HELENE GALLIS – Founder/ Director of partnerships and Innovation. Helene founded Nabolagshager in 2013 and has previously worked with sustainability issues in Spain, USA, Germany and Norway with organisations such as Worldwatch Institute and The United Nations Development Programme. She has experience from a wide field, including sustainable production and consumption, policy development, entrepreneurship and strategic communication. Helene is educated in sustainability and communication from Australia, Ecuador, Mexico and Spain, with expertise in urban ecology, corporate social responsibility and green entrepreneurship. She published the book DYRK BYEN! – håndbok for urbane bønder in 2015, which was Norway’s first book on urban farming projects.
- Projects: Stensparken Nærmiljøhage, private sector consultancy
- Contact: helene @ nabolagshager.no
- LinkedIn profil
ADAM CURTIS – CEO / CURRENTLY ON LEAVE Adam has worked with sustainable agriculture and social design for the past decade in both the US and Norway. With a masters in Development, Environment and Cultural Change from the University of Oslo, Adam has focused his work on the connections between sustainable transitions and social change. He currently acts as CEO for Nabolagshager, managing a portfolio of international research projects and social programming spanning topics from sustainable food systems to inclusive design.
- Projects: FoodE, EdiCitNet
- Contact: adam @ nabolagshager.no
- LinkedIn profil
KIMBERLY (KIM) WEGER – Project coordinator
Kim comes from Canada and has her Master’s degree in political science from the University of Calgary, with research on community participation in development in Ghana. After finishing her career as an international athlete in speed skating, Kim worked in Germany in an international sport development project. Kim works with Nabolagshager on community engagement, with a focus on grassroots and gendered participation, as well as writing international grant proposals.
- Projects: EEA Neighborhood democracy in urban communities, H2020 Edible Cities Network.
- Contact: kim @ nabolagshager.no
JULEDA FETISI – Youth mentor. Juleda has a Bachelor of Special Education from the University of Oslo, and a strong motivation to work to ensure social inclusion across socio-economic and cultural barriers. She was born and raised in Grünerløkka in Oslo. Juleda started working in our youth program Oslo Living Lab in 2019 when she studied at H2O high school. Her main tasks consist of coordinating a team of young changemakers in implementing hands-on action in the neighborhoods of Tøyen and Grønland.
- Project: Academy for green city life, Erasmus+ YouthGreen
- Contact: juleda @ nabolagshager.no
Other freelancers, part-time staff and consultants
ONDREJ NENTWICH – Consultant / youth mentor – permaculture / assistant gardener. Ondrej assists Nabolagshager in the execution of private sector gardening projects, where he explores ways to make conventional landscaping more sustainable. Ondrej also works part-time mentoring the youth garden team at Stensparken Nærmiljøhage, as they convert the community garden into a food forest. He holds a permaculture design certificate (PDC) and is currently enrolled as a Bachelor student of Biochemistry at UiO.
- Project: Stensparken community garden
- Contact: ondrej @ nabolagshager.no
JEN MCCONACHIE – Permaculture designer and educator. Jen has ten years experience working with permaculture design and community building initiatives and specialises in food forest design. She holds Permaculture Design Certificate and is completing a permaculture diploma in education. Jen has worked with plant production and consulting at Efferus Veksthus and designed many forest gardens from small backyards to the roof of Økern Portal, Oslo. Originally from Scotland, she has initiated many community projects in Horten, such as Fruktdugnad og Spiselig By. She has a background as a DJ/composer and is passionate about co creating a regenerative future together with nature.
HAI-YING LIU – Consultant / senior researcher. Dr. Hai-Ying Liu has 20 years broad multidisciplinary experience within environmental field work, international cooperation, coordination tasks of EU scale projects, and developing EU project proposals. Her broad research in ecology, nature-based solutions, citizen science, citizens’ observatories, environmental exposure assessment, urban environmental sustainability, and integrative approaches for assessment of environmental stressors and pressures, as well as exploitation of low-cost micro-sensors of air quality for various applications has resulted in the publication of 60 papers in prestigious peer reviewed journals and a Ph.D. in Environmental Biology from the University of Oslo. Dr. Liu worked at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Science (CRAES), Beijing, China before she joined the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) in 2008. She is originally from Inner Mongolia, China.
Visiting researchers, interns and student collaborators
2022
Andreas L’orange, Master student in Urban Agriculture at NMBU, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. At Nabolagshager he contributes to the Erasmus+ GarDem project, developing a model for turning community gardens into learning centers to strengthen democratic values.
Riccardo Provera, Master student in Food System Management from the University of Bologna, Italy. Riccardo, while developing his Master Thesis about urban agriculture, did research on participatory monitoring of sustainability as part of the Food Systems in European Cities (FoodE) project, which is financed under Horizon 2020.
Laura Rojas Pardo, PhD student in Sustainable Development at the Czech University of Life Sciences, did participatory and interactive research together with youth team of Stensparken Community Garden on the emotional well-being in various community gardens in Oslo.
Robert (Beck) Trebesch, Bachelor student in City Planning, Visual Culture, and Art Pedagogy at the University of California at Berkeley, USA. Beck assisted in executing youth workshops creating Zines as a tool to explore alternative ways of expressing ideas and learning, as well as developing graphic material and assisting with desk research on various topics.
Melanie Marshall, Bachelor student in food science and biological engineering at Cornell University, USA. Melanie assisted with biodiversity mapping at Stensparken Community Garden as well as in doing desk research on educational strategies for youth engagement in urban biodiversity.
2021
Lykke Myhrvold, Trond Lien, Caroline Schwanenflugel and Stian Alvestad were Msc students in Public Health from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), who did reserach on our youth work as a part of their studies in «Participatory Approaches in Public Health Work».
Filippo Pini, Master student Agricultural Sciences from the University of Bologna, Italy, stayed in Oslo for a 3 month research period to design, develop and collect data for his Master Thesis with the title: «A Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of a Community Supported Beekeeping in Oslo», following the Local Buzz Community Supported Beekeeping. The collaboration was part of the EU funded project FoodE.
2020
Anne Sofie Onstad, Dominic Lunda and Sofie Finseth were bachelor students in Public Health from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), who did reserach on our youth work in the Oslo Living Lab program as a part of their studies in «Participatory Approaches in Public Health Work»;
Photo credit, photo 1-7 and 9: Julia Naglestad
NABOLAGSHAGER 