Join us for the 2024 Spring Session of On Belonging!

March 13th at 7 PM via Zoom | Erika Rumbley, Co-Founder and Director of The New Garden Society
Erika Rumbley is a Co-Founder and Director of The New Garden Society (TNGS), an organization dedicated to training incarcerated students in the art and science of plants. For over a decade, she has gardened alongside students in Greater Boston prison yards on Monday afternoons. Beyond TNGS, Erika serves as the Director of Horticulture at The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She works with a team of 7 horticulturists to care for the Gardner’s living collection and create perpetually blooming displays in the art museum’s central atrium. A greenhouse grower by trade, Erika is passionate about broadening access to the gifts of the garden and the skills for ecologically sound growing.
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March 27th at 7 PM via Zoom | Doug Sutherland, DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) Consultant, Keynote Speaker, and Summer Camp professional
Doug Sutherland (he/him) is a Black grandson, son, brother, partner, and father. In addition, he works as a DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) Consultant, Keynote Speaker, and Summer Camp professional. Since his first camping trip in 1987, the outdoors has always been a passion. He has introduced the outdoors and environmental education to 3rd graders through high school and beyond. As an ECO-ACT Program Educator at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis MO. (a program original funded by the Desegregation Program), he brought together city and county high school students to teach leadership and environmental science to elementary school in the area. Moving to New Hampshire in June of 1999, Doug continued to follow the path of working with children in the outdoors. Working at 6 different camps and outdoor education center, Doug learned, grew, and honed his skills in the outdoors. As a Black person in rural New Hampshire, “belonging” is an assumption for some and unattainable for others. An assumption of safety is not actually safe. Also, it is only unattainable if you choose to not attain it. Doug’s mission as a father and DEIB Consultant is “To Stand Up, To Speak Up, and Do Something” and foster and nurture belonging in all spaces, especially the outdoors.
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Spring 2024 sponsorship by:
Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area
The Ogden Codman Trust