About Alisa Hoven
Alisa Hoven (she/her) is an educator, land steward and organizer. She has grown to love nature and all things wild and abundant. Born and raised on occupied Dakota and Anishinaabe Land in Minneapolis, Alisa is white, with German, Swedish and Norwegian ancestors who farmed for generations on stolen Dakota land. She began to explore her wild heart along the banks of the Mississippi River and the Minnehaha Creek as a young kid growing up in the city. Now, she facilitates learning spaces of all ages, is a skilled gardener and organizes for community building and transformation. She encourages humans to be in harmony once again with the land.
Her work is dedicated to skilling up communities to grow food for nourishment, cultivate medicinal plants to heal ailments and regenerate healthy ecosystems so we can actively and compassionately take responsibility for mother earth. Alisa is currently exploring the ways she can decolonize her teaching practices and show up fully and honestly to the hard life-long work of coming back to each other and the land.
Photo Credit Olli Johnson
Alisa has worked as a canoe + dogsled guide with Outward Bound in Northern MN. Then found herself at Hope Community, a community development organization in the Phillips neighborhood of South Minneapolis, organizing around food justice, leadership and community gardens. While there, she finished her Masters in Experiential Education; exploring the ways that food + gardens can be a tool for learning. She has been involved with the education programs at Philadelphia Community Farm in Osceola, WI, spent a season on on a CSA farm crew at Galewoods Farm and continues to deepen her work with Plant Grow Share in the Central neighborhood exploring food justice and solidarity networks.
She holds a B.S. in Social Work from Augsburg University, M.S. in Experiential Education from Minnesota State University-Mankato, Urban Farming Certificate from Permaculture Research Institute-Cold Climate, Permaculture Design Certificate from Earth Activist Training, and was a participant of the Herbal Remembering Apprenticeship in Minneapolis, MN. She is a blossoming writer, auntie and naturalist.
“The best leaders also know how to follow— Alisa is an exceptional leader gifted at both forging a path and gently ushering a group from behind. Alisa is humble and confident; infectiously curious and considerate. I have seen the community that gravitates toward and grows within Alisa’s mentorship and I would love to know more people were closer to the land because of her work.”
— Allison Osberg, Minneapolis, Land visions project & Full Moon Group