Guidance, Inspiration & Support
Latashia Mayze-Brimm
Director of the Food System Coalition and Ad Hoc Board Member
Latashia is a loving mother and nurturing grandmother. She was born in Jacksonville, Florida, but she spent most of her formative years in Gainesville, Florida. Latashia is formerly the Executive Director of the Florida Council, Inc., an arm of the National Council for Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Women & Girls, Inc. She is also a Production Assistant for Brooke Brimm Retreats and Culture Advertising & Design. Tashia has been on the board of Grace Grows for several years, led the SE Gainesville Community Food Project, and has experience in homeless services, housing, activism, food access work, working to end mass incarceration, community engagement, and many other areas. Latashia spends time working on two manuscripts about traumatic life experiences and the journey to healing through self-love. Latashia believes in creating change by giving back and being active within the community.
Vonte Shipp
General Board Member
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Porshe Chiles
Board Secretary
Porshe Chiles is a PhD in Agricultural Education, a food justice advocate, and a third generation urban agriculture producer. Her research interests are in the historical and lived experiences of African American farmers and the leadership identities of Urban Farmers. She believes that being in community requires one to walk alongside people at various stages and time points in their lives- that social and food justice is actualized when people dedicate their minds, hearts, and bodies to caring for other people.
Helen Strain
General Board Member
Bio coming soon!
Vonte comes to the board as a North Central Floridian from a multi-generational Black farmer family. He has experience with horticulture, farming, and lived experience with homelessness. Our therapeutic horticulture practitioner and founder first met Vonte when he was unsheltered and spent time with him in the Grace Grows Garden. It has been a privilege to watch Vonte grow and get back on his feet. Vonte brings valuable lived experience to the board, but he is so much more than his lived experience. Despite what he was going through, he devoted a significant amount of time to helping the organization create a garden that would serve as a place of respite for others. He has spent several years volunteering with us, welcoming and guiding both individuals experiencing homelessness and volunteers alike. He treats animals, plants, and humans with equal tenderness and shares his encyclopedic knowledge with anyone lucky enough to work alongside him in the garden on Saturdays. He finds deep strength in his spirituality and his steadfast values rooted in the belief that all people deserve a chance to grow.
Meet Our Team
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Abigail Perret-Gentil
Founder and Director
In 2015, after working in retail horticulture and as an agricultural biotech researcher and business person for over a decade, Abigail began volunteering in her spare time at Gainesville's shelter and housing services center for people experiencing homelessness. Inspired by her own lived experiences and the humanity of people in similar circumstances, Abigail realized that being at Grace was more rewarding than any other work she had done before and that she could use her expertise with startups and agriculture to benefit people denied resources. So, she transitioned to the nonprofit world, starting Grace Grows, where she now serves as the Executive Director. With over 17 years of experience in horticulture and agriculture, Abigail has coauthored manuscripts published in PLOS One and Nature and holds international and national patents for ecologically responsible pest control. She has actively contributed to community engagement by serving as a Community Engagement Director for a low-barrier shelter and coauthoring the GRACE Community Engagement Toolkit. She is trained in horticultural therapy through the University of Florida and humanist by heart, which means that no matter where she is, she loves to help things grow. Abigail's work is grounded in preserving local culture, community enrichment, and ensuring nutritious and accessible food. She takes what she has learned from all the hats she wears to help empower the people Grace Grows serves through the medium of food and horticulture.