STAFF
LinYee Yuan
Interim Executive Director
LinYee Yuan (she/her) is an educator, editor, and cultural organizer working at the intersection of food and design. She is a lifelong gardener and believes in the power of tending to land and plants as the greatest teacher of seasonality, environment and place. LinYee is the founder of Field Meridians, an artist collective creating tools for ecological resilience through social practice in Crown Heights. Field Meridians' bi-weekly newsletter interviews gardeners around the neighborhood about their work in that "microseason" as a lens to consider the impact of climate change. LinYee is an adjunct professor at Parsons. Her practice is rooted in conspiring with human and more-than-human neighbors to build relational architectures for liberation.
Domica Roberts
Program Manager
Domica Roberts joined BQLT as Program Associate in 2017, after interning with BQLT in 2016. She has held the Full Time Program Manager position since 2022. In this position, she works to ensure efficient BQLT operations and administrative systems. She works closely with the BQLT Board of Directors to connect with our multiple stakeholders (i.e. gardeners, project partners, funders, contractors, etc.). She implements several programs and manages administrative responsibilities for the organization. Out in the field, she is trained to do the biannual water system turn-ons in spring and turn-offs in fall at our gardens with DEP water systems. Domica completed a Bachelor of Arts in Digital Design at the City College of New York (CUNY) in May 2020. Domica has always loved gardening and learned about food justice and advocacy, as well as how to grow her own food, through a youth program at East New York Farms.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Tiffany Dixon
Board President (2025 – )
Gardener Board Member (2024 – 26)
Tiffany is a lifelong advocate for developing sustainable food systems. Raised by a family of farmers from Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica, she’s always had a passion for food. Post-undergraduate, she served as Food Systems fellow for the Jamie Kirk Hahn Foundation, where she honed her abilities to execute research and development initiatives at Camden Street Learning Garden and Interfaith Food Shuttle, both North Carolina nonprofits with missions to combat food inequality. Tiffany’s journey led her to graduate school at NYU for Food Studies, where her focus spanned researching urban food challenges, entrepreneurship, and digital communication. Tiffany now serves as a Digital Media and Development Strategist, supporting non-profits to amplify their impact. She compliments her skill sets by taking a hands-on approach to community building and volunteering. She serves as St. John’s Renaissance Garden rep and has led its continued revival. She collaborates with food systems experts, donors, and government officials, all which she aspires to utilize in service to BQLT’s Board. She serves on the Finance Committee.
Irene Van Slyke
Treasurer (2024 – )
Gardener Board Member (2024 – 27)
Irene Van Slyke is a longtime environmental advocate and supporter. Since joining BQLT, she has served as BQLT Treasurer, Secretary, Co-Chair of the Bylaws & Garden License Agreement Committee, and maintained active involvement with the Finance, Grants, Events and Operations committees. Irene is a Sierra Club NYC Executive Group Committee member. For the past 40 years, she has been an active member of BQLT’s David Foulke Memorial Garden. She loves growing vegetables in the summer. Irene has been an active member and gardener in the community she lives, and loyal member of BQLT since its inception. She stepped in to serve as Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair during 2024 and continues in this capacity. Irene also serves on the Grants, Personnel, and Youth Internship Committees.
Racquel Forrester
Board Vice President (2023 – 25)
Resource Board Member (2020 – 23, 2025 – 26)
Gardener Board Member (2023 – 25)
Racquel Forrester is an urbanist with a background in community development and urban planning. By day, Racquel is a civic engagement administrator and researcher at NYU where she promotes collaboration between academia and NYU's global community guided by principles of social justice, equity, co-creation, and sustainable urbanism. As a Brooklyn native, Racquel's pursuits are centered around empowering New Yorkers. She's contributed to resident resilience by implementing economic development programs, advocating for community input in land use, and organizing community resilience post hurricane Sandy. Racquel has also consulted with CBOs in organizational development and capacity building. Racquel has a Bachelor’s from Rutgers University and a Master’s in Urban Planning from Hunter College. She chairs BQLT's Property Management Committee.
Maya Kutz
Resource Board Member (2024 – 26)
Maya (she/they) is a young urban farmer born and raised in Brooklyn. With a degree in engineering and a passion for sustainability, she's had a fruitful career so far: gardening, farming, and running hydroponic operations around NYC at Brooklyn Grange and currently at Cornell University Cooperative Extension as Extension Support Specialist. Maya is a well-rounded plant nerd, and she loves geeking out about plants (transpiration is so cool) and trading tips with fellow gardeners. As a resource board member, she is excited to pitch in with building infrastructure projects in the gardens, learn some non-profit bookkeeping, and help to maintain this wonderful organization. Growing our own food in our shared greenspaces is a powerful way to live joyfully and in resistance to the dominant food system. Maya serves as the Operations Committee Co-chair and a member of the Finance and Grants Committees.
Natalia Sucre
Gardener Board Member (2024 – 26)
Natalia is Compost Education and Outreach Program Manager at Big Reuse. A Brooklyn community composter and gardener for fifteen years, Natalia has actively participated in local grassroots food and environmental justice initiatives including the Flatbush Farm Share CSA, Compost for Brooklyn, Sustainable Flatbush, and Q Gardens. A co-founder of Q Gardens, Natalia has served as co-general coordinator and lead compost coordinator since the garden opened. Having grown up in densely urban areas (Pittsburgh; Caracas, Venezuela), she finds the world of community gardening to be a constant revelation. That learning, sharing environment inspired her to become a Master Composter, citizen pruner, and graduate of the BBG Horticulture program and the soil start farm apprenticeship at Earth Matter. Natalia believes in the power of community gardens to foster mutual support between people who might otherwise never speak and to cultivate positive community action. Natalia deeply appreciates BQLT’s stewardship of garden communities and is happy to apply her grant writing, programming, teaching, and community organizing experience to BQLT’s critical work.
Luna Catalan
Gardener Board Member (2025 – 27)
Luna’s interest in community gardens began with a fascination for urban spaces and the stories that emerge where the built environment meets the people existing within it. She has always been drawn to the ways in which people reclaim and reshape public space to meet shared needs. As a data analyst focused on poverty in New York City, she has developed a strong appreciation for how resilience takes shape in neighborhoods, and the critical role that community plays in sustaining public spaces. While serving as a Program Coordinator at Third Space, she led the development of a series on food security, which deepened her interest in food education, waste, and access. There, she saw how community gardens are not just places for plants and animals to thrive, but people too. She has been pushed and inspired by her peers to think deeper about equity, land access, and food justice, and what she wants her role to be. She is excited to continue this journey at BQLT by supporting the important work of stewarding the land she was raised on.
Sandra Watanabe
Board Secretary (2025 – )
Gardener Board Member (2022 – 26)
Sandra loves community gardening for its ability to unite diverse people as well as its vital role in making our city more equitable, resilient, and sustainable. She has been an active community gardener at BQLT’s Hollenback Community Garden as well as two other Brooklyn gardens for many years. As Chair of Grants and a member of the Operations and Property Management Committees, she has raised funds for, managed, and executed numerous BQLT garden infrastructure projects and workshops. She became a Master Composter through the NYC Compost Project, completed the BQLT Citizen Pruner course partnered with Trees New York, and serves as a NYC Parks Super Steward: Care Captain. She is on the Steering Committee for Green Guerillas' Council of Gardeners (2024 – 2025), currently works as Reuse Coordinator / Lavender Field Coordinator at Earth Matter NY, and Co-Coordinates Earth Matter's Heritage Bed Project where she represents Japan. In 2014 she thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail and is a 2000 Miler.
Curtis Flowers
Gardener Board Member (2020 – 26)
Curtis Flowers is a writer and editor who works in educational publishing. He tends to his plants at the Rogers Tilden Veronica Garden in Flatbush, Brooklyn. He’s interested in building camaraderie and working with others to make community gardens inviting and welcoming places where all New Yorkers can relax when they want to trade the chaotic pace of the city for surroundings with an abundance of the natural world to look at and learn from. He thinks the more we know about the living things around us, the more likely we are to care for and about them. Curtis served as BQLT's Operations Co-chair for several years and is currently a member of Operations and Property Management Committees.
Cody Israel
Resource Board Member (2025 – 27)
Cody (they/them) is an organizer, artist, and civil servant. Their work by day includes analyzing the investments for the pension systems of the City of New York. Outside of work, they are president of the Walt L. Shamel Community Garden located on 1095 Dean Street. During the tenure of their presidency, they have coordinated with local mutual aid groups, affinity groups, and community boards to facilitate political education, garden workshops, movie screenings, and other mutual aid efforts to further promote the growth of the Crown Heights community. As an artist, their work uses the wood found in theirs and other gardens to sculpt into objects that explore Black modernism. They are also currently a member of the Parks, Youth, and Education subcommittee of Brooklyn Community Board 8, and will be leading a series of tree mulching projects on Eastern Parkway alongside Big Reuse throughout Spring 2025. Their work across their life dedicates them to their fundamental belief in fostering strong, self-sustained communities. With BQLT, they seek to bridge the knowledge and experience they’ve gathered through the years and connect and support gardens in fostering hyper-local networks of support for the surrounding communities.
Elisa Margarita
Gardener Board Member (2024 – 27)
Elisa Margarita (she/her) is a NYC DOE teacher and educator who deeply cares about environmental stewardship. A six-year Greene Garden member, she sees first hand the impact of green spaces on communities. Her leadership in co-establishing BQLT's first high school internship program, promoting youth engagement in urban conservation, perfectly aligns with BQLT's mission. As a NYC Master Composter, Super Steward, and Street Tree Captain, she actively contributes to the health and well-being of NYC's green spaces. Elisa's contributions further align with BQLT's goals. She actively participates in data-driven urban tree research (Harvard Forest Phenology & Witness Tree Project) and conducts teacher training workshops on citizen science and climate change. Her dedication to community engagement and environmental awareness makes her a valuable asset to the BQLT board. She serves on BQLT’s Operations and Youth Internship Committees, and has also assisted on the Personnel Committee.
Jeanette Waters
Gardener Board Member (2023 – 27)
Jeanette Waters (she/her) is currently involved with Greene Garden. She has been working to improve and beautify the Garden with the help of community members. She has created numerous special events for the community and implemented structures for and with members that allow them to work in teams that hold their interest. She is always looking for creative ways and ideas to sustain the neighborhood garden in a welcoming environment so it will continue to strive. Jeanette is an independent artist. She serves as the makeup artist for the St. Paul Community Baptist Church, where she has taken a leading role on the production team for more than 15 MAAFA dramatizations. Currently a part of the INCARN Ministry, Jeanette is the resident makeup artist at Mount Pisgah Baptist Church, where she has worked on various projects/presentations. She serves on BQLT’s Personnel and Youth Internship Committees.
Matthew Zuras
Resource Board Member (2025 – 27)
Matthew (he/him) has worked as a journalist and editor for more than 15 years, covering the foodways, histories, policies, and movements shaping what and how we eat. Through storytelling, editing, media consulting, and activism, Matthew strives to promote flourishing ecosystems and the communities they sustain. Matthew is currently pursuing a Master of Science degree in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management at The New School, focusing on the intersections of food sovereignty, social justice, and climate change. He completed his undergraduate studies in journalism at CUNY, where he developed a strong foundation in writing and digital media. Beyond his academic and professional work, Matthew is a passionate home cook and enthusiastic amateur student of plants and fungi. Committed to hands-on community engagement, Matthew has previously volunteered with Project Eats, Reading Partners, and Field Meridians, a group dedicated to planning a public food forest in Crown Heights. As a prospective member of the Board, Matthew is excited to support BQLT’s mission to protect urban green space and promote community food autonomy by sharing his skills in communications and research while learning from BQLT’s network of knowledgeable gardeners.
Toni Gary
Gardener Board Member (2025 – 27)
Toni Gary (he/him) is a father and community organizer. Day to day, he spends his time leading the local chapter of Black Men Build, bringing Afrikans together to build a better world. Through his community organizing work, he has experience with canvassing the community, political education, building mutual aid networks, and running food sovereignty campaigns. His love for bettering the conditions of all marginalized people is what fuels his organizing work and involvement in community gardening. Through his board position, he aims to increase the presence of community gardens, especially in underserved communities, and also increase community involvement with the gardens. He currently serves at the St. John’s Renaissance Garden under the wonderful leadership of Tiffany Dixon.
EMERITUS BOARD MEMBERS
Demetrice Mills
Board Member Emeritus
Demetrice Mills is a Business Information System Specialist who retired from JPMorgan Chase after 25 years of service. A member of BQLT since 2006, he has served as BQLT Treasurer, Secretary, and Board President (2010–2014), and has chaired BQLT’s operations committee for over 11 years. Demetrice participated in the rewrite of BQLT’s bylaws, constitution, and garden license agreement. In addition, he has served on BQLT’s communications, events, finance, and grants committees. In addition to his work with BQLT, Demetrice is a member of the NYC Clean Soil Bank, Cornell University Cooperative Extension Healthy Soil Advisory Committee, and Land Trust Alliance Ambassador Committee, as well as a board member of the Land Trust Alliance New York Advisory Board and the American Community Gardening Association.
Irene Van Slyke
Board Member Emeritus
Irene Van Slyke is a longtime environmental advocate and supporter. Since joining BQLT, she has served as BQLT Treasurer, Secretary, Co-Chair of the Bylaws & Garden License Agreement Committee, and maintained active involvement with the Finance, Grants, Events and Operations committees. Irene is a Sierra Club NYC Executive Group Committee member. For the past 40 years, she has been an active member of BQLT’s David Foulke Memorial Garden. She loves growing vegetables in the summer. Irene has been an active member and gardener in the community she lives, and loyal member of BQLT since its inception.
COMMITTEES
Executive Committee, Chaired by VP Tiffany Dixon
Communications Committee, Chaired by Natalia Sucre
Finance Committee, Chaired by Irene Van Slyke
Grants Committee, Chaired by Sandra Watanabe
Nominations Committee, Chaired by Meg Fellerath
Operations Committee, Co-chaired by Maya Kutz and Natalia Sucre
Personnel Committee, Chaired by Jeanette Waters
Property Management Committee, Chaired by Racquel Forrester