Biography

As a creative curriculum-builder, mindful teacher, and seasoned garden educator, Liana (“Farmer Li”) aims to uplift every student’s unique gift and to assist them in attuning their attention to the aliveness of the natural world. Liana’s classroom is one where students can expect to cultivate curiosity, awe, reverence and a sense of responsibility for all creatures, eachother, and Earth’s dynamic life-support system.

Liana draws on a wide variety of experience within the fields of garden education, youth mentorship for climate justice, farm-to-table cooking, restorative justice, regenerative farming and permaculture design. She envisions the garden as a living laboratory for climate resiliency in which students are drawn to explore, design, craft, play and ponder.

Weaving together experiential curriculum at the intersection of Ohlone indigenous foodways, climate change, social responsibility and nature-based design, Liana is committed to centering place-based education; a form of interdisciplinary learning that immerses students in what is local and unique within the Bay Area’s bioregion.

Liana is an inspired meaning-maker at her core. She finds beauty in writing poetry, creating with clay, cooking with wild foods and archiving oral histories.