Margaret believes everyone benefits when we take on troubling issues in our most challenged communities. She came of age in Detroit questioning systems that offer

Ellen came to SCLT in 2021 as a TerraCorps service member and fell in love with the work immediately. She spends her mornings at City Farm as Rich Pederson’s wonder twin, getting grounded

Kakeena grew up in the South Side and recently returned to Providence after living in New York, and more recently, in Vermont. She studied at the Institute of Culinary Education in NY, and has worked in the food sector for most of her career, including training others in mixology, service skills and food safety.

Andrew came to SCLT in 2015 after working at local community organizations and on area farms. He counseled students at the Community College of Rhode Island and later taught adult ed at Progreso Latino, where his Spanish-speaking skills were deepened.

Marcel joined in January 2024 as SCLT’s Grants & Communications Manager, bringing more than 10 years of experience in nonprofit development, grant writing, and fundraising and today serving as Development Director. Marcel graduated from Western Michigan University with a master’s degree in Public Administration, minoring in Leadership in a Non-Profit Organization. Since then, she’s earned certificates in Leadership credentials from Harvard University, grant writing, project management, budgeting, and marketing design, and she is working toward completing an e-learning academy from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Marcel is a Black Latina woman who is excited to be part of the Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT) team in Rhode Island. She is passionate about building and sustaining local, accessible, and culturally relevant healthy food networks that serve diverse communities across the state. Drawing from her intersectional identities and lived experiences, Marcel brings a unique perspective to addressing food insecurity and promoting food sovereignty.

David Kuma officially joined SCLT staff in July of 2024, after 10 years of agriculture and farming experience. Experience which includes three years of apprenticeship through Southside Community Land Trust and four years running his own farm.

Born in Brooklyn, NY to Haitian and Ghanian immigrants, Dave has lived in many places but now calls Providence home.

With an educational background in sociology, his cultural and lived experiences along with a health scare in 2005 have greatly impacted how he thinks about food systems, health, and wellness.

In his spare time, you can find Dave working on his own garden, enjoying the Rhode Island coast line, or chopping it up about basketball with fellow SCLT staff.

Tammy joined Southside Community Land Trust in June 2023, bringing years of experience to her role as Office & Administrative Manager. Tammy was born and raised in California and Virginia by Korean parents who immigrated to the US in the 1970s. While she has lived in many different places around the world, she finds Rhode Island to be her forever home.

Life has led Tammy to build an array of diverse expertise, though she has always centered a passion for food, community, and wellness in her work. Her other hats include being a mother, a ceramist, a community herbalist, an astrologer, and a somatic movement coach.

Many years ago as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of Kiribati, Rich learned that growing food brings people together. This turns out to be just as true today, in Providence neighborhoods, as it was more than 25 years ago on a remote island in the Pacific.

Raffini has been educating and enlightening young people most of her life. She is a poet, oral historian and playwright, best known as a member of RI Black Storytellers.