Our Team
Erika Allen
Founder & CEO
Allen received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MA in Art Psychotherapy from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She uses her experience as a visual artist to support individuals and organizations in realizing their vision of social and economic changes. She is passionate about social justice and working with multicultural groups in the elimination of racism, related oppressions, and the root causes of poverty by integrating creative and therapeutic techniques alongside food security and community development.
Executive Assistance: execassistant@urbangrowerscollective.org
Erika Allen (she/her) is the founder and CEO for Urban Growers Collective; president of Green ERA Educational NFP; and co-owner of Green Era Sustainability Partners. Allen founded and served as the director of Growing Power – Chicago from 2002 to 2017. She co-founded the Chicago Food Policy Action Council; serves on the board of Grow Greater Englewood and Leadership Council for Growing Home; and is an advisor for the Community Food Navigator project. Allen was appointed to the Illinois Leadership Council for Agricultural Education (ICAE) from 2022-2024. The former Biden administration appointed Allen to the Farm Service Agency Committee for Illinois. She is also co-chair of the Food Equity Council for the City of Chicago.
Lauralyn Clawson
Director of Operations
Lauralyn Clawson (she/her) received her B.A. from Penn State University in Environmental Science. Clawson’s expertise revolves around youth education, urban farming production, hoop house installation, and mushroom production. In addition to her work at UGC, she is an expert in compost policy and co-leads the Licensing and Animal Welfare working groups for the Chicago Food Policy Action Council. Clawson managed the Youth Corps Program for Growing Power Chicago and worked for the organization for 10 years prior to its closing in 2017.
Malcolm Evans
Director of Farming
Malcolm Evans (he/him) began as the production manager for Urban Growers Collective in 2017, and previously worked as the director of farming in program assistant at Growing Power, Inc. Evans began his farming career at the age of 9, when Growing Power installed the Chicago Lights Urban Farm and Community Garden in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood. While still in high school, he began the composting program at Growing Power Chicago, collecting compost from restaurants throughout the city after school and on weekends. Evans began working full-time with Growing Power after graduating from Wells High School, and has expertise in compost management, production, and produce sales.
Brandon Lov
Director of Development and Relations
Brandon Lov (he/him) started at Urban Growers Collective in the summer of 2018 as a seasonal urban agriculture intern. During his internship, he worked extensively at our farms, as well as helping with sales for the Fresh Moves Mobile Market and local farmers’ markets. Since then, Lov has led the fundraising team at Urban Growers Collective, from leading successful galas to stewarding the organization through the massive fundraising needs for emergency food relief in a global pandemic. He graduated from the University of Chicago in June 2019 with a degree in Public Policy and Environmental & Urban Studies.
Keani Staton
Community & Volunteer Coordinator
Keani Staton (she/they) was raised on the South Side of Chicago, and is passionate about working to educate and empower community members with tools to dismantle systems of oppression. Staton believes that when communities share the burden of getting people’s needs met, we can create a world where everyone has access to land; shelter; fresh food and water; and joy.
Staton graduated from Vanderbilt University in June 2021 with a degree in Secondary Education and English Literature, and has worked in the education and nonprofit field to support marginalized youth and underrepresented communities in Chicago. During the summer of 2023, Staton joined Urban Growers Collective as a general farm intern. Since then, they have focused on applying their passions to urban agriculture to build self-sufficient and resilient communities through a relationship with the land.
In their free time, Staton can be found pulling up people’s astrology charts, baking, singing around the farm, or creating through various art forms.
Anthony Fisher
Staff Grower in Training
Anthony Fisher (he/him) began farming at Growing Power Chicago at the Chicago Lights Farm in Cabrini Green in 2007. Anthony spent four years as a Youth Corps member learning all aspects of farming and working with the community through their community garden program. He returned to farming in 2022 as a seasonal grower.
Fisher is interested in learning the tricks of the trade regarding farming and where food comes from. He will pass this knowledge down to his kids because it’s a natural way of living and important knowledge for all people to have. Fisher’s biggest dream right now is to buy his own house and grow vegetables and herbs in his backyard.
In his free time, Fisher enjoys watching sports and going to Dave and Buster’s with his kids.
Rev. Kim Crutcher
Lead Conductor, Herbalism Apprenticeship Program
Reverend Kim Crutcher brings a lifetime of passion and curiosity about plants, nature and the impulse to heal to her role as lead conductor for Urban Growers Collective’s Herbal Apprenticeship program. An Interfaith Minister, educator and licensed mental health counselor (MAPC, LCPC), Crutcher uses the term ‘Conductor’ as a reminder to support and guide apprentices and community members in their personal journeys with herbalism. For more than 20 years, she has shared insight and the creative process as an artist and as a folk healer with those seeking change on multiple levels. Crutcher uses evidence-based therapies, a trauma-informed approach, and culturally sensitive frameworks to offer supportive care for individuals, groups, organizations, and communities. Crutcher discovered her first herbalism book on her Mama Alice’s bookshelf as a kid growing up in rural Tennessee. Since then, she has studied plant traditions from multiple perspectives with many wise teachers ; and she shares the knowledge gained as a community herbalist. She brings over 30 years as a student herbalist to a practice of holistic change-making that privileges liberation, play, investigative urges, gift making, and responsiveness. She’s so glad that the Mysterious Mycelial System that makes things grow with health in unexpected places led her to join the UGC team.
Siobhan Beal
Harvest & Market Distribution Coordinator
Siobhan Beal (she/her) is on the farm/harvest team with Urban Growers Collective. She got her BA in Environmental Studies from Earlham College. She started with Growing Power as an intern and apprentice over the summers of 2012 and 2013. After graduation, she began working full-time with Growing Power farming and working as the education teacher at the pre-school farm. Beal was bitten by the travel bug, and in 2017 left to travel to New Zealand and Australia, working in vineyards, dairy farms, and other odd jobs. She was enthusiastically welcomed back to UGC in 2020, and was ready to get her hands back in the soil and take care of our cute goats!
In her free time, she loves experimenting and learning new cooking, pickling, and baking recipes. Beal also loves climbing, playing with her family’s corgi, and a solid hammock nap.
Saaleha Johnson
Admin Coordinator
Saaleha Johnson (they/them) is the admin coordinator for UGC. They were raised on the Southside of Chicago, where their love of community organizing developed. Saaleha studied Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. They are a fiber artist, and love to crochet garments and accessories. In their free time, Johnson serve as the outreach coordinator for The Reservoir Collective, a mutual aid collective made by and for Black artists.
Darion Crawford
Urban Farmer & Compost Coordinator
Darion Crawford (he/him) has been farming since he was 16. He began his journey with agriculture at Marshall High School in Chicago, where he studied farming, and was chosen to be one of the first 15 year-round students of the Growing Power Chicago Youth Corps in 2006. After graduation, Crawford began working with Growing Power Chicago as a youth corps and adult-job training instructor. Crawford also led workshops nationally for Growing Power in hoop-house and aquaponics construction, as well as large-scale composting.
Crawford left Growing Power in 2014 to manage for Home Depot in Chicago, where he picked up valuable skills in team leadership and development, as well as honing his wise-cracking wit much to the delight of the co-founders (and his original youth corps instructors) at UGC.
Crawford began work with Urban Growers Collective in March, 2020. At UGC, he has taught youth at the Roosevelt Square Youth Farm, as well as assisted with the READI and Grounds for Peace program.
Derrick Patrick
Fresh Moves Mobile Market Purchasing Coordinator
Derrick Patrick (he/him) is the Fresh Moves Mobile Market Purchasing Coordinator for Urban Growers Collective. His background is in community engagement and cannabis advocacy. Patrick received his B.S. in Marketing with a focus on Communications and Finance from the University of Illinois at Chicago. As a former Division I baseball player and home cook, from the West Side of Chicago (Austin), Patrick brings an energy and passion for a health conscious diet and a lifestyle that fosters holistic health. He intends to be a key player in food justice and urban agriculture throughout Chicagoland for the betterment of communities in most need.
Tem Jones
Fresh Moves Mobile Market Sales Associate
Paige Tobin
Education Program Assistant Manager
Paige Tobin (she/her) received her BA in Anthropology/Sociology and Critical Ethnic Studies from Kalamazoo College. She is originally from Battle Creek, MI and has lived and worked in Chicago since 2019.
Tobin enters this work with reverence for community, storytelling, and our shared connection to the land. She uses her background in informal education and program coordination to support the power of informal, collective education among youth and community members as a part of the Farm Program Team.
In her free time, you can find Tobin in her backyard garden tending her tomatoes, playing Ultimate Frisbee, or reading a book. Come by the South Chicago Farm anytime to say hi!
Gina Santana
Farm Administrative Coordinator
Erika Gonzalez-Guzman
Youth Instructor and Grower
Born and raised in Mexico City, Ericka Gonzalez-Guzman (She/Her) is a young Latina immigrant who is passionate about the environment and food justice. As an organizer, she has worked to promote water accessibility and fight for cleaner air quality in the Southwest Suburbs. She is a lifelong learner who believes mistakes can be your most valuable lessons.
Gonzalez-Guzman earned her BA in Environmental Science at Loyola University with a focus on Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture. As a student, she worked as the Lead Program Assistant for Loyola's Urban Agriculture Program. There, she guided indoor and outdoor production of vegetables, mushrooms, aquaponics/hydroponics systems, managed farmers' market logistics, and served as a passionate mentor for other students. She received Loyola's School of Environmental Sustainability's Wangari Muta Maathai Award for exceptional service and dedication to sustainability and social justice.
Currently serving as a Youth Corps Farm Educator at UGC's South Chicago Farm, Gonzalez-Guzman is dedicated to sharing her knowledge of indigenous agricultural practices, building community, and advocating for social and environmental justice with the next generation of youth.
Gabriel Macias
Staff Grower in Training
Gabe Macias (he/him) was raised right here in South Chicago. He first began farming with Urban Growers Collective when he participated in the Youth Corps Program. After graduation, Macias took a year off of farming and returned as a seasonal worker to further his agricultural knowledge, and find tangible ways to support his community.
Macias is passionate about teaching people about the food and herbs UGC grows, the power of nature, and healthy eating. He also stewards the livestock on the farm, and thinks it’s exciting to teach people about our unique farm culture.
In his free time, Macias enjoys listening to Juice WRLD while playing video games, studying biology, and being taught by his wise coworkers.