Our Team

Perry “happy” balian, Executive Director

"Coming to the garden to learn, experiment, or just rest and fellowship with peers creates connections to the natural world that last a lifetime." - Happy

Since 2015 Perry, known as "Happy" in the garden, has been working in Los Angeles Unified School District's Learning Gardens serving the community as an instructor, a Sustainability Director, an avid weeder, a composter, and an outdoor science curriculum designer. Happy brought his years of creative talents as a production coordinator for The Walt Disney Company to the garden and classroom by creating the naturalist podcast “Glory of Green”, a podcast for K-8th grade currently available on all major streaming platforms.

As an educator and guide, Happy’s To-do list begins and ends with helping generations strengthen their connections with the natural world, and developing an equitable educational environment. Happy has a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Auburn University, a graduate Specialization In Social Emotional Learning from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a Virtual Teacher Specialization Certification from UC Irvine.

Leslie Gomez Toscano, Garden instructor

Leslie Gomez Toscano comes from a lineage of Mexican-American farmers brought to the states during the Bracero Program in the 1950s. Her keen interest in the Earth's lessons came from her family visits to the rivers in Mexico and parks in Southeast LA where she grew up. In her adulthood, she has studied Herbalism and received her Bachelor's of Science in Public Health and worked in community programming for Kaiser Permanente. She managed several community garden programs for youth centered around food and cooking.

Today, she is working on her certification to become a registered dietitian at California State University Los Angeles with a joint Master's degree in Community Nutrition. She is ecstatic to build those nutrition health tools and love for food and culture, and integrate them into lessons at the garden as well as build those special connections to the Earth.  leslietoscano2@gmail.com

Paula sirola, emeritus executive director 

Former STP Executive Director Paula, whose garden name is Ms. Peppermint, is experienced in organizing communities, developing programs, and building grassroots organizations in Los Angeles and Latin America. Her work revolves around helping people build community and access healthy foods, be it through street vendors, community and school gardens, or community-based agricultural projects.  Paula is a UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener and has a M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA, where she also did her doctoral research. Contact: pmsirola@gmail.com

Renee Meshul, Founding member

Renee Meshul, also known as Ms. Raspberry, has been a garden educator at Mark Twain Middle School since 2010. Before coming to Mark Twain, she spent 25 years as a child development specialist working with high risk populations and 25 years running her own successful land use consulting business. She has a MEd in Counseling Psychology and became a Master Gardner in the UC Cooperative Extension Program in 2013. Contact: rmeshul@gmail.com.

Jenny Burman, Science Facilitator

Jenny Burman is a Science and Health Teacher at Mark Twain Middle School, responsible for hosting controlled chaos inside and outside the classroom where students make discoveries, build teamworking skills and build the capacity to independently analyze data.  

Evemitzy Duran Hernadez, Culinary Educator

Evemitzy, whose garden name is “Fresa,” is a UCLA senior majoring in Sociology and likes to hike on the weekends.  “I love cooking with students; it has taught me that enjoying the process of cooking is as important as eating the food.  It is a space where I use my creativity and imagination to create dishes that represent my journey.”