We grow great food, farms and farmers!
Our Staff
Margaret Morgan-Hubbard, Founder and CEO: A seasoned social justice organizer, educator and environmentalist, Margaret Morgan-Hubbard has a fertile mind practiced in translating ideas into action. Margaret is committed to mentoring young people in creating meaningful and purposeful lives, and to finishing the equity work her generation began, but lost track of. She is particularly interested in providing venues and opportunities for diverse groups of people to collaborate together toward a better, more peaceful and just world that respects Mother Nature. She is firm believer in thinking globally and acting locally, and manifesting the change she wants to see in the world: one farm, one farmer, one kholrabi and carrot at a time.
Contact: MMH@ecocityfarms.org
Kayla Agonoy, Deputy Director : Kayla graduated from Salisbury University with a degree in Biological Sciences. During her time at Salisbury, she became interested in nutrition and the food justice movement. When she decided to become a pescatarian, she became even more aware of the consequences of what we choose to eat on an individual and global scale. Kayla has long been connected to the two towns where our farms are located and calls this area home. She is a graduate of nearby William Wirt Middle and Bladensburg HS. She was introduced to urban farming during her apprenticeship at the Edmonston farm. Since then she has joined our staff and now runs ECO’s signature SEED2FEED Summer Youth Program.
Contact: Kayla@ecocityfarms.org
Benny Erez, Director of Urban Agriculture and Compost Guru: After years working in an academic setting doing agricultural research,Benny Erez brings knowledge of theoretical and practical farming technology to ECO City Farms. He is passionate about the need to wean ourselves off the gas-guzzling commercial fertilizers and replace them with sustainably produced compost. His experience with composting technology comes from years of managing the University of Maryland Central Maryland Research and Education Center Compost Facility and visits to Austrian compost enterprises. Benny’s first-hand knowledge of the power of community comes from his experiences growing up on a Kibbutz in Israel. He recognizes that the human race is facing many environmental challenges and that local, sustainable food production is a key part of the solution.
Contact: Benny@ecocityfarms.org
Michael Atemnkeng, Lead Farmer at the ECO’s Bladensburg farm, has been farming his entire life. Originally from the Republic of Cameroon, he now lives in Bladensberg, very near ECO City Farms, where he manages the food production areas. A cocoa and coffee farmer in Cameroon, he now grows every kind of North American and African vegetable he can at ECO City Farms with considerable skill and grace. He is a recent graduate of our Beginning Farmer Training Program which he took to learn more about chemical free, climate-smart, sustainable farming practices and composting geared to our Mid-Atlantic soils and climate. For this project, Michael will co-teach the hands-on portions of the program.
Maddie Ramey (Coordinator of Farm Education and Training) (she/her), a 2018 graduate of ECO’s Beginner Farmer Training Program, is excited to return to co-coordinate the BFTP. For the past three years, she’s worked year-round as a team member of Owl’s Nest Farm in Upper Marlboro, MD, growing a wide variety of produce for markets in MD and DC. Prior to farming, Maddie worked as a program coordinator for a farmworker rights organization in DC. She believes healthy, accessible, and sustainably grown food is a human right, and that it’s crucial for communities to come together to share knowledge around, and advocate for, the growing of such food. She knows it’s wrong to pick favorites but garlic, tomatoes, and hot peppers are her favorite things to grow.
Contact: Maddie@ecocityfarms.org
Tolu Igun (Beginning Farmer Training Program Co-Coordinator) (she/they) was first introduced to the urban agriculture movement in 2013 in Detroit where they were born. But it wasn’t until 2020 that Tolu committed to a career in farming wholeheartedly after fulfilling an internship with a free public garden at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then relocating to the nation’s capital. Tolu has been distributing, growing and having the most wonderful conversations about food in the community since and hopes to continue to do so for years to come.
Tolu graduated from ECO’s BFTP in 2021 and is honored to return and give back to the same program that’s helped them become the farmer they are today. Tolu is also the founder of OlaLekan (oh-lah-lay-khan) Farm, a Black owned farm startup based in NE DC and Prince George’s County, MD, and a land advocacy fellow with the National Young Farmers Coalition advocating for more fair, equitable and just policies in the 2023 Farm Bill.
Contact: tolu@ecocityfarms.org
Jon Berger, Incubator Farm Manager, grew up in Silver Spring, and has been living in DC since graduating from the University of Maryland in 2011 with a degree in political theory. After several years in the non-profit world organizing college students around dining hall supply chains, he has spent the last 6 years working at farms, restaurants, and as a high-school wrestling coach. In the past six seasons, he has spent time growing vegetables, herbs, flowers, microgreens, and livestock. He is passionate about cooperative business development, land access, and environmental justice.
Contact: Jon@ecocityfarms.org
Jocelyn Tidwell, Incubator Farm Researcher. Jocelyn , M.Ed, joins our staff after six seasons of full-time farming, following several years spent teaching and earning her Master’s in Adult Education from Seattle University. She has traveled extensively, working internationally as a curriculum design consultant (Ecuador), program evaluator (Italy), sailor (Greece), and English language instructor (Bahrain). She is excited to help launch the Watkins Park Incubator Farm. An accomplished educator and farmer, she is happiest when surrounded by cups of hot tea, spreadsheets, cats, soil and seeds.
Contact: Jocelyn@ecocityfarms.org
Thomas Fazio, Compost Manager. Native to Prince George’s County, Thomas grew up 10 minutes from ECO City Farms. After graduating from Elon University in 2017, Thomas spent a year working and traveling abroad where he found his passion for organic farming. While employed by local food scrap recycling company, Compost Crew, Thomas worked as project manager on the first farm to table to farm composting system in Montgomery County. Thomas is an MDA Certified Composting Facility Operator, former farm apprentice and trainee in the 2022 BFTP and current compost manager.
Contact: Thomas@ecocityfarms.org
Maribel Rodriguez, Community Nutritionist Partner: Her calling is to simply offer natural healthy alternatives to everyday nutritional needs and to show you the many health benefits that local vegetables, fruits and herbs offer. She is available to provide nutrition and herbal consulting, cooking classes, and workshops on holistic nutrition and medicinal herbs. Maribel makes her own herbal products, which include award-winning salves, tinctures, infused oils, soaps, and other herbal home and body care products. Maribel holds a MS in Nutrition and Integrative Health and a Masters Certificate in Herbal Studies from Maryland University of Integrative Health. She is also a retired U.S. Army Officer, an herbalist tutored by her grandmother, and is Board Certified Holistic Nutritionist. She holds a Health Coach Certificate from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and is Gluten-Free Certified Practitioner. She loves to help people find the right medicinal herb & botanical blend to enhance their level of health and wellness. She will teach you how to incorporate wholesome local foods and herbal remedies as part of a holistic approach to vibrant health.
Contact: Magherbs@gmail.com
