AmeriCorps Staff and Member Biographies

AmeriCorps Staff:

Daphne Derven, AmeriCorps Program Director - Daphne is also the Program Director for NYC.   She worked as an archaeolgist for many years in various parts of the Americas. She then applied her experiences in science, education, and conservation to management. She was the Director of Public Programs for the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Later, she was the founding Program Director at Copia in Napa, CA, and  Stone Barns Center in Pocantico Hills, NY. In addition to her  passion for driving her Mini Cooper S, and playing with Chachuka, her Afghan Hound, she loves to cook.  Currently, she is studying for a Masters of Science in Sustainable Development from the University of London.  She joined NYC in 2007.

AmeriCorps Members:

ODS Garden Coordinator

Gary Dunbar - Gary originally hails from Central Michigan, but has made Eugene his home since 2001. Gary’s interests include local food production and politics, music, cultural theories, travel, backpacking, and basketball. He holds a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Oregon. Before coming to NYC, he taught at Lane Community College. He has also taught as a volunteer instructor at a school for alter-abled kids in Guatemala. Gary’s interests in agriculture began early on while working on his family’s Christmas tree farms. Since then he has studied at the University of Oregon’s Urban Farm and worked for such companies as Seed to Feed, in Eugene.

ODS AmeriCorps Members

Andrew King - Andrew King was born and raised in the southern part of the United States aka Charlotte, North Carolina.  He enjoyed a childhood rich with outdoor experiences.  His earliest memories are full of music, going on hikes in the North Carolina mountains, and dreaming up ridiculous games and adventures with his partner in crime, his slightly older and dreadfully clever sister.  Many years later he graduated from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, where he majored in History and Philosophy.  Following graduation, young Andrew drove across the country with all of his stuff, and ended up in the miniscule and charming town of Sonora, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills.  For the past year he taught at Foothill Horizons Outdoor School teaching sixth grade science standards to a new class of kiddos each and every week.  He loved it...he told me so.  He enjoys playing guitar, ukulele, harmonica, and singing, hiking, playing ultimate frisbee, going to concerts, working crossword puzzles and generally joking around and finding the joy in life, and perhaps most of all getting me to write mini-biographies about him.

Rural School AmeriCorps Members

Val Rylands - Val Rylands is the after school program coordinator at Marcola Elementary. Rylands was born and raised in Eugene and lives in Marcola with her husband and two children who attend Marcola Elementary. Marcola is a small, unincorporated community east of Springfield. The after school program serves about 28 students beginning at 2:40 p.m. Monday through Thursday and about 15 students from 8:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday. The Marcola School District currently holds classes Monday through Thursday, with slightly more 100 students currently enrolled at the elementary school. Rylands was employed as an educational assistant last year with the school district and also served as a volunteer in the after school program. She is a child advocate with the Lane County Chapter of Stand for Children. She has a keen interest in art and teaching children different techniques. After School program participants work on recycling classroom paper and plastics, sorting them into bags that can be taken to the Lane County facility. Students also take frequent trips around their small community to eliminate the littering problem.

Corps Respond Team Members

Brian Scott - Brian has been a long time NYC'er and trail junky. Living as far off as Bend, OR and County Donegal, Ireland, he enjoys traveling and delving into cultural experiences with locals. An Otaku at heart he spends far too much time watching anime and playing DOMO for his own good. Toast and noodles are a constant companion to Brian as he helps organize and implement youth and community outreach efforts in Bend, OR; Olympia, WA; and Eugene, OR. His spare time is spent reading provocative sociological texts and bad fantasy novels lent to him by the NYC Ops guy. Working trail, co-managing a Horse Ranch, washing dishes, and counting traffic at intersections have been pastimes and jobs of worth for him and offered a great deal of introspective soul searching. He graduated from The Evergreen State College with a B.A. in Literature and Poetry with minors in Aquatic Ceramics and Juggling. After years of being a crew leader for NYC he ventured into the depths of the office in hopes of finding plausible employment with Corps Respond earlier this year.

Chad Smoot - Chad comes from the great state of Texas, where he attended Texas Tech University and studied Architecture.  While there, he cycled daily and enjoyed activities that were both physically and mentally challenging, such as hiking, snowboarding, climbing and camping. He is extremely happy to be part of Corps Respond and NYC, and looks forward to the many adventures that await.