Board

Sandie Nierenberg, CEO/Founder & Board President. Sandie is an attorney with extensive experience advising private and public entities in both litigation and administrative matters, including in areas of board governance and program management. She most recently served as a Deputy County Counsel in San Mateo County, where she gained critical insight into the extent of food insecurity in San Mateo County as well as the many dedicated non-profits working to alleviate hunger. Each Green Corner was conceived in an effort to bridge this divide and inspire the broader community to join the efforts to end food insecurity via sustainable urban agriculture. Sandie earned her BA in Human Biology from Stanford University, and her J.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She lives in San Carlos, California, where she and her family enjoy tending their own urban garden and exploring all the outdoor gems the Bay Area has to offer. 

Maggie Law, Board Treasurer (CFO).  Maggie is a Certified Public Accountant (CA) and has over twenty years of experience in accounting and finance. She has held various management positions at companies including accounting firm, start-ups and large publicly traded companies. She earned her B.S in Business Administration – Accounting and Finance from California State University, Sacramento. She lives in San Carlos, California and enjoys shopping for fresh produce at local farmers market. 

Kali Stanger, MD, Board Secretary. Dr. Stanger is a family physician with more than a decade of experience practicing in low-income communities. She currently serves as the Solano County Regional Medical Director for La Clinica de la Raza, a large federally-qualified health center in the East Bay Area. Dr. Stanger graduated from University Of California, San Francisco School Of Medicine with her medical degree in 2009, and earned her BA in Human Biology from Stanford University. Kali lives in Solano County with her husband and three young sons. They are all vegetarians who love growing their own veggies in their raised beds, and fantasize about getting their own chickens soon. 

Elizabeth Benson, Board Member. Elly is a senior attorney at the Sierra Club. She has served as lead attorney in high-profile cases involving environmental justice, endangered species, and climate change. Prior to joining the Sierra Club, she was a litigation associate at a private firm. Elly earned her B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University, and her J.D. from Yale Law School. She lives in San Francisco, where she enjoys shopping at the local farmers market and hiking in the city’s many parks.

Ron Piovesean, Board Member. Ron meets regularly with the communications and development teams to offer advice and general expertise on current development and communications projects. He brainstorms with interns on best practices to increase engagement and bring more people into the EGC Community. He also offers insight to other communications channels that may be useful to EGC’s own social media. Lastly, he provides feedback on past projects and offers how to best improve going forward.

Core Team

Becky Quigley, Program Coordinator. Becky is EGC’s first full-time staff member, serving as a Climate Corps Fellow assigned to Each Green Corner. Becky manages EGC’s on-the-ground operations, ranging from volunteer recruitment, training and management to site development and installation to site management and operations.

Skyler Nourse, Operations Manager. Skyler is responsible for understanding, analyzing, and optimizing program operations of EGC, including overseeing program finance and workflow functions to maximize program efficiency and impact. She works to standardize workflow processes to effectively scale the organization and creates workflow documentation and functional guides to support new team members onboarding and learning. She collaborates closely with our core team, interns, and volunteers to understand how to best provide resources and support for their success. She implements technological best practices to support daily operations and collects and analyzes feedback from other team members to implement continuous improvement measures.

Cindy Ievers, Seedling Starter Program Lead. Cindy leads EGC’s Seedling Starter Program, wherein EGC grows thousands of seedlings throughout the year to plant in EGC gardens and distribute to other area school/community gardens and low-income neighborhoods. Cindy creates and delivers training materials and workshops throughout the year to educate both EGC volunteers and the general public about seedling starting, with workshops held in conjunction with local libraries. Cindy also preps and plants hundreds of seed trays throughout the year for distribution to volunteers, and manages transplanting and hardening off of seedlings in preparation of planting. She also provides advice and helps with seasonal planting plans, testing of new varieties, and assists with any troubleshooting problems that may arise.

Karen Nierenberg, Development Advisor. Karen advises the Director of Development about our ongoing projects, ranging from donor communications to grant applications. She has decades of non-profit experience and understands how to engage funders and establish meaningful relationships with members of the community. She meets weekly with the Director of Development, answering questions and providing feedback on current projects.  She offers advice and suggestions to the Director of Development, who then decides which projects are priorities for the development team. Karen’s industry knowledge helps to inform EGC of best practices so that we can navigate the space more effectively as a new all volunteer organization. 

Lorraine Lew-White, Senior Garden Stewards Advisor. She oversees the senior gardens at The Villages sites. She visits the sites and provides feedback on the program that is then used to make changes and improvements within the program. She also maintains relationships with the senior garden stewards

Sonya Rowen, Lead Volunteer for the Living Campus Program. Sonya assists with garden maintenance and workday coordination for the Living Campus Program. She consults on projects as needed, and assists with photographing the gardens to use on our website and social media accounts.

Intern Team

We are fortunate to have worked with more than 100 amazing, passionate interns to bring our vision to life! Each Green Corner recruits interns throughout the year for our three internship sessions: Fall (Aug – Jan), Winter/Spring (Dec – June), and Summer (May – Aug). EGC generally hosts 15-20 interns per session, with the vast majority of internships conducted remotely. Internship opportunities can be found on Handshake, or by contacting admin@eachgreencorner.org.

Communications and Outreach

Our communications team is responsible for driving awareness of EGC’s mission through multiple channels, including social media, website, newsletters, and events. They also develop and execute EGC’s strategy regarding communication and marketing, in collaboration with other EGC intern teams. They compile and analyze website and social media analytics to refine outreach and communication strategies.Lastly, they develop content and resources for various target populations related to the mission focus areas, including but not limited to resources for educators, children, public policy makers, and the general public.

Communications Intern Positions:

Social Media Manager

Content Manager

Communications Strategy & Marketing

Grant Writing & Development

The Development Team researches potential funders to identify and prioritize applications for funding to support EGC’s various programs and services. They create a database of potential grants and timelines for grant writing process as well as maintain a Grant Calendar detailing grant application, notification and reporting task management and deadlines. In consultation with the CEO, Chief Development Officer, Program Coordinator, and other stakeholders, they draft and submit grant applications. The team develops and executes strategies for securing individual donations. The team also works with the Chief Development Officer to develop a strategic plan to identify projected areas of funding need and strategy for meeting needs from all potential funding sources, including grants, individual donations, in-kind donations, and other opportunities.

Education & Curriculum

Members of the education and curriculum team work to develop educational content and resources for various target populations related to the mission focus areas, including but not limited to resources for educators, children, public policy makers, and the general public. They collaborate with staff, outside partners, and other interns to incorporate educational components into EGC’s broader programs and activities. Lastly, they design curriculum and educational support materials like educational posters and supplemental activities around EGC’s mission areas.

Agriculture & Design

The Agriculture & Design team create complete landscape design packages for a variety of sites, including school gardens, community partners, and residential partners. Designs draw from EGC’s internally-developed list of priority culturally-diverse crop and appropriate native pollinator-friendly planting pallets, developed to maximize the environmental sustainability of EGC sites. The Agriculture & Design team also develops care guides, informational placards, and other resources to educate garden visitors about the plants and ecosystems within each garden as well as to provide volunteers with maintenance and harvest information.

Non-Profit Management

Non-Profit Management interns fulfill a variety of roles within the organization, learning-by-doing how non-profits and small businesses operate. Interns work in volunteer management, program coordination, finance, marketing, program evaluation, and program improvement. As a cross-functional team, interns gain experience serving as the operations point-person on projects as varied as developing and implementing a Giving Tuesday strategy to managing volunteers, procurement, workflow and training for our Seedling Starter Program. Non-Profit Management Inters work closely with our CEO, Program Coordinator, Chief Development Officer, and Operations Manager, as well as external partners and our internal volunteer and intern teams.

Non-Profit Management Intern Positions:

Program Coordination

Volunteer Management

Finance & Accounting

Paralegal

Operations Management

. . . plus a growing team of more than 200 volunteers, all working to bring EGC’s vision to fruition!