Growing Landscapes that Support Environmental Restoration & Workforce Development on the Bronx River
MHG Meetings
Sponsored By: Metro Hort Group
Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, November 17th
6:00pm–7:00pm — “Doors” open at 5:30pm
Come early to chat with one another!
Maggie Scott Greenfield, Renee Ruhl and Lisa Bloodgood
Growing Landscapes That Support Environmental Restoration and Workforce Development on the Bronx River
This talk will cover the developing partnership between the Bronx River Alliance and The HOPE Program to use horticulture to restore an urban river, grow NYC’s first public sustainable food landscape, and offer workforce development training to low-income New Yorkers.
Maggie Scott Greenfield serves as the Executive Director of the nonprofit Bronx River Alliance and as the Bronx River Administrator for NYC Parks. Maggie joined the Alliance in 2005 and previously served as Greenway Coordinator and Deputy Director before transitioning to her current dual role in 2017.
Directing Bronx River improvements for the Alliance and NYC Parks, Ms. Greenfield guides investments of more than $250 million in greenway and restoration projects that improve the ecological health of the river and open up community access to it. Ms. Greenfield is committed to ensuring that the Alliance’s educational and stewardship programs serve as a bridge between youth and young adults from environmental justice communities along the river to myriad opportunities in the environmental sector.
Ms. Greenfield holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Public Health/Environmental Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She first came to NYC as a summer intern at Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in 1997. She fell in love with the city and was thrilled to move back in 2004. She lives in the Bronx with her husband and two children.
Renee Ruhl is the project manager for HOPE’s green infrastructure transitional employment program Intervine where she leads the environmental literacy classes and engages with community organizations for meaningful hands-on participant training to build practical skills grounded in ecological best-practices. She also leads Intervine’s social enterprise projects, which entails designing, installing and maintaining green spaces in the Bronx providing transitional employment opportunities for program graduates.
Prior to HOPE, Renee worked as a landscape designer for an ecological landscape design company and led the operations of a nutrition education program at the Food Bank for New York City, focused on inequitable healthy food access. She holds a MS in Ecological Design, a Horticulture Certificate in Sustainable Landscape Design and BS in Textile Science.
Lisa Bloodgood is the Director of Advocacy and Education for Newtown Creek Alliance, an environmental nonprofit in North Brooklyn and Western Queens dedicated to revealing, restoring, and revitalizing Newtown Creek. In this role she is focused on urban ecology, restoration of land and water-based ecosystems, environmental and community health, environmental policy, the climate crisis, and innovative resilient design as a tool. Lisa continues to work to bring together coalitions spanning geographic and issue areas in NYC and across the NY/NJ Harbor estuary.
Prior to working for NCA, she spent a number of years working for the New York City Council as a legislative aide. Currently, Lisa serves as a NY Co-Chair for the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary Program’s Community Advisory Council and is a Stakeholder Advisory Board member of both Mt. Sinai’s Transdisciplinary Center on Early Environmental Exposures, and NYU’s Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards Community Engagement Cores. She volunteers with the New York City Pollinators Working Group through the Education and Outreach Committee and serves as Co-Chair of North Brooklyn Neighbors Board of Directors, a North Brooklyn-based environmental and social justice nonprofit. Lisa has a degree in Earth and Environmental Science from Brooklyn College.
TO REGISTER:
To attend this meeting, you must be a current Metro Hort member.
Pre-registration is required.
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Deadline to Register: *90 minutes before meeting start-time
