This is who we are: The Board & Advisors
Richard Himelfarb
Chair
Richard Himelfarb is professor of political science at Hofstra University. He teaches classes in American politics, Congress, the Presidency, public policy, and the politics of American health care. He is excited to employ his knowledge of organizations in both the private and public sector to facilitate partnerships between GTCG and the Bay Shore community. Richard is an active member of Bearfoot Yoga in Bay Shore and is interested in spreading its ethos further through his work with GTCG.
Gina Lee
Treasurer
Gina Lee is the owner and operator of Bearfoot Yoga & Wellness Center located in Bay Shore, NY. Bearfoot was born from her desire to deepen her own path towards creating a more meaningful life. Bearfoot was established in May of 2012 and has steadily grown to support a community of over 300 regular practitioners. Gina has a 500Hour YT Certificate from the Dharma Mittra Yoga Center, NYC. Since wellness is the other "half" of Bearfoot, the Growing Together Community Garden project was a natural step towards developing and supporting the community and its access to sustainable healthy food.
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Previous to Bearfoot, she worked as a graphic designer for Penguin Publishing Co, designing childrens' books for eight years. She has two sons now aged 16 and 13. Gina is a native of Long Island and has lived here her entire life.
Sue Tibke
Secretary
Sue Tibke is a life long gardener who is passionate about food and how it is a vital part of healthy communities. Sue is a Long Island native and has been connected to the local community for over 20 years. In addition to local gardening, Sue represents the social justice branch of Growing Together through her deep knowledge and skill in Non-Violent Communication (NVC). With gardening skills, knowledge of the local gardening "scene" and NVC we are excited to have a farm that not only grows good food, but can also grow sustainable human relationships.
Lenore Garcia
Lenore Garcia - As a Lieutenant for the FDNY Lenore, or JoyT as we call her, has served the communities in NYC since 2002. Through her service, she has witnessed first-hand the combined impacts of poor nutrition, lack of health awareness and the specific communities bearing the brunt of insufficient access to affordable good food. The ability to directly serve others in addition to the opportunities to aid in increasing awareness for health and wellness continue to motivate her work in civil service. GTCG benefits from Lenore’s knowledge of public safety, medical care and people skills gleaned throughout her career in a fast paced, team centric and high stress environment. Yoga is one of her passions that serves as a conduit for many ventures, including GTCG in which she looks forward to working with local communities seeking viable alternatives for increased health and wellness.
Drew Goodwin
Founder & Director
Drew Goodwin is the Founder and Director of Growing Together Community Gardens. He is continually inspired to do this kind of work due to his passion for building and living in community with other people while also living in harmony with Nature. Drew has over 25 years of experience working in the commercial mushroom industry with a broad range of roles and responsibilities. From working in a research lab developing biological forms of pest control, to testing computer controlled growing climates, to facilitating management groups through production process analysis, to facilitating other groups through the conflict resolution process.
Drew's experience includes working with Gina as her business partner to start Bearfoot Yoga and Wellness Center. His focus was to set up and maintain infrastructure such as customer database, enrollment, online transactions, book keeping, payroll and just about anything else necessary to operating a yoga studio.