ASHLEY ATKINSON
she/her
Co-Director, Farm and Market Operations
In addition to supporting the farm and market operations team at KGD, Ashley is responsible for fundraising and organizational learning via research and evaluation. She has worked in the field of community gardening, urban greening, and vacant land reuse for more than 20 years and has provided technical assistance to groups interested in starting or expanding urban agriculture and social entrepreneurship projects all over the world. Her career began in her hometown, Flint, Michigan, where she co-founded the Flint Urban Gardening and Land Use Corporation and developed the Clean and Green program for the Genesee County Land Bank. In 2001, she moved to Detroit to work with Detroit Summer, a program of the Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership and the Detroit Agriculture Network. In 2003 she co-created the Garden Resource Program, in 2009 was an inaugural board member of the Detroit Food Policy Council, and in 2013 co-founded Keep Growing Detroit.
Ashley tends a large family garden with her husband and two dogs in Southwest Detroit. She is a graduate of both Michigan State University and The University of Michigan where she studied International Development, Community Organization, and Environmental/Land Use Planning.