Who We Are
Jo Ayuso
Founder/Executive Director
Joann “Jo” Ayuso (she/her) is a community collaborator who practices hands-on healing, poetry, love for food and the outdoors with emphasis on social justice, honoring ancestors and undoing negative perceptions of the out- doors and wellness. She has been working as a self-care educator for 21 years and holds an MS in Exercise Science and Physiology. Working in health care, fitness, education, and within prison systems has shaped her communication as well as her desire to work in community with Black and Brown farmers and youth. Jo spends her days organizing Movement and Education Outdoors, a youth outdoor experience program, supporting community-based organizations in understanding inclusion and equity, and uniting with educators and leaders of color to increase access to health and wellness in the education system for low-income, Black, and brown students in Rhode Island.
Jeffrey Yoo Warren
Educator & Curriculum Writer
Jeffrey Yoo Warren (he/him) is a Korean-american artist-educator, community scientist, illustrator, and researcher in Providence, RI, who collaboratively creates community science projects which decenter dominant culture in environmental knowledge production. He hosts participatory projects, runs workshops and gives talks on culturally situated making, collaborative practice, and community science. Jeff is a board member of Culture², a member of AS220 in Providence and served three terms on the Open Source Hardware Association board since 2014. In 2010, he co-founded Public Lab, a community science network and non-profit dedicated to democratizing science to address environmental issues that affect people. After 10 years as Director of Research, he stepped down in 2020 but continues to lead and mentor Public Lab’s program for diversity, equity, and inclusion in software and technology.
Jenny Li
Educator & Curriculum Writer
Jenny Li (she/her) was born and raised in Queens, NY where she grew a love for community-led justice, popular education, and environmental justice. Since 2016, Jenny has been teaching in Providence and she is currently an advisor at The Met High School. As a former student activist, Jenny remains an advocate for youth leadership and continues to support movement work in varying capacities.
Reina Thomas
Educator & Curriculum Writer
Reina Thomas (she/her) hails from Columbus, Ohio, where she was born and raised. She resides and has taught in Providence, Rhode Island for the past eight years including completing a Masters in the Art of Teaching (MAT) program at Brown University. As a first-generation college student and product of inner-city Columbus Public Schools, Reina sought experiences beyond her school district through summer enrichment programs where she encountered students from different backgrounds and began to recognize the disparities and inequalities that exist across education systems. These experiences sparked Reina’s interest in educational justice and equality and ultimately led her to become a teacher. As an educator, she has served as Head of the History Department at the Wheeler School, an advisor of the Black Affinity and Debate while at Wheeler and Milton Academy. As a teacher and curriculum designer, she incorporates the histories of BIPOC, LGBTQ, and immigrant experiences into US and World history narratives as a way of decolonizing curricula toward anti-racist perspectives. Reina is committed to her role as a life-long learner who continuously develops her practice, expands her knowledge of the past, and contributes to historical methodological practices.
Jordan Schmolka
Operations Manager
Jordan Schmolka (she/her) grew up in the lower Hudson Valley on Lenapehoking, the ancestral territory of the Lenape people. She’s passionate about cultivating spaces to access and exchange place-based knowledge and build community power for environmental justice. In the past, she’s worked with the Haida Gwaii Museum at Kay Llnagaay, Artspace New Haven, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, and the Indigenous New Hampshire Collaborative Collective. As a white, Ashkenazi settler living in a gentrifying city on unceded Indigenous land, Jordan believes in the power of attention to place and position to reveal our relationships and responsibilities to the other people and beings that share the land with us. She also loves word games, the color yellow, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. :-)