Carrie Corbin – President
Carrie was introduced to gardening and greenhouse growing by her mom and Oma in Edmonton area as a preschooler. Since then, she has become passionate about growing, harvesting, and cooking with all kinds of things: veggies, fruit, flowers. She even makes regular trips to the coast to harvest wild thorny blackberries – an adrenaline sport. She has tried, failed and sometimes succeeded at gardening in BC, Alberta, and Colombia. Carrie has lives in Cochrane with her elementary school daughter and various sometimes bizarre ecosystems of pets and plants. She looks forward to applying her engineering, business and education background to such a worthwhile community connection hub.
Lisa Nail - Director
Lisa is a gardening enthusiast with small town rural roots. An urban planner by trade, she is also very passionate about sustainable landscape design. Knowing where your food comes from and taking ownership in that process where possible is something she is excited to teach her 3 young kids! Connecting to the natural environment is something she strives to do whenever she gets the chance. Lisa feels passionately about growing Cultivate Cochrane’s initiatives and looks forward to seeing many Cochranites out in the community connecting with each other through their love of growing food!
Frankie-Lou Nelligan - Program Facilitator
Frankie-Lou is a professional public educator who works hard to inspire others to get their hands dirty growing and preparing their own food. She has owned and worked her local acreage with permaculture practices for over 9 years. Gardening in this region is challenging but Frankie-Lou enjoys tinkering with traditional and newer agricultural methods to improve harvest. Sharing her ideas about sustainability and innovation in home gardening is her passion. Frankie-Lou is incredibly proud to be part of the Cultivate Cochrane team as the Passive Solar Roller Program Coordinator.
Erin Lirantzis - Director
Erin is our new director and a busy mom of two, originally from Ontario but now has set her roots in Cochrane. She has just started her own business here, a passion project for her, a kids’ art and sensory studio. She also volunteers a lot of her time throughout the community for various organizations. A passion for gardening and a yearning to learn new skills has brought her here to Cultivate Cochrane.
Blanche Chymycz - Volunteer Coordinator
Blanche grew up outside Tomahawk, AB on a small acreage where her parents maintained a huge garden. Blanche and her brother Lance were expected to weed and otherwise contribute to the maintenance of the garden plot. Unfortunately, being a tomboy, Blanche was more interested in climbing trees and hanging out with her dogs.
Fast forward a few decades and Blanche is now the proud owner of a house whose yard is entirely Permaculture. Over the past twelve years, Blanche has worked hard to install her yard using Permaculture principles. Initially designed by Karla Cox, a Permaculture designer, Blanche learned along the way with considerable help. Her yard is now a beautiful oasis from the world where swallows return every year to raise their babies. Bees, butterflies, and other creatures also call the yard home and Blanche grows a considerable amount of food, decreasing her grocery bills while eating food grown without chemicals.
Outside of gardening, Blanche is a Recreation Therapist with Alberta Health Services. She supports her patients in a love of everything nature, encouraging walks and explorations of the outdoor world. Blanche still has dogs (currently 5) plus an albino hedgehog, and does a significant amount of volunteering in Cochrane.
Ryan Leach - Program Facilitator
Ryan is our new program facilitator. Further information is coming soon…
Torie McIntyre - Secretary
Torie is our new secretary. Further information is coming soon…