Welcome BQLT’s New Executive Director

The Brooklyn Queens Land Trust (BQLT) is pleased to introduce our new Executive Director, DeVonne Jackson Perez (she/her/hers). DeVonne joined BQLT as part-time Executive Director in January 2025. She works with our two dedicated staff members to ensure efficient BQLT operations, administrative systems, and finances. She works closely with the BQLT Board of Directors and with our multiple stakeholders (i.e. gardeners, project partners, funders, consultants, etc.).

DeVonne is a graduate of Cornell University Small Farms Program and Farm School NYC while holding a Masters in Communications and Media Management from New York Institute of Technology. She is the Consulting Director of Brooklyn Supported Agriculture, a worker-owned food cooperative in Central Brooklyn where she develops community relationships, connects NYS Farmers to NYC markets and manages a year round CSA. Her agriculture journey has started as a Farm Manager at 462 Halsey Community Farm to consulting for Catalyst Collaborative Farm in Millerton NY. 

She was previously the Manager of The Center For Healthy Neighborhoods with Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and is also the co-founder of “This Is Good Ground” which is dedicated to cultivating food sovereignty, sustainability, and community resilience. With her newly acquired land of 17 acres, she is creating a custom farming experience to grow local food, educate our community, and steward the land for future generations. Through regenerative agriculture and resource-sharing, she empowers people to reconnect with the soil, refine their voice/ brand and build a just, equitable sustainable food system.

Outside of farming, she has taught on topics of Food Justice, Sustainable Systems, and Urban Agriculture locally at Cornell University, Parsons School of Design and internationally St. Francis School For the Deaf in Kampala, Uganda. She has been recognized for her work in sustainability by The New York Times, Good Morning America, PBS, BET and named 2023 CHNGE Maker of the Year by CHNGE.com.