Our Leadership

Mary Lou Green, Executive Director at Brightside St. Louis

Mary Lou Green has been Executive Director of Brightside St. Louis since 1990. She’s a graduate of University of Missouri – St. Louis with a B.S. in Business Administration.

Under Mary Lou’s direction, each year Brightside and its thousands of volunteers invest more than 20,000 hours planting and maintaining gardens all across St. Louis. This is possible thanks to Brightside’s wonderful partners, most notably, City of St. Louis, Missouri Department of Conservation, Downtown STL Partnership and the St. Louis Master Gardeners.

Mary Lou is a proud St. Louis city resident who grew up and lives in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood.

Sameerah Robinson, Graffiti Eradication Program Supervisor

Sameera Robinson has served as Program Supervisor for Brightside’s Graffiti Eradication program since 2022. Sameera leads two crews removing graffiti from painted and unpainted surfaces. This team has worked together for many years and they take great pride in the service they are providing to St. Louis. If they can safely reach it, they will remove it.

Gwen McFowland, Program Coordinator

Gwen McFowland has been with Brightside almost since its beginning. She joined the organization in 1984 and now serves as the Program Coordinator. Gwen is the first person most people reach when contacting Brightside and she takes great pride in serving the people of St. Louis. Gwen is the liaison with the City of St. Louis for the Graffiti Eradication program and works very closely with the volunteer Area Commanders and Block Captains for Blitz.

Gwen is the daughter of the late Daisy B. McFowland, former alderwoman of the old 4th Ward. Gwen has one grown daughter.

Sustainability Education and Outreach Coordinator

This position keeps the public informed about Brightside’s many programs and events, and directs the recycling education program for Saint Louis City Recycles.

Brightside St. Louis Board of Directors

The Brightside St. Louis Board of Directors is made up of very talented individuals who generously share their knowledge and energy to provide guidance and direction to the staff, ensure our programs are effective and that the organization remains fiscally sound. In short, they ensure we bloom annually!

Mary Stewart, Chair

Mary joined the Brightside board in 1999.  Mary is a member of the St. Louis Hills Neighborhood Association, and volunteers in neighborhood activities such as Run for the Hills, Art in the Park and the Christmas tree lighting in Francis Park.  She is also a Block Captain.  Mary has participated in the Neighbors Naturescaping plantings in the garden at Clifton, Murdoch and Locke.  Mary volunteered at the St. Louis Crisis Nursery for over twenty years. Although she grew up in St. Louis County, Mary has lived in the City of St. Louis since 1985, enjoying the many benefits of City living.  She is an avid St. Louis University basketball fan.           

Mary has been a practicing attorney for over 35 years and received her J.D. from St. Louis University.  She currently works in private practice at Buckley & Buckley, LLC.  Prior to working there Mary had worked at Brunton Law Offices and as in-house for Hartford Insurance Companies.

Kat Golden, Vice Chair

Katherine (Kat) Golden has worked at the Missouri Botanical Garden for over 10 years and is now the Senior Manager of Sustainability Initiatives. Kat holds a Master’s in Education for Global Sustainability from Webster University, where she currently serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of Education. 

Kat is a life-long educator dedicated to building connections between people and place – helping individuals discover sustainable actions they can take for positive change wherever they live, learn, work, and play. Kat’s work covers topics such as energy, water, waste/recycling, and conservation workforce development. Kat enjoys creating programs that engage learners of all ages in learning about their connections to the world around us. Kat is passionate about using education to build knowledge about our planet and nurture stewardship. As part of this work, Kat was selected as a 2018 National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, where she joined an expedition with Lindblad Expeditions and the National Geographic Society to the Galápagos Islands to discover new ways to engage her community in solving challenges facing our world for a more sustainable future. 

When not working, Kat is at home in the lovely Southwest Garden neighborhood spending time with her husband, their dog Ripley, and cats Harper and Church.

Abbey Bethel

Abbey is a Logistics Director at Anheuser-Busch, where she works with teams across breweries, distribution centers, and wholesalers in order to ship A-B’s products around the country and the world. She is a St. Louis transplant, having moved to the area in 2014 when she started working in Logistics for Anheuser-Busch, and relocated back to St. Louis in 2021 after spending four years working at a brewery outside of Atlanta, GA. 

Abbey is a proud Soulard resident and member of the Soulard Restoration Group. From 2022 to 2025, she served on the SRG board as she held the roles of president-elect, president, and immediate-past president. Abbey has a passion for education and community building, and looks forward to supporting the mission of Brightside St. Louis.

Richard Eaton

Richard joined the Brightside Board after many years as the liaison between Brightside St. Louis and the Soulard Restoration Group. The Neighbors Naturescaping Demonstration Garden was initially located in Soulard and was planted and maintained by the SRG Beautification Committee. Until recently, Richard served as the Chair of the SRG Beautification committee.  He has volunteered for many years to help Brightside as an Area Commander and Block Captain as well as helped plant flowers around City Hall.

Richard retired after 45 years with Missouri Public Schools, 39 of those with Ladue School District where he chaired the Counseling Department at Ladue Horton Watkins High School. Richard received his B.S. Degree from Southeast Missouri State University, his Master’s in Counseling and Psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and his PhD. in Counseling and Psychology Education from Saint Louis University. Richard served on the Board of the Soulard Housing Corporation, and currently serves as Lay Leader of the Lafayette Park United Methodist Church. He is a member of Mizzou’s Flagship Counsel, The Tiger Scholarship Fund and a sustaining member of the University of Missouri’s Jefferson Club.

Liz Liberatore

Liz Liberatore has been a dedicated board member of Brightside St. Louis since 2018, continuing a family legacy of community involvement as the daughter of one of the organization’s founding members, Paul Liberatore. Liz has been a paralegal at Brown and Crouppen Law Firm since 2015.

A 2005 graduate of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Liz’s diverse experiences include living abroad in Seoul and Istanbul, which has shaped her global perspective. She now resides in St. Louis with her husband Jason Hackett and their two children, enjoying family outings to the zoo, history museum, art museum, and science center.

Liz is passionate about social justice, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA+ advocacy, as well as working towards making St. Louis cleaner, greener, and more environmentally sustainable—creating a better place for her children and all residents. She actively volunteers for causes close to her heart and works as a doula, supporting parents through the birthing process and beyond. In her free time, Liz enjoys traveling, exploring new restaurants, and hiking.

Kevin Neill

Kevin is a Senior Transportation Planner at Lochmueller Group, where he works with local, regional, and state governments across the Midwest to create safe streets and public spaces for people walking, bicycling, driving, and taking transit. He holds a B.A. in History from St. Louis University and a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from the University of Memphis. Kevin, his wife Heather, and their two daughters live in Richmond Heights, where you can find them in the garden, at a nearby park, or out on the trails.

Lauren Winchester

Lauren is a St. Louis native, growing up in Ferguson and currently residing in the beautiful Shaw neighborhood. She is a creative producer with years of experience in commercials, television, and feature films. Lauren is a professional enthusiast who approaches life with a healthy mix of curiosity and imagination. As an avid traveler, she loves to learn about people’s cultures, foods, and humankind.

She volunteers with the unhoused community and raises funds to support their cause and awareness. In her free time, you can find her playing with her kitty, playing with her friends, or buying last-minute plane tickets. She aspires to be a better chef, a better gardener, and a better community member, making St. Louis a cleaner and greener place, which is why she is on the board at Operation Brightside.