Meet Our Team
Everybody Grows’ team of staff and volunteers includes community members of diverse backgrounds and experience. Our team shares a core commitment to help everybody discover the joy of growing a home garden, wherever home may be. Our executive leadership includes legal, non-profit and education professionals with a shared commitment to community, and a passion for gardening.
Steve Salky, Founder and Chairman
When he is not gardening, Steve Salky is a practicing lawyer. He has represented individuals and entities in criminal and civil litigation as a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder LLP for over thirty years. Over that same period, he has been raising vegetables in a DC community garden and, more recently, at a 1/4 acre plot in Rappahannock County Virginia. He founded Everybody Grows to help others, particularly those without easy access to fresh food, to experience growing their own food.
Gail Ifshin, President
Gail is an experienced builder of organizations in the nonprofit sector. She spent fifteen fulfilling years leading and growing the Discovery Learning Alliance (formerly known as Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership), an international nonprofit that uses the power of media to transform education and improve lives in marginalized communities. A proud Nebraskan, she is a certified Master Gardener and cites weeding as her favorite gardening activity.
Jake Ifshin, Executive Director
Jake Ifshin is a leader and educator who for the past five years has been creating gardening experiences for communities in the Washington DC area. After being deeply inspired through leading his first garden program for a local preschool, Jake decided to make a full time commitment to sharing the joy of growing food. One of his specialties continues to be making horticulture accessible to the youngest and the oldest members of our society through innovative techniques and adaptive inter generational programs. Jake brings his passions for nature, music, and creativity to each Everybody Grows project. He has pursued many learning opportunities around gardening, ecology, and education, including a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) from the Center for Creative Ecology at Kibbutz Lotan and a certification as a DC Urban Master Composter.
Yael Reichler, Assistant Director
Yael believes that everyone has the right to learn how to grow their own food and feel connected to where it comes from. She has a diverse background working at the intersection of food, agriculture, and community, including experience supporting the development and operations of the Oberlin Food Hub in OH and working with Sprout City Farms in CO and Homeless Garden Project in CA. She recently completed the Urban Adamah Jewish urban farming fellowship in Berkeley, CA and has explored many different types of farming, from rice farming to caring for goats to permaculture. She is passionate about music, comedy, and movement. Yael graduated from Oberlin College, where she majored in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Food & Agriculture and a minor in History.
Sarah Gladkov-Shachar, Program Director
Sarah is an educator, herbalist and certified yoga teacher who has also received her PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate) while living and teaching on Hava Ve Adam Eco Educational Farm in Modi’in, Israel. She has a passion for teaching, especially in any early childhood setting and a love for herbal medicine. Integrating nature and gardening into a classroom is her specialty, as well as finding a child’s connection to the land. Understanding that the outdoors is just as much of a classroom then any indoor setting is a message that she enjoys passing on to others.
Board Members
Madalyn Marcus
Colin Timbers
Thorne Rankin
Kathy Canzona
Everybody Grows is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to inspire and equip people to grow fresh, healthy food by bringing the home garden to everybody, wherever home may be. Contributions are deductible to the extent allowed by law. Learn More