Brien Darby

Executive Director
Cultivate KC

 

Brien Darby is the Executive Director of Cultivate Kansas City.

She is a native of Kansas City, Missouri, and returns to the area by way of Colorado and New Mexico.

Previously, she worked as a farmer, farm educator and food systems expert at the Denver Botanic Gardens. With support from Colorado State University Extension service, she created the Beginning Market Farmer certificate course, a resource for beginning farmers in the Rocky Mountain region. She worked with the Denver Housing Authority to develop community farm projects to serve the region's underserved and often most-diverse populations.

Darby was a 2020 Rocky Mountain Farmers Union Fellow and previously served as a board member for the American Community Gardening Association.

Darby is passionate about creating viable opportunities for urban growers to access resources and education, sell their products and put excess produce to work as a community asset. She strives to make healthy, local food the default choice for all populations.

In the past, she completed certificates in Master Gardening, Master Community Gardening and is a Wilderness First Responder. Darby has a Master of Public Health degree from the Colorado School of Public Health and approaches community work through the lens of healthy equity.

Darby lives in Kansas City with her husband, two-year-old daughter, dog, cat, bees and chickens. She enjoys working on her garden, backpacking, running, riding bikes and traveling. In the future, she hopes to raise goats and donkeys.