A “core team” of Anchor Garden members work together to coordinate events and resources to help Anchor Gardens achieve its mission.
Anchor Gardens encourages anyone who is interested to join the team! We meet every other Friday via video/audio conference. Please email anchorgardensanc@gmail.com if you would like join us.
Cindee Karns
Cindee is a life-long Alaskan and retired 8th grade teacher. She co-founded Anchor Gardens in 2020. She is a certified permaculture instructor and lives in the state’s only Bioshelter. She and her family try to eat 75% Alaskan. Cindee connects gardeners to their coaches and connects with partners who are working on the same goals. Cindee feels that making Alaska more food secure should be a top priority for everyone who lives here.
Theresa Brown
Theresa has been gardening in Alaska for 20 years. She previously worked for Bioneers of Alaska where she was first introduced to the concept of permaculture. She went on get a certificate in permaculture and helped start the Anchorage Permaculture Guild and Anchor Gardens. She uses permaculture’s regenerative practices to grow a full and healthy garden. She manages the demonstration garden at I Street, where she grows food for herself and to sell at the Spenard market in the summer.
Kristi Wood
The Wood family has been urban fardening (farm + garden) for about twenty years in Nunaka Valley, where they grow most of the food they eat.
Lindsey Hajduk
Lindsey serves as the Director of Community Engagement at NeighborWorks Alaska (Anchor Garden’s fiscal sponsor!). Though Lindsey has been gardening for over 10 years, she still counts herself as a beginner learning from the Anchor Gardens network.
Margaret Timmerman
Margaret has gardened for 30+ years. Her gardening style has changed (some would say improved) over the years from conventional to organic methods.
Anne Freitag
Anne is a retired librarian with over ten years having fun with gardening. She has an interest in history, particularly daily life in pre-industrial societies (which can overlap with sustainable living ideas). She also does lots of crafty things.
Vanessa Rathbun
Vanessa is a life long Alaskan and has been into food gardening for the past 6 years. She likes to find more sustainable solutions, interested in the science behind soil health, and definitely enjoys growing and preserving her own food. She uses her tech and graphic design skills to help out Anchor Gardens communication needs.
DeShana York
Larissa Wright-Elson
Karen Gonne-Harrell
Karen grew up in Homer. Her family had a very large garden and root cellar. Lots of memories weeding and harvesting and going into the root cellar in winter. She moved to Girdwood in 1976, dug up her front yard and had 12 cubic yards of top soil brought in. She began experimenting with growing herbs and squash along with the standard cold weather veggies. Each year she learned more about water conservation and weed suppression. Those first 6 summers she had to haul water in 5 gallon buckets!! Always working on organic ways to garden. She moved to Anchorage in 1989 and has continued to grow food and flowers. In 2015, she bought her current home and now has cherry trees, strawberries and raspberries along with raised garden boxes for veggies, AK wild flower beds and a small greenhouse. She took a composting class in Palmer in 2019 and a 10 week permaculture Zoom class during Covid.
In 2021, she discovered Anchor Gardens! She has been the Anchor Gardens FairView coach for the past 2 years. She is also the FairView Community Council Community Garden lead.