2023 – We are currently recruiting board members, no experience needed. Please review our positions and let us know how you’d like to help!
Yael Hickok
Board president and lover of all things fruity. Yael has been volunteering at Boyer’s since 2015. She worked at Alaska Greenhouses as a teen, then for the US Forest Service in the Tongass National Forest. Yael is now a hobby gardener and fruit grower, always looking for new and unusual varieties that do well in the challenging climate of SouthCentral Alaska. She learned about Boyer’s when attending a volunteer event with the Alaska Pioneer Fruit Gowers Association. Through trial and error, she has gained some experience and knowledge about fruit growing and shares that knowledge whenever possible. Yael loves the special feeling at Boyer’s and calls it her happy place.
Besides volunteering at Boyers, Yael is a Massage therapist, assisted-living provider, and adores her husband, kids, and grandkids (and her Tesla)
Mary-Ellen Garner
Board Vice-President. Mary-Ellen found Boyers’ Orchard in her search for gardening space after moving to Anchorage in the winter of 2020. At the orchard you can find her breathing in the intoxicating nectar of spring blossoms, taking shade underneath her favorite tree (the Trailman CrabApple), or working in her garden beds.
She believes that the desire for connection is intrinsic to our human experience and applies her work in gardening projects and regenerative farming as a means of forming and maintaining relationships to others, to the earth, and to our food. Her role at Boyers’ has primarily been one of networking- from encouraging mycelial links beneath the trees, to telling every soul she meets in Anchorage about Boyers’. She wishes to continue this work as Boyers’ enters a new chapter as a non-profit.
In the summer Mary-Ellen works part time for the Yarducopia gardening program, helping Anchorage denizens access toxic-free gardening space. She also operates several small farmlets throughout Anchorage, including space at Boyers’, where she cultivates produce, flowers, and medicines that are transformed into fermented foods, bouquets, and herbal goods. You can catch her vending kimchis, krauts (including one made with Boyers’ apples!), salves, flowers and more at the Spenard Farmers’ Market through her business Common Root.
Ellen Jaimes
Board Secretary and Treasurer. Ellen is originally from Maine and has lived in Anchorage for the last decade. A lifelong student of human ecology and local food systems, she earned a Master of Science of Nutrition (MSN) in the Agriculture, Food and Environment program at Tufts University where she focused on ecosystem-level management and co-management. Since moving to Alaska, she has enjoyed getting to know diverse lands and people, and the abundant opportunities to harvest and cultivate local foods in Southcentral Alaska – including fruit-bearing orchard trees! While new to orchard stewardship, Ellen recognized the value of Bob Boyer’s orchard project and volunteered to join the effort to preserve and protect this resource for future generations. She is particularly interested in securing funding to purchase or otherwise ensure the future of Alaska’s largest and most diverse public orchard for the promotion of local sustainable agriculture and for the enjoyment of Anchorage residents and visitors. She notes that the orchard is currently privately owned and welcomes partnership opportunities with mission-aligned individuals and organizations. You can find her at the orchard engaged in tree and nature study/projects with her 3-year-old daughter and baby brother (due in July!)
Emily Becker
Emily Becker is currently serving as a board member with Friends of Boyers Orchard where she is helping to coordinate field trips and education events. Emily is a Gardening Specialist with RurAL CAP GROW, where she advises projects and connects them with resources and education. She taught for 20 years in Alaska public schools. A permaculture designer, she enjoys seeing the application of principles from nature in community organizing, especially the need to design for resilience. She is the President of the Alaska Master Gardeners Anchorage, a 300-member non-profit, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Alaska Community Forestry Council.