LaLa Gardens Cooperative

Christina Trout
Founder, Original Steward
Tina is the founder of LaLa Gardens, and stewarding it to become LaLa Gardens Cooperative. She had a long running farmers’ market business in support of farmers with a local sourced food-line carried by over 300 retail shops and within a farmers’ coop we formed. She grows food, and is a permaculture practitioner in things to do with the garden and social design. She is a Natural Farmer, practicing JADAM, a sophisticated system of reinoculation with indigenous micro organisms (IMO). She can dive deeply into observational based citizen science, having practiced to know within my own environments. She has made many things including wreaths, jewelry and art prints. She designs, hand-prints and sews clothing, selling them on the streets, in craft-fairs and later in stores. She is a published writer of creative non-fiction and poetry. She has learned principally it’s through observation first that we come to know Nature's systems and laws, and that it is mimicking practice which brings us into direct relationship and able responsiveness. She has observed we are a part of nature and as natural systems within ourselves, operate to our full potential in balance with Nature. As Steward, she steps into her truest self, prepared for the work at hand. The work she was born to love.LinkedIn


Sydney Harvey Griffith
Cooperative Manager
Syd is a founder of Regen Garden, empowering artists, good causes, and collectors by aiding them in their collaborative creation and adoption of NFTs that drive change and build community. Syd is also the founder of Permatours, bringing actionable crews & future-focused communities together with hands-on-deck permaculture & sustainable construction-focused volunteer-driven support. She is a social-impact-oriented entrepreneur, community organizer, and event producer focused on equity, inclusion, and the regeneration of our planet. She is a net-weaver, passionate about bringing together catalysts for action, driven to use their gifts to serve humanity and the planet at large.LinkedIn


Leah Gibbons
Interim Board Director
Dr. Leah Gibbons is a cultural creative and regenerative catalyst supporting shifts to thrivability in individuals, communities, and beyond. Leah contributes expertise in regenerative development and design, community development, ecological design, sustainability, planning, integrated design, holistic health, coaching, consulting, education, spiritual practices, research, and science-practice and science-spirituality integration. Leah holds a PhD in Sustainability from Arizona State University; MS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Tennessee; BS in Biology and Anthropology from Vanderbilt University; and Certifications in Regenerative Development and Design, Ecological Design, Sustainable Community Design, Permaculture Design, Holistic Health, Integrative Nutrition, Coaching, Wetland Delineation, and Prescribed Burn. She is also trained in energy medicine, functional medicine, herbology, and consciousness medicine. Leah is the Director and Founder of Regenerative Living Institute (ReLI), a 501(c)3 working to create regenerative individuals, communities, cities, and regions through living-learning laboratories. She is also of Director and Founder of Koru Collaborative, a regenerative development, design, and consulting firm. She is also a spiritual facilitator and guide at Shamanic Church, a spiritual organization devoted to helping people connect deeply to their true nature as spiritual beings.LinkedIn


Neil Takemoto
Interim Board Director
Neil has a 30-year vocation in regenerative development. He is co-founder of Regen Living, a decentralized organization developing prototype regenerative buildings and neighborhoods (catalyst hubs), and global ecosystems that enable any neighborhood to co-create their own using their own currency. He is a steward of the Regen Civics Alliance, supporting 13 place-based pilot projects in regenerative development around the world. He is a member of the Burning Man Diversity Forum, developing a new standard of racial inclusion and catalyzing a global multicultural neighborhood for persons of color at Burning Man 2022. As co-founder of CSPM Group, he developed the practice of crowdsourced placemaking (CSPM) that integrates mutualistic community organizing with triple-bottom-line placemaking. This included onboarding 10,000 residents in the revitalization of several downtowns with developers, investors and municipalities. He is the founder of Collective Impact Lab, a crowdsourced placemaking news site featuring over 1700 entries dating back to 2003. In 1997 he founded the National Town Builders Association, the only business trade group of Smart Growth/New Urbanism real estate developers that thrives today. Prior to that, he founded a national nonprofit educational clearinghouse for the New Urbanism field.LinkedIn


Letty Prados
Board Advisor, Legal Counsel


Letty has a 15-year expertise in impact entrepreneurship and mission driven organizations. Initially as a founder, she led startups in the purpose-driven work and gamification verticals under global networks such as Explorer and The Founder Institute, where she also became a mentor. Her passion for technological development benefiting humanity led her to consult for the XPrize Foundation in the affordable housing roadmap, and for Bridge for Billions and other social innovation-led platform organizations within the Impact Hub brand internationally. She is now focused on ReFi, Token Engineering and blockchain applications for growing intentionally conscious communities and on the ground regenerative developments. Before that, she was a licensed lawyer in the Madrid Bar Association advising in corporate and labor law, and later a research consultant in a big media company in London, where she gained a MA in European and International Studies at King’s College London. She also completed the first accredited executive programme in Cryptoassets and Blockchain from the London School of Economics. As a certified Yoga Teacher and avid traveler, she has explored many of the world's spiritual traditions both in practice and in ancient knowledge.LinkedIn