staff

Photo courtesy of Erin Hooley for Chicago Tribune

Linda Seyler, Executive Director
Linda Seyler has served as Global Garden Refugee Training Farm’s (GGRTF) Farm Manager since it began in 2012 and took on the additional role of Executive Director in October 2013, when GGRTF became an independent non-profit organization. Ms. Seyler is a former IPM Specialist with Cornell Extension Service. She has extensive experience with teaching across cultural and language barriers as a former Peace Corps volunteer, in supervision and lesson plan development for ESL classes, in providing technical assistance and training for ethnic community-based organizations, and in teaching displaced refugee farmers how to adapt their traditional practices to the United States. Ms. Seyler has been a participating consultant and Project Coordinator to ISED / TSNE MissionWorks, overseeing development of culturally and linguistically appropriate training materials for refugee farmers in cooperation with educators and trainers from across the U.S. She earned B.S. and M.P.S. degrees in Agronomy from Cornell University’s College of Agricultural an d Life Sciences.

Haley LeRand, Farm Manager
Haley is a former volunteer with Global Garden who manages produce sales and marketing, farm operations and farmer training. She graduated from University of Illinois at Chicago with a Bachelors degree in Psychology and worked as a research assistant with UIC's anthropology department on a project about how urban farms in Chicago contribute to physical and emotional well-being. Through this project, she gained hands-on experience working in urban agricultural settings and later honed her skills on several small farms in rural New Mexico. Haley also has a background in photography and assists in curating content for Global Garden's social media pages. When Haley is not working for the farm or planting in her own garden, she is probably playing music gigs or reading.

BOARD

Joanna Michel - President
Shivana Shrestha - Vice President
Karishma Desouza - Secretary
Chris Williams - Treasurer
Matt Gold
Steve Duncan
Amy Dix