Our mission is to grow healthier, safer and stronger communities by creating small, accessible urban parks and gardens that help remedy the critical lack of green and recreational spaces in greater Los Angeles’ underserved neighborhoods, and to ensure participation and collaboration among low-income residents throughout the process of envisioning, building and managing the parks and gardens we create.

History & Future

The Neighborhood Land Trust is the leading nonprofit working to create urban parks and gardens in the Los Angeles region. The organization was formed in 2002 as a 501c(3) with initial funding from the City of Los Angeles in response to a 2000 report by The Urban Land Trust Task Force, which documented the shortage of green and recreational spaces in the city’s underserved neighborhoods. Since then, the Neighborhood Land Trust has played an important role in the creation, renovation and opening of nine parks and gardens, seven of which are managed and programmed by the Neighborhood Land Trust and local community management committees.

We plan to launch up to four new projects each year so that we may realize our vision for every L.A. area resident to live within walking distance of a park or garden. Using a community-based process and strategic partnerships, we’re steadily and ambitiously working to address the unfair disparity of access to open space and its negative impact on the region’s low-income communities.

Staff

Alina Bokde, Executive Director

Alina’s career and public service demonstrate her commitment to increasing parks and gardens as a strategy to revitalize underserved neighborhoods and improve the quality of life in low-income communities.

Prior to joining the Neighborhood Land Trust, Alina served as deputy executive officer for the River and Mountains Conservancy and managed complex conservation-focused real estate transactions for The Trust for Public Land. She is a former board member of Communities for a Better Environment, a past president of the Los Angeles Environmental Affairs Commission and a member of several community and civic organizations.

Alina holds a master’s degree in community and regional planning from the University of New Mexico and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Macalester College.

Phone: 213-572-0188 Ext 202 Email: abokde@lanlt.org

Beverley Keefe, Director of Operations

Phone: 213-572-0188 Ext 205 Email: bkeefe@lanlt.org

Barnaby murff, Director of development

Phone: 213-572-0188 Ext 203 Email: bmurff@lanlt.org

Laura hartzell, Project Manager

Phone: 213-572-0188 Ext 201 Email: lhartzell@lanlt.org

Michael kim, Project Manager

Email: mkim@lanlt.org

Tanya Mayahuel Torres, Director of organizing

Phone: 213-572-0188 Ext 206 Email: ttorres@lanlt.org

Monica curiel, Community Organizer

Phone: 213-572-0188 Ext 209 Email: mcuriel@lanlt.org

jackie munguia, Community Outreach specialist

Email: jmunguia@lanlt.org

Monica Acosta, Gardens' Program Manager

Phone: 213-572-0188 Ext 208 Email: macosta@lanlt.org

Hop hopkins, program director

Phone: 213-572-0188 Ext 210 Email: hhopkins@lanlt.org

Mario peregrino, children's garden Organizer

Phone: 213-572-0188 Ext 207 Email: mperegrino@lanlt.org

Joel Jimenez, Marsh Street Skate Park Supervisor

Contact Joel at jjimenez@lanlt.org

christian cabrales, Marsh Street Skate Park Supervisor

Contact Christian at ccabrales@lanlt.org

Board of Directors

OFFICERS

Misty Sanford, Munger, Tolles and Olson LLP
Chair

Gerard McCallum, Wilson Meany Sullivan
Treasurer

Kevin Napoli, LENA Group
Secretary

Robert Reid, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
Vice Chair

MEMBERS

Manal Aboelata, Prevention Institute
Kelli Bernard, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
Carl Cade, Real Estate Developer/Investor, Education Entrepreneur
Glen Dake, GDML Landscape Architects
Lauren Gabor Goldstein, Community Activist
Clive Hoffman, Clive Hoffman Associates
Richard Mayer, Troller Mayer Associates Landscape Architects
Bruce Saito, Los Angeles Conservation Corps
Stephanie Sherwood, Community Activist
Jill Black Zalben, Black Equities

Funders

The Annenberg Foundation
The California Endowment
The Ernest Lieblich Foundation
Kaiser Permanente
The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation
The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation
The Red Blue Green Fund
The Stanley and Joyce Black Family Foundation
The Roth Family Foundation
The Sherwood Family Foundation
Bank of America Charitable Foundation
Dodgers Dream Foundation
David Bohnett Foundation
The Weingart Foundation
California Community Foundation
The Walt Disney Company
Southern California Gas Company
JPMorgan Chase
YNOT Foundation
Wells Fargo
The Deutsch Family Foundation
The Anna H. Bing Living Trust
USC Neighborhood Outreach
The L.A. Stars Foundation
Kaboom!
Taproot Foundation