Stephanie Roach is the Assistant Director of Special Initiatives at Urban Green Lab. She coordinates partnerships, programming, and research for the Nashville Food Waste Initiative and the Nashville Environmental Justice Initiative.

A Middle Tennessee native, Stephanie built a professional foundation in education that has organically evolved into the sustainability space. Before Urban Green Lab, Stephanie worked in a variety of roles, including classroom teaching, community partnership and programming development, and sustainable entrepreneurship.

After graduating from Rhodes College in Memphis with majors in Political Science and Classical Studies, Stephanie went into classroom education. With a focus on intentional program design and community organization, she developed a host of social justice, sustainability, and science programming customized to meet identified student and school community needs. During this time, Stephanie earned a Master's in Education from Trinity University in Washington, DC. In her nearly decade of teaching, she served diverse populations in Memphis, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. These experiences seeded an abiding passion for social justice, environmental conservation, and urban resilience. Each community's respective management of sustainability, community resources, and natural environment has left an indelible mark on Stephanie. She is thrilled to bring these distilled experiences home to help shape Nashville's own brand of resiliency.

Stephanie recently worked as a Sustainability Educator and Outreach Coordinator for Middle Tennessee recycling centers and businesses. In this role, she created and delivered a wide-ranging sustainability curriculum for schools in Rutherford County, managed partnership relationships, and conducted workshops with business and community groups. Identifying a need for more local sustainably-focused firms, Stephanie co-founded Elemental, a Nashville-based sustainable paper products start-up. Additionally, Stephanie co-founded and serves on the executive board for the developing non-profit, MoreTreesBoro, an urban canopy conservation group. She has served for two terms on the Murfreesboro City Schools Foundation and chaired multiple fundraising events in the Middle Tennessee area.

Ever the learner, Stephanie is nearing completing an additional degree, an M.S. in Sustainability from Lipscomb University's Institute of Sustainable Practices.

Free time finds Stephanie with garden shears, a tennis racket, or a book in hand. She enjoys biking and hiking with her boys, experimenting in the kitchen, and traveling with her family.