Our team
Advisors
Kimberly Brown
Advisor
Graduate of NYC Farm School. Apprentice at Earth Matters as a farm and compost apprentice. Began a thirteen-year volunteer association with Ursula Chance and Sara Katz at NYBG’s BronxGreen-Up. This association has introduced me to the different gardens (community and school) with own their uniqueness and growing techniques in the Bronx.
Shig Matsukawa
Advisor
Shig Matsukawa is a Bokashi educator. He collaborated with Earth Matter in a three way partnership with East Side Community High School from 2010-15, providing bokashi (food scrap fermentation) instruction as part of the students‘ Project Based Learning comparative studies – compost vs. bokashi as soil amendments. In 2012, Shig became a founding Earth Matter apprentice instructor and farm member, teaching our bokashi and drip irrigation topics.
Pablo O. Garcia
Advisor
Pablo joyfully nurtures Earth Matter’s partnership with Urban Assembly NY Harbor School’s Career & Technical Education on Governors Island. As a teacher he sees the Marine Policy Advocacy with Zero Waste production of soil amendment as setting the pace for best practices in the organic waste industry.
Samantha MacBride
Advisor
Dr. Samantha MacBride teaches Urban Environmentalism and Public Management at Baruch College’s School of Public and International Affairs. She has over two decades professional experience in public sector solid waste management and wastewater treatment policy and operations, and has long been a supporter of community composting in New York City.
Kara Napolitano
Advisor
Kara Napolitano is currently the Education and Outreach Coordinator for Circular Services Recycling Facility, the largest Materials Recovery Facility in the country that processes 100% of New York City’s residential metal, glass, and plastic recycling. Through the Circular Services Education Center, Kara hosts thousands of visitors each year, teaching people of all ages how to waste less and recycle right.
Eva Perez de Vega
Advisor
Eva Perez de Vega is an architect, educator, and cofounder of e+i studio; an architecture and design practice based in Chinatown NYC. Eva teaches architecture at Pratt and Parsons, having previously taught at UPenn Landscape Architecture and Princeton School of Architecture. She holds an M.Arch and B.Arch degree from the University of Madrid, School of Architecture (ETSAM) specializing in Building Structures, and has Ph.D. in Philosophy from the New School For Social Research where she previously earned the M.Phil. and certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies. She also has professional choreography and dance training from the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in NY.
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With e+i studio and through academia, Eva advocates for rethinking the human-centric quality of architecture by moving towards a multi-species approach; choreographing spaces and environments that promote aesthetic innovation with ecological empathy. As an exploration of these overlaps, e+i exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2021 and presented at the UIA Congress For Architects in 2023. Her publication, Choreographing Space, brings philosophical thought with her architectural work to address the role of humans in the climate crisis. Moving towards a multispecies practice, she has co-chaired and presented numerous panels on Climate Collectivisms, Ecofeminism, and Animal Ethics.
Esmeralda Herrera
Advisor
Esmeralda Herrera is driven by innovative approaches to creating impact and is passionate about the intersection of business, social impact, and the Bronx. Director of Programs and Community Relations at Communitas America, Esmeralda manages an accelerator in the South Bronx for local social entrepreneurs.
Caitlin Yee
Advisor
Caitlin is a researcher and social worker interested in ending carceral practices that permeate daily life and creating spaces that foster community safety and care. After participating in the Earth Matter Compost and Farm Apprenticeship Program’s fall 2022 cohort, she has continued to grow as a community gardener and composter and has remained an active Earth Matter volunteer event coordinator.
Emily Commer
Advisor
Emily Commer is a nonprofit Development leader with over 17 years of experience in creating and sustaining social impact communities and convening people meaningfully through events. Emily has worked in the international community facilitating international exchange programs that build mutual understanding and foster global connection. She is passionate about community composting and the work that Earth Matter does to provide education, engagement, and leadership opportunities that manifest the power of global social change.
Rhodes Yepsen
Advisor
Rhodes Yepsen is Executive Director of the BPI, North America’s leading voice on compostable packaging. Yepsen’s expertise is on the circular bioeconomy and systems-based solutions, specifically the synergy in solving for food waste and packaging at the same time – to address climate change, ecosystem impacts, and regenerative agriculture. He served on the Board of USCC, as Mentor for the Google Circular Economy Accelerator, on the Advisory Council for the US Plastics Pact, and was an editor and writer at BioCycle magazine.
Mary Ellen Sullivan
Advisor
After participating in Earth Matter volunteer events, Master Composter courses, and other activities, Mary Ellen is a firm believer in the power of composting to help New York City’s zero waste and greenhouse gas reduction goals. Composting also benefits the city through creating green jobs, enriching NYC soil, and helping to reverse environmental injustices. She has worked in the consulting, nonprofit, and oil & gas industries.
Regina Woods
Advisor
Rebecca Fitzgerald
Advisor
Rebecca is the Associate Director for Research & Partnerships at Pratt, where she works in applied climate research, education, and advocacy. She has academic and professional experience as an architect and urban planner working in sustainable design, community engagement, participatory planning, and environmental justice. She has worked in the public and private sectors developing and implementing sustainability and resilience standards for buildings, infrastructure, and open spaces.