become urban farmers and gardeners in order to
help fight food disparities in their communities.
My other involvements include helping plan and orga-
nize the Youth Arboriculture Career Expo (YACE),
bringing awareness to Job Corps programs in Forestry
Conservation and Firefighting with the Society of
American Foresters, participating in various committees
related to urban forestry both locally and nationally,
maintaining my nursing skills through pediatric mental
health facilities, and raising my three daughters. All of
this wouldn't be possible without the support of my
incredible partner, Chieff, and my beloved family.
You asked if there are things I have learned on the job
that I wish I had had training for as part of my education.
I would have loved to have taken a course in quality com-
munity engagement—that's not superficial or extractive.
How to truly engage with property owners and the
public who may have few resources but are curious
about how to contribute. How do we tap into that?
To other young professionals: Your network is your net
worth. It's so important to have relationships with integ-
rity; you get access to opportunities through people
knowing what you're doing. In addition to going to con-
ferences to grow my reach, I look through almost every
single newsletter right down to the end, because some-
times the opportunity for me might be on the very last
page. Sometimes I might even find a small entry about
someone doing research similar to mine and I'll reach
out to open up conversations about it. Read the newslet-
ters, keep up with your LinkedIn, and grow your network!
I went to an online UCFS Young Professionals Meetup
this fall; it was great. They put us into small breakout
rooms and it was so helpful and validating to hear peers
within urban forestry talk about what's going well and
what challenges they've faced in their careers. UCFS is
doing a great job of creating community for people like
me, which makes me even more proud to be a member.
"Here I'm showing the Tree CPR Cohort how to look at different tree forms as an
identification tool." —Kayla Stuart Photo by Hannah Gregory, American Forests
34 CityTREES
