Meet the team
Meet the AUT Community Gardens Initiative Steering Committee behind the strategic vision and future direction of the project.
Professor Caryn Zinn
Professor, Dietitian
Caryn has been a driving force behind the strategic vision, implementation and maintenance of the gardens as they were a key practical component of the Year 3 Lifestyle Nutrition course, first in 2019. The ethos of involving students was to provide an opportunity for students to gain an insight into the "bigger picture" concerning nutrition, sustainability and holistic wellbeing from immersive learning.
Niven Winder
Grounds Maintenance Supervisor North, South and City Campuses
Niven is the eyes and ears behind the whole operation. He knows the gardens back to front and has extensive knowledge on gardening and adopting sustainable gardening practices. If you're looking to get involved with the gardens across the three campuses – Niven is your man!
Oliver Coxhead
Maintenance Officer
Oliver is based at AUT South Campus as a maintenance officer. Prior to joining AUT, he worked as a qualified greenkeeper on golf courses in Auckland and Tauranga. Oliver has completed his Level 3 Certificate in Horticulture and is passionate about building up the green spaces at AUT South Campus so they can grow to their full potential.
Rory Chacko
Associate Director Policy Planning & Performance
Rory is passionate about sustainability and providing support to students who want to take on sustainable initiatives in and around AUT. Rory was a driver of the bee hotel and raised garden beds at North Campus, with various other sustainable projects in the pipeline.
Sylvia Goedeke
Lecturer, Dietitian
Sylvia holds core values in healthy lifestyles and holistic wellbeing, aligning closely with the central ethos of the initiative. From a nutrition perspective, Sylvia aims to encourage students to think beyond individual food and nutrients to appreciate wider health determinants from a holistic perspective.
Mark Jones
Senior Lecturer, Founder of the Outdoor Classroom, North Campus
Mark established the outdoor classroom in 2019 as a suitable space for outdoor practitioners to learn and practise foundational outdoor skills such as cooking on fire, crafting with flax or making items with axe/knife. He hopes the outdoor classroom becomes a place that students feel comfortable claiming as their own and have the freedom to cook, build and socialise there whenever it is not being used for structured teaching sessions.
Lynley Tulloch
Lecturer, Teacher Education
Lynley’s teaching and research is focused on a commitment to sustainability, grounding her teaching practice in ethics of place, cultural belonging and multispecies wellbeing. With expertise in Early Childhood Education (ECE), Lynley emphasises the significance of the relations and connections between children and the more-than-human world in learning holistically.
Lucy McKenzie
Head of Sustainability, Strategy & Planning
Lucy has spent the past 20 years working in the sustainability field in both New Zealand and the UK. Now at AUT, Lucy’s focus is on super charging sustainability through a circular economy approach, ecological regeneration on the campuses, and creating net zero CO2 campuses. The community garden initiative aligns with all three of those aspects and supports sustainability focused learning and teaching, as well as potential sustainability research.
Professor Tracy Berno
Associate Dean – Postgraduate
The overall aim of my research is to contribute to sustainable food systems in Aotearoa/New Zealand and the broader Pacific region, particularly in relation to the challenges that sustainable development presents.
Robert Richardson
Lecturer, Hospitality & Tourism Teaching
After having worked in some of New Zealand’s leading restaurants over the past 25 years, Rob is now a lecturer at AUT’s School of Hospitality and Tourism. Current programme leader of the Master of Gastronomy programme, Rob teaches courses focusing on the signs and symbolism inherent in contemporary food culture, and courses in food and beverage anthropology.
Louise McGrath
Lecturer
Louise is the course leader for the NorthTec Lifestyle Nutrition class and Whāngarei Community Garden.
Community gardens
The AUT Community Gardens Initiative was originally established in 2019.
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