Kat Logan is the Associate Director of Allen Neighborhood Center. She started as an intern with the organization ten years ago and has stayed with ANC ever since.  Kat holds a masters degree in community organizing social work with a focus in advocacy and racial equity, and spent two years working with Black Lives Matter Michigan. Her passion for fostering a sense of belonging, shared responsibility, and play is deeply rooted in cooperative living. For her, it’s all about getting to know your neighbors. About placemaking. It’s about spending time with people who are very different from yourself and coming together in the name of collective action. It’s why she’s chosen to live and work in this neighborhood for the last decade, and it’s what motivates her to create systems that help ANC to be more mission-aligned, data-driven, and neighbor-focused.

Kat lives on the Eastside with her partner, Megan. Her roots are in rural Appalachia and homesteading, and you can often find her hiking, gardening, foraging, or preserving foods. 

Aurora Seelye is the Health and Housing Coordinator for ANC, and is a recent graduate of MSU. She is passionate about community and will be connecting neighbors to resources related to health, housing, and social connectivity. In her free time she enjoys reading, being active outside, and spending time with friends and family. As a former member of the Spartan Marching Band, you can find her cheering on friends this fall. She also loves Halloween and anything magical!

Born and raised in Iron Mountain, MI found in the Upper Peninsula, Dane moved to East Lansing in the fall of 2008 to attend Michigan State University. After spending 5 wonderful years at MSU, completing degrees in Social Relations and Policy, Psychology, and Religious Studies, Dane knew that he felt more at home in Greater Lansing, and instead of returning to the U.P., now resides in Okemos with his wife Hayley. 

Outside of ANC Dane serves as Treasurer on the Board of Directors for the Italian American Club of Lansing, as well as serves on the Associate Board for “Special Days Camp” which provides an opportunity for children with Pediatric Cancer with an opportunity to attend a weeklong summer camp at no cost to their families.

During his free time, Dane enjoys reading, listening to music and various podcasts, the occasional video game, traveling to the U.P., a fair amount of golf, and running a tailgate for MSU football games.

Ethan Schmitt is the Volunteer & Communications Manager for ANC, and has been a resident of the Eastside since 2020. He understands that our important work could never happen without volunteers, and wants to make sure that their experience is a great one. He also understands the importance of keeping everyone in the loop and excited about the work with strong and accessible communication through social media, newsletters, and more. Ethan has a deep passion for helping the Eastside both as a staff member at ANC and as head of Prospect PLACE Neighborhood. In his spare time, Ethan enjoys reading, cooking, and exploring the River Trail with his partner, Cheyenne. He’s also a big Trekkie if anyone wants to come by and talk to him about Star Trek!

Jenny Wagemann is the Farmers Market & Food Pantry Manager at ANC and has previously lived on the Eastside for a total of 6 years, back when Steppin’ In It played every Monday evening at the Greendoor, which she rarely missed. Jenny loves playing a part in helping bring healthy food to our neighbors through both programs and is extremely grateful for the dedicated volunteers that make it possible to do so. It makes her proud that folks can find free nutritious foods at the food pantry and build relationships with the food vendors and one another at the farmers market. She loves event planning and community development and understands that folks really do bond over food. When she’s not helping feed our community, she’s entertaining it through fire flow dance with her performance group, The Flames and Dames, teaching hula hoop yoga through her original practice, YogaRound, or teaching a traditional yoga class at Peoples Yoga in REO Town.

Jessica Short is the Food Hub Manager for ANC, and has been an Eastside resident since 2017. She believes that caring sustainably for the land is intricately tied to caring for its people, even (and especially!) in cities. She loves the Eastside, and is honored to be able to strengthen the connection between residents and local farmers through the Veggie Box program. Jessica’s interests include flower gardening, raising rabbits, reading novels with magic and dragons, being cozy, being caffeinated, and slowly replacing the grass in her front yard with native perennials.

Kelsi Briana Smith is the Educational Programs Coordinator for the Allen Neighborhood Center. She hosts the youth programs Take Root Garden Club and the Youth Service Corps for both younger (5-10) and older (11-17) children respectively in the Eastside Lansing area, and coordinates the Hunter Park GardenHouse workshop series each year. Kelsi has more than 15 years of experience working with youth and educational programs, and enjoys being able to learn and grow with her community.

Matt Jones is the Kitchen & Facility Manager at Allen Neighborhood Center which focuses on business development for the many food businesses that use the Shared-Use Kitchens. The expertise he brings to the team comes from 12 years in the Culinary industry, training over 200 chefs across Michigan in food safety and culinary technique.  Now he is teaching food entrepreneurs about the intersection of food, people, and business. He has recently moved to the Eastside over the last year, but has been working at the local establishments since 2013.  He’s pretty inseparable from the grille or kitchen, but if you’re looking for him just follow the off-key singing and banjo noises. 

Tom Martin has served as Hunter Park GardenHouse’s Assistant Manager since January of 2022, and has been an Eastsider since the beginning of 2023. After two successful seasons as the Student Farm Coordinator at Albion College, he moved to Lansing in 2017 to help support Lansing’s vibrant urban farming & gardening scene. Here, Tom served two consecutive AmeriCorps terms with the Ingham County Landbank’s Garden Program and has been passionately invested in strengthening urban agriculture and outdoor education in Lansing ever since. Tom can usually be found identifying interesting plants and strange insects in the Eastside’s lush green spaces. Outside of the garden, Tom enjoys cooking, hiking, woodworking, and attending concerts.

Abie is our Kitchen & Events Coordinator. She has proudly lived in the Eastside neighborhood since 2017 and previously worked with us as an Art in the Market and Social Media Intern. Abie’s background is in culinary leadership, business management and community engagement. Through her experience in restaurants and nonprofit growth she learned the parallels between resource availability and food production, and grew a passion for accessibility in the culinary space. She seeks to use her skills to empower our makers and strengthen local food systems in our kitchen programs. She advocates the importance of mentorship and community in not only culinary spaces but also among neighbors. In her spare time, you’ll most likely find Abie outside, whether she’s simply enjoying fair weather or on a hiking trip. She also enjoys reading, testing her recipes at home and spending time with loved ones. 

Iris Paul grew up on the Eastside, first witnessing the power of community, shared housing and urban gardening at Dan Lindemann’s apartments on the 2000 block of Michigan Avenue back in the 90s. Connecting with Eastside businesses and organizations has been a lifelong pursuit; Iris regularly participated in Foster Community Center programming as a youth, and later worked at neighborhood staples like Emil’s, The Avenue, and Strange Matter Coffee. Since buying a home and raising her daughter in the neighborhood, Allen Neighborhood Center has been a steadfast friend, offering resources, education and career experience over the years. Iris served at ANC as an AmeriCorps VISTA in 2020-2021 where she helped with fundraising and communications. She is thrilled to return to ANC as the Food Hub Assistant Manager. Having been a subsidized Veggie Box member, Iris is grateful to work with a program that has played an important role in her own life. Iris studies Urban and Community Forestry at Michigan State University, where she can be found geeking out about fruit trees. When she’s not working or studying, she enjoys being silly with her daughter, juggling (literally and figuratively), and doing theatre