Cassie Tharinger (she/her)
Executive Director
Cassie has overseen PNPP’s community-driven tree planting and stewardship programs since 2016, and has lived on the Narragansett, Wôpanâak & Pauquunaukit lands we now call Providence since 2000. Before joining the world of Urban & Community Forestry, Cassie worked for over a decade with community groups, cooperatives, and nonprofits in Rhode Island in both the arts and local food system sectors, as well as at small scale holistically-managed fruit tree orchards and nurseries in Rhode Island, Vermont, and Maine. She loves planting trees in cities with people, and believes that creating a thriving, resilient and equitable urban forest requires immense amounts of collaboration. Don’t ask her to pick a favorite tree, but she will always have a spot in her heart for the GIANT London Plane trees on New York Ave in Washington Park, which shaded a 3rd FL apartment she once lived in.
email: ctharinger@pnpp.org
Candace Powning (she/her)
Program Director
Candace began working with PNPP/Providence Forestry in 2018 as an intern through the Society of Municipal Arborists — and this temporary position gradually transitioned into her current role as Program Director. This is particularly special for her, as she has been participating in neighborhood plantings through the program since she was a child growing up in Fox Point. Candace also serves on the board of the RI Tree Council. Her favorite tree species is a Tulip Tree and her favorite time to plant trees is in the fall! Candace has a B.A. in American Studies and Hispanic Literature from Wesleyan University.
email: cpowning@pnpp.org
Jordan Schmolka (she/her)
Director of Operations & Urban Forest Collaboration
Jordan is passionate about cultivating collective ownership and community decision-making in our urban forest—and in our broader movements for just futures. Before joining PNPP in 2022, Jordan supported youth land access and environmental justice leadership in Rhode Island as Operations Manager for Movement Education Outdoors. She grew up in the lower Hudson Valley on Lenape land, and received her undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies. Jordan loves word puzzles, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the color of spring leaves just as they first start to unfurl.
email: jschmolka@pnpp.org
Tonay Gooday-Ervin (they/them)
Community Arborist & Planting Coordination
Dagotee. Shi Tonay Gooday-Ervin gunste. Ndee nishłe hi’kee Taino. Adanełt’e’i yushdezhi dischii bikoh. Hat’i’i itsah iyaa’aiye. Shitah hee hi’kee shimaa hee Aaron Gooday, Laura Garcia, hi’kee Toni Weeden. Hello my name is Tonay Gooday-Ervin and I am White Mountain Apache on my dads side and I am Taino on my moms side. My reservation is in Arizona but I have spent so much of my life loving and being in relation to the land here in southern New England. I studied Art History and Classical Studies at URI, and worked as an archaeology field technician for the Mohegan people’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office, then translated this myriad of skills to arboriculture. For four years I have worked as an arborist on the Asian Long-Horned Beetle Eradication Program in Worcester, MA. I also hold a Massachusetts Arborist Association arborist certification and do tree inventories and tree risk assessments for towns and universities in the region. I use my knowledge as an indigenous person and an arborist to educate and reshape people’s perception of nature and how we relate to it. I believe this knowledge is something we should all have access to, because fostering community happens from the ground up. Besides trees, my passions are soup, cartoons, giant earrings, dumplings and laughing.
email: tgoodayervin@pnpp.org
Elizabeth Haviland (she/her)
Community Stewardship Coordinator & Canopy Crew Co-Lead
Elizabeth first planted trees with PNPP as a volunteer in her Smith Hill neighborhood, then interned as part of Garden Time’s Green Reentry Job Training Program. Working for PNPP allows her to combine her passion for social justice and her passion for sustainability by focusing on tree equity and environmental justice. She loves the beach, the woods, mountains, and nature in general but loves the city just as much. Elizabeth finds purpose in creating green environments in frontline communities, making the city she lives in more sustainable, healthy and green, especially the neighborhoods that need it the most. She is currently in a horticulture program at URI and studying to become a licensed arborist in Rhode Island.
email: ehaviland@pnpp.org
Board Of Directors
Fraser Gilbane
Sarah Sharpe
Sheila Dormody
Peggy Sharpe
Emerita