Our team is largely volunteer-led, harnessing the power of our network to drive positive change in our communities.

AJ Hall | Board Chair

Originally from Chicago's south suburbs, AJ brings a strong Midwestern work ethic and a deep-rooted passion for gardening instilled by his family.

Glassell Park has been AJ’s home for the last 14 years, and he has been involved with the Glassell Park Community Garden for close to a decade, witnessing its ups and downs. In the summer of 2022, faced with a dilapidated garden and just 11 members, AJ decided to take over leadership. Through dedication and hard work with the rest of the garden members, he led the reconstruction efforts, rebuilding the garden from the ground up. The Glassell Park Community Garden is now home to 40 gardeners, and is developing strong connections within the community to return the garden to the green haven it was originally meant to be.

Now, as Board Chair of the Garden Council, AJ aims to apply the lessons learned from Glassell Park Community Garden to support and enhance all member gardens within the LACGC. Let's work together to cultivate thriving green spaces and strengthen community bonds.

Kevin Ridley | Vice Chair

Farmer Kevin is a Los Angeles native. He is a community leader driven to enhance urban agriculture and conservation. Kevin is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys gardening, fishing, skiing, hiking, boating, and camping. Gardens represent rejuvenation, peace, and community.  Additionally, he is a seed saver who focuses on culturally relevant fruits and vegetables. Kevin holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from San Diego State University. 

Juan Diaz-Carreras | Treasurer

Originally from Peru, Juan grew up all over the US, eventually settling in Southern California in 2006. Juan started his professional career working in the Everglades after earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies, Biology, and English from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Public Administration degree focused on Environmental Growth Management from Florida Atlantic University.  Now a seasoned manager with Black & Veatch, who makes logical decisions by combining input from stakeholders with well-honed intuition and whose leadership style is collaborative, but assertive when necessary. Juan not only brings strong team leadership qualities, he also is adept at strategy and business development, business operations, and project delivery. He is active in the industry regionally and nationally, participating in SHPE, CASQA and AWWA and is a frequent speaker on topics such as the nexus between water conservation and equity.  His executive and project level experience spans a diverse portfolio of projects and programs, including the $16B Delta Conveyance project in central California, the full portfolio of IIJA related projects for LA County and many projects under the LA County Safe, Clean Water Program in addition to experience as part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program.  As a team leader, Juan focuses on building a strong team culture through transparency, collaboration and support for employees well being. He brings a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, evidenced by participation on panels highlighting a variety of life experiences in the industry and speaking engagements with schools focused on encouraging a wider variety of students to consider Water related careers.  

Clare Fox | Secretary

Clare Fox joined Sustainable Agriculture and Food System Funders as executive director in January 2024. Clare has dedicated her life to generating powerful partnerships for an equitable and regenerative food system. She began her work journey in independent media and grassroots organizing, advocating and reporting on a broad range of issues including immigrant rights, youth development, tenant rights and community land ownership. Clare became involved in anti-racism organizing starting in 2001 and focused her efforts on training and mobilization of white communities in racial justice movements. She then found her passion for food as a human right after recovering from diet-related health challenges. As a graduate student, she researched food policy councils as an innovation in participatory democracy for the Mayor’s Food Policy Taskforce. 

Most recently she served as  vice president of strategic partnerships at Everytable, a fast-growing social enterprise with a mission to make healthy food affordable and accessible for everyone, everywhere. She has served as a board member for non-profit organizations working on community composting, urban gardens, and economic development. She is a third generation Los Angelena with a master’s of urban planning from University of California, Los Angeles.

Erika Crenshaw | Vice Chair

Erika Crenshaw is an educator, community builder, and steward of the El Sereno Community Garden. Erika believes that bringing diverse stakeholders together happens through meaningful and transformative education. Erika is a veteran of the U.S. navy. She was a public school teacher, and then became an administrator at the University of Southern California.

Since 2019, Erika has been facilitating a career change that allows her to continue excelling in the fields of education and community building. She was elected Garden Manager at the El Sereno Community Garden and began working to bring solar energy to the garden. Since then, Erika has become a certified Photovoltaic Solar Installer and is currently working with Tesla, the nation’s most innovative solar company. Under Erika’s leadership, the garden has reopened its doors to the community with programming for all ages. Along with a core team of garden leaders, she works to bring about positive social change through educational garden programming as well as coalition building with residents, community organizations, local schools, businesses, and elected representatives; and, she serves on the LA 32/El Sereno Neighborhood Council. Erika holds a BA in community studies from UC Santa Cruz and a master’s in education from the University of Southern California.

Ellah Ronen | Board Member

As a social impact and sustainability professional, Ellah is adept at creating and managing strategic initiatives that leverage funding to create meaningful change for our most vulnerable residents. Prior to DoGoodery, Ellah was with the California Community Foundation, as Senior Program Officer, Public Policy & Strategic Partnerships, where she co-chaired the creation of the unprecedented Los Angeles County Food Equity Round Table – ratified by the LA County Board of Supervisors.  Ellah also served as Strategic Liaison to the LA County Center for Strategic Partnerships and was a Managing Funder of the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative. As a Program Officer at the Annenberg Foundation, she led LA n Sync, a coalition of changemakers united to attract government and private funding to LA County which has resulted in over $300M of investment to Los Angeles’ most underserved areas. 

Ellah has a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of CA, Santa Barbara and an MBA from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Omar Brownson | Executive Director

Inspired by land and storytelling, Omar is building a gratitude ecosystem and regenerative economy. He takes an entrepreneurial approach to tackling large-scale challenges, particularly at the intersection of nature and culture. His work has been featured by Simon Sinek, the Wall Street Journal, and on Oprah.com.

Omar is a frequent guest speaker, has held hundreds of gratitude circles, co-hosts the Gratitude Blooming Podcast and is the executive director of the Los Angeles Community Garden Council, which serves 47 community gardens and has more than 2,000 members.

Previously, Omar co-founded a highly-rated gratitude app which included mindfulness teachers and cultural pioneers such as Jack Kornfield and George Takei. He was also the founding executive director of RiverLA where he collaborated with renowned architect Frank Gehry and local leaders to reimagine the 51-mile Los Angeles River as a public resource and ecosystem. He spearheaded the Greenway 2020 campaign which secured $430 million in funding to complete the LA River bikepath and launched the innovative $10 million LA River Master Plan.

Omar is an advisor to Full Spectrum Capital and the Ubuntu Climate Initiative, and serves on the board of Commonweal, focused on healing hearts and healing the planet. He has a joint master’s degree from Harvard Kennedy School and Graduate School of Design. In a new series of conceptual art and poetry projects, Omar has also collaborated with, among others, Zen Master Norma Wong, MOCADA and the Japanese American National Museum. Wherever he is, Omar makes sure to take a beat to notice beauty and share his joy.

You can read more about his journey at Oprah.com/fearlessgratitude.