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 to Iris, 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 was thrilled to return to ANC as the Food Hub Assistant Manager, where, 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 studied 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.