Our Team
Sue Sie, Founder
Environmental advocate, architect, and founder of Dirty Gaia, Sue is passionate about inspiring environmental awareness and action in the Hudson Valley. Her lifelong love of growing vegetables combined with a deep respect for living systems provide a unique platform as she devotes her time to promoting ecological awareness and community resilience. Along with spearheading the launch of a gleaning program to distribute excess produce from home and community gardens to local pantries, she leads the Rhinebeck Community Garden, and is working towards creating an educational hub there for youth and the larger community. In addition, Sue co-founded the Morton Seed Library in Rhinecliff, which engages locals in seed stewardship practices that strengthen agricultural, cultural, and biological diversity. With the support of the Morton Memorial Library, Sue created programming for the Rhinecliff Sustainability Series.
A past fellow of the Good Work Institute who also completed training in ecological literacy through the Omega OCSL, Sue is Director of Dirty Gaia (formerly Backyard to Table), an organization which provides programming focused on earth stewardship, environmental awareness and food growing. Sue is also a steering committee member of the Partners for Climate Action HV.
Sue’s vision is to use her growing sustainability initiative as a springboard to connect people and their communities to the environment in a deep and lasting way- ultimately generating much-needed momentum throughout the region as she works to build community resilience and promote ecological repair.
Kaitlin Doherty, Program Coordinator
Kaitlin was born and raised in Canada where summers spent on canoe trips in northern Ontario inspired a deep love of the natural world. A Masters in environmental education from Antioch New England gave her the tools to spread this passion to others, which she did while teaching teens at Seeds of Solidarity Education Center in MA and planting seeds with kindergarteners as the Garden Educator at Mill Road Elementary school in Red Hook, NY.
An expert in organizational management, Kaitlin also served as the Program Coordinator at Ontario Eco- Schools where she helped schools and districts implement environmental education programs and eco-certifications. With Dirty Gaia, she continues her mission of creating meaningful experiences that further human respect for, understanding of, and connection with Nature. When she’s not pulling together events or helping with garden builds, you can find Kaitlin in the garden or exploring the woods of the Hudson Valley with friends and family.
Margot Dougherty, Social Media/Writer
As a magazine writer and editor in New York, LA and Sydney, Margot covered celebrities, fashion and the occasional civil war over the years. While overseeing the food and dining sections of Los Angeles magazine, she admired the close relationship of the city’s best chefs with the farmers whose food they featured, often with attribution, on their restaurant’s seasonal menus. It wasn’t until moving back East that she began growing food of her own—inspired (and tutored) by Sue and the Backyard to Table programs as well as by fellow gardeners in the Rhinebeck Community Garden. Margot volunteers with the Morton Seed Library and helps ferry produce to local pantries during the growing season.