Julia Gloninger – Program Director
Julia Gloninger is an environmental educator, community organizer, an off-grid enthusiast, and nature lover. As the daughter of a Cambodian immigrant, she is inspired by the many different immigrants to the U.S. who grew their own food as a means of survival. Memories of her grandmother’s small but mighty garden in front of her row home in North Philly remind her that when we nourish the earth, she nourishes us back.
Julia decided to study the environment to learn more about the connection between social justice and environmentalism. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental and Urban Studies and her Master’s degree in Environmental Policy at Bard College. During her time at Bard, Julia focused her studies on environmental justice and community organizing, with a specific interest in food and housing justice. This interest led her to The Underground Center, where she now serves as Program Director.
As Program Director, Julia supports the development of infrastructure at Shagbark Farm, grows food for the Saugerties Free Food Program, and runs educational programming with community members. This year, she is leading an Off-Grid Natural Building Workshop Series at the farm geared toward women, POC, and queer folks. Julia also offers gardening, cooking, building and nature programming at the Saugerties Boys & Girls Club, where she is excited to inspire the next generation of environmental stewards.
Julia can be reached at julia@theundergroundcenter.org.
Chase Randell – Founder and Program Director
Chase Randell is an educator, builder, and farmer. His educational foundations are in psychology, history, philosophy, and critical theory. After traveling internationally, teaching at Skidmore College, in Vietnam, and at various schools in the Catskill region of New York, he developed a philosophy of experiential education that aims to build community around a nourishing relationship to land. Chase formalized this theory of education while completing his Masters degree in Humanistic Multicultural Education at SUNY New Paltz.
Chase has spent over a decade putting these ideas and theories into practice while community organizing in the Hudson Valley. Through his collaborative work with the educational community, The Long Spoon Collective, he designed and constructed multiple naturally-built, off-grid structures and seven off-grid mini farms. He also helped develop a cooperative of local community gardens called the Saugerties Food Share.
As program director and co-founder of the UGC, Chase has taught methods of building off-grid infrastructure and food growing techniques to community members of all ages. Over the past five years, Chase has led the development of Shagbark farm, an educational demonstration site where he teaches the community about regenerative farming, natural building, and sustainable forestry. Chase also works at the Boys & Girls Club in Saugerties, New York, where he teaches young people from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds about how to meet their needs with the land.
Chase can be reached at chase@theundergroundcenter.org.
Manny Urias – Free Food Program Facilitator and Shagbark Farm Forester
Bio coming soon!
Desiree Lyle – Building and Housing Justice Advisor and Building Workshop Facilitator
Desirée Lyle is the founder of Simply Sustainable, LLC, a building science-based consulting, education, and energy code and efficiency testing in the Hudson Valley and at Vermont’s Yestermorrow Design/Build School. As a building science consultant, she is particularly attuned to how buildings, their construction, use, and demolition play a role in our natural environment.
It is through that work that she also came to manage Bard College’s Community Sciences Lab at the Center of Environmental Sciences and Humanities. In this position, she brings the resources of academic sciences to research community questions about local air, water, and soil quality.
Desirée is a proud resident of Ulster County and has worked with and served on the board of several locally-focused organizations, such as the Ulster County Workforce Development Board, Ulster County Green Jobs Coalition, Pattern for Progress, the Underground Center, and Communities for Local Power, HomeShare Woodstock, and the Taproot Community Land Trust. She is excited to keep deepening her roots and enriching her community.
Michaela Zayas – Food Justice Advisor and Building Workshop Facilitator
Bio coming soon!