Ari Henry

Ari (she/they) joined Rachel’s Table in November of 2024, with a passion for gardening, mapping, and community organizing. Her work with RTWM follows a year-long Watson Fellowship studying “Soundscapes of Childhood”. Living in rural communities in Tanzania, India, Nepal, Mongolia, Spain, Sweden, and Aotearoa (New Zealand), Ari created her own research project learning about the creative ways in which caregivers use song to raise the next generation with deep connections to the natural world. Ari graduated from Vassar College in 2023 where they majored in Environmental Studies and American Studies. There, they conducted several cartographic projects with themes ranging from participatory mapping to artistic representations of land to geospatial and data analysis. One project highlighted redundancies and missed opportunities for regional collaborations in waste transportation and removal in the Hudson Valley. In another project, titled “Mapping the American Period: An Atlas of Menstruation Activism”, Ari developed a participatory mapping interface to celebrate and destigmatize stories about menstruation around the world. Ari brings several years of experience working on organic farms and community gardens in California, New York and Hawaii. She has also served as an outdoor educator in several contexts including leading farm-based field trips for Northampton public schools, and as a wilderness counselor at various summer sleepaway camps. Ari’s passion for creatively bridging the gap between the “science world” and the public drives her commitment to environmental justice. From her work with various social justice organizations, she has a deep understanding of the harm misrepresenting data can cause on real people. As a Site Steward, Ari is dedicated to representing and conversing with others transparently, truthfully and holistically to support individuals and agencies in assessing gaps and opportunities in their gardening endeavors.