THE STEERING COMMITTEE

Jo Ayuso (she/her)

Founder and Director of Movement Education Outdoors and a project coordinator for PVD Tree Plan. 

Leandro Kufa Castro (he/him)

Tree planter and tree planting planner with a passion for creating jobs that help to take care of our urban forest. Outreach, Recruitment & Leadership Coordinator w/ Building Futures.

Jonah Dunston

A.J. Elton (he/him)

AJ was the City Forester & Director of the Forestry division for the Providence Parks Department through October, 2023. He continues to focus professionally on urban forestry in Rhode Island, and is excited to continue to lend his urban forestry expertise to supporting Providence’s urban forest and the PVD Tree Plan.

Tonay Gooday-Ervin (they/them)

Dagotee. Shi Tonay Gooday-Ervin gunste. Ndee nishłe hi’kee Taino. Adanełt’e’i yushdezhi dischii bikoh. Hat’i’i itsah iyaa’aiye. Shitah hee hi’kee shimaa hee Aaron Gooday, Laura Garcia, hi’kee Toni Weeden. Hello my name is Tonay Gooday-Ervin and I am White Mountain Apache on my dads side and I am Taino on my moms side. My reservation is in Arizona but I have spent so much of my life loving and being in relation to the land here in southern New England. Some of my family has deep ties to Providence. I live here surrounded by cousins and relations. I am an artist, arborist, activist and pet parent at large. I use my knowledge as an indigenous person and an arborist to educate and reshape people’s perception of nature and how we relate to it. I believe this knowledge is something we should all have access to, because fostering community happens from the ground up. Besides trees and foraging, my passions are soup, cartoons, giant earrings, dumplings and laughing.

Sarah Hashem (she/they)

Director of Youth Programs with Groundwork Rhode Island and tree planter and steward helping to create a sustainable and equitable urban forest for all of Providence.

Candace Powning (she/her)

Candace began working with PNPP/Providence Forestry in 2018 as an intern through the Society of Municipal Arborists — and this temporary position gradually transitioned into her current role as Program Director. This is particularly special for her, as she has been participating in neighborhood plantings through the program since she was a child growing up in Fox Point. Candace also serves on the board of the RI Tree Council. Her favorite tree species is a Tulip Tree and her favorite time to plant trees is in the fall!

Jordan Schmolka (she/her)

PVD Tree Plan Co-Coordinator; team member for PNPP, and Movement Education Outdoors; committed to building community power towards environmental justice.

Cassie Tharinger (she/her)

Cassie has overseen PNPP’s community-driven tree planting and stewardship programs since 2016, and has lived on the Narragansett, Wôpanâak & Pauquunaukit lands we now call Providence since 2000. Before joining the world of urban and community forestry, Cassie worked for over a decade with community groups, cooperatives, and nonprofits in Rhode Island in the arts and local food system sectors, as well as at small scale holistically-managed fruit tree orchards and nurseries in Rhode Island, Vermont, and Maine. She loves collaborating with communities to plant, care for and learn about trees in our city!