PROGRAM CO-DIRECTOR

Elizabeth started teaching with the NHS in January of 2022, and quickly fell in love with the community and spirit of the program. An urban farmer herself (www.poppycornersfarm.com), Elizabeth has a passion for ecological health and whole-system regeneration. She is an avid hiker and naturalist, and harbors a not-so-secret dream of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Elizabeth earned her B.A. in Environmental Studies from CSU East Bay, as well as Basic Landscape Horticulture and Nursery Management certificates from Merritt College. Previous careers include Volunteer Coordinator for the San Francisco Symphony and Voice-Over Actor. Elizabeth and partner Tom have two 20-something kids, assorted chickens, a cat who thinks she's a dog, and about 30,000 honeybees.

PROGRAM CO-DIRECTOR

Greg has been teaching in the natural history and sustainability program at Merritt since fall of 2022. He currently serves as co-director of the program and teaches biology classes. A graduate of city College of San Francisco (CCSF), Greg’s path, like many community college students, has hardly been traditional. Born and raised in San Francisco, Greg grew up gardening and his backyard and spending time outside, whether camping in the foothills and mountains of California or rowing on Lake Merced. Far from a model student and dissatisfied with traditional educational settings, Greg was motivated to understand the ways people think and learn which lead to his studying philosophy at CCSF. He continued exploring these themes, but focused on systems of belief after transferring to UC Santa Cruz where he majored in philosophy of religion.

After graduating, Greg tried out a bunch of different careers from farming to teaching English as a foreign language, landscaping and garden education. However, teaching and a passion for the natural world were a common thread. Greg attended UC Irvine for graduate studies in plant physiological ecology studying the role of precipitation variability in coastal native plant communities. While at UCI he also spent time honing his pedagogical skills through classes and works shops hosted by the School of Education.

Greg loves to get outside, listen to and play music, build and tinker, and play with his 2 daughters.

FACULTY

Dave Z loves the outdoors! He grew up in Berkeley, roaming the wilds of Tilden Park as a kid, and then farther afield guiding whitewater rivers and climbing mountains. In between adventures, he settled down for a satisfying career working in parks, eventually ending up right back at Tilden where he ran the nature center and Little Farm for many years. In 2020, he retired after 33 years with the East Bay Regional Park District, serving most recently as Interpretive & Recreation Services Manager. Dave has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from UC Berkeley, but he credits the field courses at Peralta Community Colleges for helping propel him towards lifelong work in the outdoors. Dave currently teaches in the NHS certificate program in Conservation and Resource Management.

FACULTY

Clayton has always had a attraction and fascination with the natural world. This habit lead to his profession as a naturalist. After graduating from college with a BA in Drawing and Painting, he landed his first job out of college as a naturalist for Lovelife Environmental Education Program, a small non-profit. Since then he's worked for a number of environmental concerns, including California State Parks, East Bay Regional Parks, and Alameda Resource Conservation District. Currently he is working with the nonprofit Golden Gate Bird Alliance as Youth Program Manager. He has worked as a proponent for the natural world most of his life, and as a professional naturalist for over 20 years. He loves what he does, and is always looking to educate others about the natural world, whether it be verbally, or visually through his art.

FACULTY

Kim specializes in bee landscape habitat analysis and design. Kim is from Edmonds, Washington and is a first-generation college student who finished her PhD and Masters in Geography from UC Davis in 2021. Her thesis assessed patch dynamics and potential landscape fragmentation within the UC Davis Arboretum’s themed gardens, where a combination of fieldwork and GIS mapping analysis showed the Arboretum’s function as novel ecosystems to many of the California’s native bees. Read more about Kim’s research and work at beelandscapes.com. Since 2021, Kim has taught her own Landscape Architecture, Horticulture, and GIS courses at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and Merritt College in Oakland, California. She is passionate about opening her students’ eyes to landscape design and landscape ecology. Kim is intrinsically interested in plants, bees, gardens often, and designs for pollinators all the time. Kim is active and enjoys playing with her two dogs and young son. She also does volunteer work with her dog, Teddy.

STUDENT OUTREACH

Kristy has been heading up our socials (@nhsmerritt) since 2023. Kristy conceived and organized a workshop series that ran from spring 2023-spring 2024; the workshops covered a wide range of subjects and brought lots of new connections to our program. Kristy is also a student in the program, working towards her Urban Agroecology Certificate of Achievement!

STUDENT GARDENER

Kat has been our program's student gardener from May 2024-present. Kat has become an expert composter, mulcher, builder, planter, and harvester. Kat has also earned the title of 'bounty-giver,' as they can be found giving extra produce to every single person on campus! Kat is working towards a certificate in Conservation and Natural Resources.