Contact

Contact

We’d love to hear from you!

Want to get involved with POP? Have questions about our programs or resources? Want to know more about how to donate? You’ve come to the right place! Please contact us via email with your questions (info@phillyorchards.org, or specific contacts listed below). If you are a community member that wants to learn more about co-teaching a workshop with POP, please contact Corrie Spellman-Lopez via the email below or send a DM on Instagram.

Would *you* like to hear more from *us*?

  info@phillyorchards.org  The Woodlands, 4000 Woodland Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Staff Directory

Phil Forsyth

Co-Executive Director

Phil has led the Philadelphia Orchard Project's core programs since our first plantings in the spring of 2007 and loves to share his passion for growing fruit and perennial crops with everyone. As Co-Executive Director, he works with staff to design, plant and support orchards, coordinate volunteers, lead educational programs, and oversee development of new infrastructure. Phil has twenty years of experience in urban farming, gardening, and landscaping and holds a BS in Horticulture and Landscape Design and certificates in Permaculture design and teaching. In 2017, Phil received the first ever Mary Seton Corboy Award for Public Horticulture from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

Kim, a white woman in a POP t-shirt and flannel, smiles and reaches towards a persimmon

Kim Jordan

Co-Executive Director

Kim has been involved with POP since it was formed in 2007, first serving as a volunteer while in grad school, then as a Board member from 2009-2016. She joined POP's staff as Development Director in January 2019, and has served as Co-Executive Director since October 2019, helping POP grow its programs, staff, and impact. Kim moved to Philadelphia in 2004 to pursue a PhD in Immunology from the University of Pennsylvania, completing her dissertation on food-borne parasites in 2010. It was through planting and tending trees in community orchards across Philadelphia with inspirational community groups and growers that she grew to love the city and decided to call it home. Outside of POP, Kim appreciates the many opportunities the city offers for civic engagement: she is a 2017 graduate of the Citizens Planning Institute; a member of the Riverwards Area Democrats; and since 2018 has been active as a Democratic committee person in the 31st Ward. In 2023 she joined the Board of Directors of Norris Square Neighborhood Project.

 

A Black person in coveralls and a bright orange hat stands in a snowy meadow

Sharon Appiah

Orchard Director

Sharon has been a volunteer for various local farms and community gardens since relocating to Philadelphia in 2018. In the summer of 2020, Sharon worked with Soil Generation as a part of the Farm Brigade, assisting and learning under the guidance of Black-led community gardens across the city. Sharon is eager to use the knowledge they learn working with POP to expand their farming journey, lend a hand in providing food for the community they love to call home and most importantly, share skills with others who are also curious, passionate and empowered by learning how to grow food. Sharon has been leading the efforts to grow annual crops at the POP Learning Orchard since 2022, and sharing their new-found passion for maple tapping with the POP community.

Corrie Spellman-Lopez

Education Director

Corrie joined the POP team in 2021, bringing with them over ten years of working to connect people with plants, and now serves as Education Director. Corrie loves to grow food with others as an act of celebration. She holds a BA in Peace and Social Justice from Berea College and a Certificate in Ecological Horticulture from the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at UC Santa Cruz. Corrie previously managed educational garden spaces in Philadelphia and diversified organic production farms on the West Coast.

A woman wearing a green coat, boots and glasses, smiles while crouching down on a bale of hay

Simone Shemshedini

Orchard Coordinator

Simone, a transplant from Michigan, had her sights on POP since moving to Philly and began helping out in 2021 as an orchard intern supporting orchards in North/Northwest Philly. Since her early days, she's always had dirt under fingernails and that's how she likes it. Simone has dabbled in horticulture since high school, having worked with a few small farms, Anna Scripps Whitcomb Plant Conservatory in Detroit, a natural areas management crew, a few landscaping crews, and most recently, with Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. She also started a gardening club with Bright Futures After School Program, planting a butterfly garden in the school courtyard with middle schoolers. Having gained deep knowledge about plants, plant maintenance, and restoration over the years, she now wants to focus more on the intersection between people and plants and move in a more environmental justice and food access-focused route. She is currently working towards a masters in landscape architecture at Temple.

Cortina Mallozzi

Fundraising and Communications Assistant

Cortina originally joined the POP team as the Fundraising and Communications Intern in April 2021, and started as Fundraising and Communications Assistant in November 2021. Originally from Binghamton, New York, Cortina served in the US Navy for five years before starting her degree at University of Washington in Seattle. She became interested in learning more about environmental justice and urban agriculture during her time there and is now working towards finishing her degree in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science at Drexel University. Cortina can't wait to learn more about gardening, but most of all she is passionate about helping POP achieve its vision of working with communities to connect and create green spaces in the city of Philadelphia that will provide access to fresh fruit in a sustainable way.

Deja Morgan

Deja Morgan

Community Outreach Coordinator

Deja is a community-based chef and land worker who deeply loves feeding people and dreams of building self-sufficient communities. While studying under Amirah Mitchell (Sistah Seeds) as a Seed Keeping Fellow, Deja developed a profound awareness and understanding of their southern roots. Tending to seeds significant to their Texas upbringing ignited Deja’s curiosity and interest in Black Foodways and the connection of their lineage through food and its stories. In the fall of 2021, Deja created and facilitated an Intergenerational African Diaspora Cooking Class at Life Do Grow Farm in North Philadelphia. This opportunity allowed them to create a safe space for others to learn about cooking resourcefully and build on the practices of their ancestors. These experiences shaped Deja’s belief that knowing how to grow food, feeding each other, and understanding the stories behind our dishes are all tools of collective preservation. Deja is so grateful for the opportunity to join POP, where they will deepen their relationship to growing food and build a stronger connection with the community across Philadelphia.

Carolina Torres

Orchard Coordinator

Carolina "Caro" is an orchard coordinator at POP and works to support sites in North and South Philly as well as translation efforts and workshops. Born in the Maule region of Chile and growing up in Philadelphia they began their relationship with plants at a young age on their family's farm and in local parks. Carolina went to Drexel University, studying international business and researching the destructive impacts of free trade agreements. For the last number of years their work has focused on immigration, labor rights, food policy, and urban land stewardship in Philadelphia. Carolina is a community herbalist and student, currently engaged in herbal mutual aid projects and ecological stewardship education. They enjoy growing perennial herbs in containers, learning about native plants, soil, distillery, and fighting for community control of land.

A man standing in front of plants wearing a t-shirt that reads, in multiple languages: Think more, use less.

Indy Shome

Communications Director

Indy joined POP in 2023 to support critical communication, fundraising, storytelling and educational initiatives to further cultivate POP’s reach and impact. He is interested in regenerative systems for shared humanity, peace, and prosperity. Along with a broad background in communications and media, Indy is an educator and lifelong student of the mind. His diversity of work has included strategic development for community organizations, design for artists, award-winning documentary films, and performing music around the world. Most recently, he led the Digital Media and Sustainability programs at Dobbins Technical High School in North Philadelphia. Born in India and raised across four countries, he moved to Philly in 2017 inspired by the city’s social and environmental justice activism.

Alkebu-Lan Marcus

Orchard Educator
Alkebu-Lan Marcus has made his return as POP Orchard Educator.  Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Alkebu-Lan first got involved with food justice and urban farming in 2015. Through his journey he held many hats and served vital roles within POP and Mill Creek Farm in West Philadelphia. POP has been a big part of his development, with Alkebu-Lan serving as POP Orchard Apprentice, Assistant, and then Director between 2016 and 2022. He has taught a variety of workshops on biochar and other soil building practices.  In his current role, Alkebu-Lan provides support and training to city orchards, with a focus on the POP Learning Orchard at the Woodlands.

Amanda Fury

Finance & Operations Coordinator

Amanda moved to Philadelphia in 2009, living on the same block as the Emerald Street Farm and the Emerald Wildflower Garden. Her first volunteer day was with the Philly Tree People that November. Since then, she has become a Tree Tender and volunteers almost every tree planting (including while 40-weeks pregnant and with kids in tow). She was an orchard liaison for POP for four years and a garden tender through City Harvest for almost a decade. She has worked professionally with non-profit food organizations in Philadelphia and across the country. With a professional background in finance and administration, Amanda officially joined the POP team as their Finance and Operations Coordinator in 2024. She lives in Port Richmond with her daughters, and continues to be mistaken for an employee whenever purchasing plants at a garden center.

Hannah Thompson

Orchard Assistant

Hannah has been a farmer, seed keeper, and (now) orchardist in and around Philadelphia for the past 7 years! They approach plant and land work with an eye to supporting the legacies of life in the soil, the seeds, and the neighborhoods where they work. As a descendant of the Afro-Carolinas, Hannah farms in honor of Black lifeways past, present, and future. They’re excited to share skills & learn in community as part of the POP team.