Learning Garden Institute

Board of Directors

Dr. Pramod Parajuli, Founder and past President

Through the Learning Gardens Institute, my wildest dream is to help create “learning gardens” at every school (that is ready) and “edible gardens” at every household and in every neighborhood. It is not merely about food and learning. I have come to conclude that food and gardens are gateways to social engagement that is not only deep but also delicious.

I have had the privilege of co-initiating, developing, designing and implementing learning garden programs in Portland, Oregon for the last six years. During these years, I have worked with hundreds of teachers, parents, food and garden educators, gardeners, farmers, ranchers and students in higher education. I have begun to do so in Prescott, Arizona where I teach today (www.prescott.edu) and in my home country Nepal, where I am part of a permaculture family homestead which invites learners from all over the world (www.ajamvarifarm.org, and www.eternalfarming.blogspot.com).
Recently, I was honored with a “Hope for Agriculture Award” for my work in Nepal and the United States.

Let us remain inspired and create the new generation of learners and leaders.

Tim Hahn, President

Tim retired from classroom teaching with 35 years of experience, the last 25 working in Portland Public Schools. In his final year, he established the learning garden at Buckman Elementary School. In his semi-retirement, Tim has been actively involved in garden and food-based education at the Sauvie Island Center and in several Portland schools, serving as both a volunteer and an instructor/consultant in curriculum development.

During his teaching career in Portland, Tim presented a variety of workshops to teachers and served for a year as a Teacher on Special Assignment for Portland Public Schools, working with classroom teachers in developing and implementing innovative math curriculum.

"More and more teachers, parents and students are becoming passionate about the need to include food- and garden-based education in their schools' educational planning. I'm convinced that we are still in the early days of this grassroots movement. When properly nurtured, it can become a major gateway for bringing sustainability education not just to students, but to their families and communities as well. Within this movement, LGI has a role to play in fostering the kinds of educational experiences that align with some of our most deeply-held values and beliefs - active learning, healthy children and a strong connection with the natural world."

Chad Honl, Treasurer

Chad Honl is a Portland native who is raising three children in southeast Portland with his wife Isabel. He is a currently a math/science teacher for Portland Public Schools and a certified arborist. In the past he has worked on organic farms growing food. He helped start and manage the Learning Gardens Laboratory, which developed hands-on curriculum for PPS students to grow and learn about their own food. He managed the Friends of Trees Neighborhood Trees program and was the founder of the Fruit Tree Giveaway, which has distributed over 25,000 fruit and native trees in the Portland area. He is dedicated to transforming the food and educational systems of Portland. Chad spends his spare time gardening, pruning trees, hunting, fishing and playing with his family.

Kathleen Maloney-Dunn, Secretary

Kathleen received degrees from Stanford University in International Development Education (MA), Human Biology and French Studies. She worked in Sierra Leone on a community health project and also lived in India for a year and a half as a Fulbright Scholar at the Institute for Social Studies Trust, focusing on poor women and rural development issues. Kathleen worked in Geneva as a United Nations Disarmament Intern through the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She later served as Program Officer for the International Foundation, concentrating on security and environmental issues.

As an attorney, Kathleen has worked on both civil and criminal cases. Most recently, she served as Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court in the Appeals Chamber dealing with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda. Kathleen is pursuing an advanced International Human Rights Law degree from Oxford University, while working locally for human rights and humanitarian causes. Her commitment to learning gardens is related to her advocacy for the environment, sustainable development, global health and justice.

Peggy Acott, Website Administrator

For the past eleven years, Peggy has been the Community Outreach Director for Portland Nursery, overseeing a generous discount and donation program involving the nursery and several of their vendors. She has been able to help facilitate and provide support to numerous school and youth-related garden programs and projects throughout the city.

In 2000 she received a "NUSA Noteable Award" (Neighborhoods USA) and in 2008 received a "Stars for Kids" award from Janus Youth Programs for her active partnership with the Food Works program.

As a writer, she regularly contributes to the Community Pages of the Portland Nursery website (www.portlandnursery.com/community/), and contributed the feature article about Janus Youth's Food Works Program for the Fall 2008 issue of Edible Portland (http://edibleportland.com/content/2008/09/15/teen-works/).

A strong advocate for learning gardens, Peggy is thrilled to see the increase of school-based garden programs that has come about, hopeful that it is a trend for the future.

Matt Bibeau

Matt received his Masters Degree at Portland State University through the Leadership in Ecology, Culture & Learning track of the Educational Leadership & Policy program. His graduate work and thesis focused on the promise of Garden-Based Education as an approach to addressing children’s relationship with food, community, the environment and themselves. After spending several years working as a coordinator of PSU’s Learning Gardens project, Matt brought his knowledge and experience to Tryon Life Community Farm, where he co-coordinates the farm’s education program, offers summer garden camps and teacher trainings on Garden-Based Education and co-teaches certificate courses in Permaculture Design.

Matt has worked at many levels with Learning Gardens and within the field of garden-based education over the last 5 years: from classroom and garden teaching to PTA and community outreach; teacher and parent trainings; school event organizing and program infrastructure development. He will assist LGI in its work of advancing the progress of school gardens and the farm-to-school movement through local partnerships, trainings and educational outreach.

Greg Dardis

Katrina Sarson

Katrina Sarson hopes that one day every child knows what fresh picked vegetables taste like. She earned a Masters in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2003, and then moved to Portland. She was a volunteer at Buckman Elementary School as the FEED program started, and has been involved with issues of food, kids and education ever since. Katrina works as a producer at Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), teaches media literacy, and is a member of a community supported agriculture (CSA) organic farm. Her current passions are her family, her dog, and baking bread.

Greg Smith

Greg Smith is a professor in the Graduate School of Education and Counseling at Lewis & Clark College. He is an advocate for place- and community-based education--an approach to curriculum development and instruction that encourages teachers to incorporate local knowledge and phenomena into students' learning experiences. He has written or edited a number of books that explore ways to strengthen the relationship between schools and their communities and regions including Education and the Environment: Learning to Live with Limits, Ecological Education in Action and Place-based Education in the Global Age: Local Diversity.

Bernie Wolff