated from Berkeley in 2005 with a BS in business and urban planning. For the three years following, he traveled through the Southern US and India, volunteering on livelihood and youth development service projects. He currently serves as a partner at Boston Investments (real estate development), vice chair of the board of trustees of the UUSC (international human rights), a founding board member of the Urban Farming Institute, a grantmaking committee member of the New England Grassroots Environment Fund, an advisory committee member of Groundwork Somerville, co-chair of the UC Berkeley Class of 2005 fundraising committee, and a lead organizer of Cambridge Pick-Up Soccer. Dave founded theMOVE in 2010.
Favorite Meal: Chick pea curry + rice (aka chole chawal)
Secret Talent: Handstands
LIZ MONIZ | Educational Programs Coordinator
liz@getoutma.org
Liz grew up in Roslindale and was educated in the Boston Public School system and at Boston University. She relocated back to Boston from three years living in Knoxville TN, where worked as an educator at an urban farm, co-created a community garden, and served as an AmeriCorps fellow, while also expanding her love of the outdoors in the Tennessee hills.
Favorite Meal: Homemade veggie enchiladas
Secret Talent: Reading dogs’ minds and translating for humans
ANNA NORCROSS | Grant Coordinator
anna@getoutma.org
Anna grew up in the Boston area and graduated from UMass Amherst. After stage managing many productions (and earning a BA in Theater Arts), Anna transitioned to nonprofit development. She is the grant writer for Smallbean Inc, a Boston-based international nonprofit, and co-founder/director of Please Learn Hard, a book project she runs with a Ghanaian student she met while studying at the University of Ghana. Anna loves reading, gardening, and cooking dinner.
Favorite Meal: Pasta Primavera
Secret Talent: Growing yellow cucumbers (no – they are not supposed to turn that color!)
ERICA EMERY | Educational Programs Coordinator
Erica is from rural Maine, where she was an active participant in her county’s 4-H farm-education programs. In the last few years, she has worked as an educational coordinator for Bottom Line and More than Words, focusing on improving educational access for underserved youth. Upon moving to Boston, Erica quickly became a member of her local community garden in East Boston, to keep up a connection with her agricultural roots. She is excited to blend her passions for youth development and farming through her work with theMOVE this summer!
Favorite Meal: Mom’s beef stew
Secret Talent: Absentmindedly putting things in the cupboard that are supposed go back in the fridge
SIGNE PORTESHAWVER | Community Programs Assistant | Spring 2011
Signe grew up in Davenport IA, but much prefers living in Somerville. She’s studying anthropology and biology at Tufts University with plans to graduate in May. In college she started a student garden, organized local food events, and worked with area CSA farmers on an ethnographic research project. She maintains a blog about sustainable agriculture, cooking, gardening, and food related books, events, and movies (www.TheVegTable.wordpress.com). This summer, she’ll be an apprentice at Drumlin Farm in Lincoln MA.
Favorite Meal: Grilled Cheese + Tomato Soup
Secret Talent: Ambidexterity
HENA RIZVI | Communications + Membership Coordinator
Hena was raised in the cornfields of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and left the country life to study Political Communications (Politics, Leadership & Social Advocacy) at Emerson, where she is currently a junior. Her hobbies include exploring, collaging, singing oldies but goodies, and taking pictures of broken umbrellas left in the streets of Boston after a rainstorm. After her spring semester abroad in 2011, she discovered that the Netherlands is her second home and hopes to one-day return, and explore Europe-and-beyond all over again.
Favorite Meal: Guacamole (yes, enough of it can make a meal)
Secret Talent: Coming up with amazing analogies
JOSIAH BONSEY | Community Programs Assistant | Spring 2011
Josiah was born and raised in Cambridge MA. During an academic career that has spanned several city blocks, he graduated from the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in 2010 and now attends Harvard College, where he will likely major in History and Literature. He volunteers as a Civics teacher in the elementary school that he attended, and hopes to pursue education as a career in some form. He loves the Red Sox, the movie Space Jam, and long walks on the beach.
Favorite Meal: Anything with Sriracha sauce
Secret Talent: Knows every word to Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”
KAVITA KOPPA | Program Coordinator | Winter 2011
Kavita grew up in the tiny town of Irmo SC and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2009 with a BA in geography and biology. After college she traipsed across the US to work on organic farms and fall in love with goats. Now a student of urban planning at Tufts, she hopes to combine social justice and agriculture to start a farm of her own someday and play her part in a just food system. Kavita loves tap dancing, folksy blues, and single-handedly saving the US Postal Service through snail mail.
Favorite Meal: Fruit, tea, and buttermilk biscuits with buckwheat honey
Secret talent: Accents
KATRINA KAZDA | Program Coordinator | Fall 2010
Katrina was born in Newfoundland/Canada and raised in Arlington MA. She received a BA in Visual Anthropology from UMass Amherst in 2003 and a Master’s in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University in 2010. Katrina has worked on a variety of international development initiatives including, most recently the Lighting a Billion Lives Campaign in India and the Asian University for Women initiative in Bangladesh. Closer to home Katrina worked for the Town of Maynard in the summer of 2009, undertaking a municipal energy audit to kick-start the town’s green energy future. Katrina loves to travel and dreams of one day filling her entire passport with stamps.
Favorite Meal: Anything with brie cheese and…hot and sour soup!
Secret talent: Fluent in Giddish: “Idaguy spidigeak gidigidigidish”
KALIMAH MUSTAFA | Communications Coordinator | Summer + Fall 2010
Kalimah was born and raised in Boston, with a brief 3-year stint in Florida. She graduated from Somerville High in 2009 and now attends Bunker Hill Community College. She plans to move on to a four-year college next fall to study English, Secondary Education, and Theater. She currently volunteers with Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts. Her passion is writing, but she also enjoys acting, dancing, reading, singing off-key, bird watching, and naps.
Favorite Meal: Anything with lots of cheese, lots of fruit, or both
Secret talent: An uncanny flexibility of the right thumb
CHRIS BRACK | Strategic Planning Coordinator | Summer + Fall 2010
Chris grew up in New England, and in 2010 received a BS in entrepreneurship from Suffolk University. He has been involved in helping start several for and non-profit companies, including an online book exchange and a wellness center. He currently works with the Massachusetts Dept of Agricultural Resources where he is a farm marketing and export development contractor. He loves hiking, rock climbing, writing, politics, and thinking about the cosmos.
Favorite Meal: Falafel Wrap
Secret Talent: Devil Sticking
SARA CARNAHAN | Membership Coordinator | Summer 2010
Sara grew up in Minnetonka MN, where she developed an addiction to lakeside life. She is a rising senior at Tufts University, majoring in International Relations and Economics, with an environmental focus. She continues her passion for the water on the Tufts Varsity Sail Racing Team – including finishing fourth at Women’s Nationals in Madison WI in May 2010. Her other great passion is craft making – including sewing, glassblowing, collaging, knitting, ceramics, jewelry making and papermaking. In the summer of 2009, she worked as a policy intern for Emergent Energy Group. Currently, she is interning with the Winchester Climate Action Taskforce, where she is completing the town’s emissions inventory and researching action strategies.
Favorite meal: Magret de canard aux poires
Secret talent: Special scissors skills
SONDRA SMITH | Program Assistant | Summer 2010
Sondra was born in Philadelphia, where she grew up a single child with at least ten pets at all times. She is a junior at MIT, majoring in math and computer science, and has aspirations to either become a high school calculus teacher or find some way to have fun with math, computers, and biology at the same time. Her humble dorm room houses a beta fish named Coco that she adores. Sondra enjoys riding her bike, which she just learned to ride without being hit by cars. She also enjoys reading, writing, drawing, and singing in the shower.
Favorite Meal: An entire watermelon in one sitting
Secret Talent: Folding prayer cranes
HEATHER KUNIN | Program Coordinator | Summer 2010
Heather grew up in various corners of the continental US, but claimed the Boston area as home when she moved there in 2006. She just returned from a year abroad in Uganda, Rwanda and the Netherlands studying transitional justice, and in the fall will head back to Macalester College in St Paul MN to finish her BA in International Studies. When not busy with theMOVE this summer, she’s taking her dogs to the dog beach, trekking to Gillette Stadium to watch the New England Revolution, and kicking butt at trivia night with old friends.
Favorite meal: Creamy macaroni with sage
Secret talent: Can name and correctly spell every state capital
