Staff
|
Angelica Cortes Mejia
Latina Community Lead She/Her/Hers Angelica was born in Guanajuato, Mexico and has lived in SE Portland for well over a decade with her husband and son. She has a passion for combining community organizing, accessibility to healthy fruits and veggies, and environmental education. Angelica is heavily involved in Lents and East Portland and is a strong advocate for reducing barriers to engagement and participation. She also works with Growing Gardens as a Community Organizer, Oregon Food Bank, and Leadership Policy Council. In spring 2023, Anglica received her Community Health Workers of Oregon certification.
Since becoming involved with Green Lents in early 2018, Angelica has played an instrumental role in increasing access for Lents Latino/a/x community members. What she loves most about her job is growing through it personally and together with the community members, and seeing happy faces of the people she reaches. Angelica shares that helping marginalized members of our community motivates her to continue developing her leadership. In her free time, she likes to cook food, spend time with her family, and build community. |
Dasha Foerster
Community Director She/Her/Hers Dasha joined Green Lents in May 2019 equipped with skills and training in nonprofit fundraising and development, community outreach and partnership building. Helping nonprofits serve their clients’ vision and needs through fundraising is her passion and joining Green Lents was a dream come true. Her other passion is to serve the Ukrainian and immigrant communities of Portland through interpreting, community leadership and service on Metro Parks and Nature Racial Equity Advisory Board from 2019 through 2022.
Dasha became Green Lents' first Community Director in August 2022 and has since been a strong partner to our staff, board of directors, volunteers and neighbors in accomplishing our mission-driven goals and initiatives. As a resident of SE community who is also a first generation immigrant she is inspired by Green Lents' work and responsiveness to our community's needs. In her free time, Dasha can be found playing with her kids, gardening with her parents, doing fun and meaningful things out in our Ukrainian community, and making new discoveries in artistic, environmental and community spaces of our city and region with her husband, family and friends. |
Board Members
|
Brittany Sastrawidjaya
Co-Chair, Board Member She/Her/Hers Brittany is a Lents resident, mother and co-owner of the BluePrint Earth, and lends her expertise and advice to Green Lents Pollinator Habitat programs, and has supported staff and board development since 2018.
|
Brandon Giles
Co-Chair, Board Member He/Him/His Brandon's professional career is rooted in bringing awesome things to life. His early career in New York City was as a designer of scenic and props for theater and film. In his 16 years as a Starbucks employee, Brandon led teams of baristas to accomplish store goals as well as corporate professionals and executives to achieve professional and project success. His work on the Green Lents board includes HR support and Board Development.
|
|
Cleo Berryman
Board Member They/Them/Theirs Cleo joined Green Lents during the summer of 2021 and was shortly after voted on as a member of the board of directors. They are pursuing their B.A. in Economics and a minor in Music at Reed College, with particular areas of focus in environmental economics and public policy. Their prior experience includes serving as an Ambassador and the Musical Director for an international peace project focused on establishing artistic and environmental ties with Costa Rican students; and developing an official student coalition at Reed dedicated to assisting and uniting students recovering from substance abuse, sober students, and their allies. In their free time, Cleo enjoys writing and playing music, hiking, cooking traditional global cuisines, reading, and studying Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism.
|
|
|
Ali Treichel-Linder
Board Member She/Her/Hers Ali joined the Green Lents board in 2022 and has been a proud Lents resident since 2018. Ali has years of experience in program and project management, including policy and strategy development, community health promotion, and community outreach. In all her work, she seeks to build genuine and equitable partnerships to help push for much needed systems change. In her free time you can find her walking around the neighborhood, usually with two dogs trailing behind her, in her garden pleading with her veggie starts to grow, or out and about exploring local businesses.
|
Ryan Morris
Treasurer He/Him/His Ryan has been a Lents resident since 2019 and quickly found and utilized the Tool Library for weekend projects. After completing an MBA from Portland State University, Ryan joined the Board in June of 2021. Ryan hopes his work as Treasurer will help Green Lents strategically meet residents' needs. Ryan has dedicated his energy to identifying efficiencies in operations management throughout his career, with a genuine priority to empathy in daily interactions. As a part of Green Lents, he hopes to continue to meet more of his wonderful neighbors; please say hi if you see him at the tool library or out for a walk with his wife and dog!
|
Green Lents welcomes people of all races, all religions, all genders, all countries of origin, and all sexual orientations in its programs and spaces. We prioritize the safety of our volunteers and constituents, and reserve the right to deny services or entrance to anyone for any reason that does not discriminate against protected classes under Oregon state law (http://www.oregon.gov/boli/TA/docs/t_faq_protected_classes.pdf)
