Neighborhood Gardens Trust (NGT) continues to make strides in the fight to protect community gardens in Philadelphia with the support of a resourceful and talented board. NGT is excited to welcome three new members:

Guina Hammond

Guina Hammond is an Education and Civic Engagement Project Manager for the Public Gardens Team at PHS. She is a certified NOFA Organic Landcare Professional, Penn State Cooperative Extension Master Gardener, PHS Tree Tender and PHS Garden Tender. In addition to working with the Public Gardens Team, Guina is a member of the planning committees for the Mid-Atlantic Woody and Perennial Plant Conferences. Guina is a West Philadelphia native and founding member of the Chester Avenue Community Garden, a PHS supported and NGT preserved garden where she has grown award winning produce for the past 38 years.

 

Ebony Griffin

Ebony Griffin is an Environmental Justice lawyer. She currently leads the development of cumulative impacts legislative priorities at Earthjustice. She worked closely with NGT in her previous role as the environmental justice attorney at the Public Interest Law Center where she developed a community-lawyering model to address environmental harms in Philadelphia’s most vulnerable communities; to preserve vital food growing gardens and greenspace in Philadelphia’s low-income, historically disinvested communities and communities of color; and to ensure that people have an equitable and meaningful participation in planning for development of the future of their community.

 

Todd Sampsell

Todd Sampsell joined Natural Lands in March 2021 as Vice President of Conservation. A PA native, Todd has spent the past 25 years in land and water conservation in Pennsylvania, Missouri and the Caribbean. He brings to the NGT board a broad background in science and land trust work, as well as a passion for connecting diverse communities to nature. His current focus at Natural Lands is understanding how open space protection can improve the region’s resiliency to a changing climate, sprawling development, loss of species and impacts on human communities, including flooding, heat islands and disparity in connectedness to parks, trails and greenways.