Our Leadership

Joe Cunningham, Executive Director of Brightside St. Louis

Joe Cunningham joined the Brightside team in 2025. He is a graduate of Maryville University with a B.S. in Business Administration and a graduate of the University of Missouri – Columbia with a M.S. in Natural Resource Management.

As Executive Director, Joe will oversee all of Brightside’s programs, including Neighbors Naturescaping, Blitz Blooms, and more. He connects with volunteers across St. Louis to help community gardens grow and keep neighborhoods clean. 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.

Joe served as Program Manager at Brightside for nearly a year before being named as the new Executive Director. During his time with Brightside, Joe has enjoyed educating residents on recycling, overseeing the graffiti eradication program, and distributing plants to communities.

He is a proud resident of the Holly Hills neighborhood.

Sameerah Robinson, Graffiti Eradication Program Supervisor

Sonia Rivera, Program Coordinator

Sonia is the first person most people reach when contacting Brightside and she takes great pride in serving the people of St. Louis. She is also the liaison with the City of St. Louis for the Graffiti Eradication program. She is a horticulture program graduate and looks forward to sharing her native plants knowledge with community residents.

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!

Abbey Bethel, Chair

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.

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.

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 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. She 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.

Tony Rocca

Tony Rocca is a proud St. Louis native who grew up in South County and now resides in North St. Louis near the historic Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. He is the owner of AKT Studios, a precast concrete company whose work can be found throughout the region, including St. Louis’ iconic fleur-de-lis planters.

Before returning to St. Louis full-time in 2018, Tony spent nearly a decade traveling across the United States and abroad, building a diverse professional background in craft services, film and music video production, tourism, and outdoor recreation. Among his many adventures, he worked as a rafting guide in Alaska, gaining a deep appreciation for the natural environment and the communities that depend on it. 

A passionate civic volunteer, Tony is actively involved with organizations dedicated to environmental stewardship and community improvement. He is a member of the Chain of Rocks Community Association and Rotary Club 11 Civilians, and holds board positions with Brightside St. Louis and MADE. Through his professional work and community service, Tony is committed to helping create a cleaner, more beautiful, and vibrant St. Louis.

When he’s not volunteering or working, Tony enjoys traveling with his wife, Amy, and spending time with their two rescue dogs, Murphy and Z.