Samantha Lee

  Firesoul Directory

Samantha Lee


Mandy (she/her/hers) facilitates collaborative, multi-stakeholder efforts for environmental and climate justice through the design and development of communities and the infrastructure that sustains them. She organizes with her local mutual aid network and community garden and is a vegan and bread baking enthusiast.

Mandy is deeply passionate about community-driven climate, food, and environmental justice initiatives and the infrastructure and policy that allows them to thrive. Mandy currently lives on Piscataway and Nacotchtank land in DC, just a few blocks from her favorite place in the city: Wangari Gardens.

Named after Wangari Maathai, the garden embodies the beauty and power of neighborhood cooperation to steward land, care for one another, and resist decades of top-down and racist urban planning and displacement of beloved neighbors and native Washingtonian culture.


My Sacred Place


Wangari Gardens

Wangari Gardens is a 2.7-acre garden park in Washington, DC bursting with creative potential. With a mission inspired by a passion for community engagement, we are building a park to benefit everyone.

Meet Another Firesoul


Jackie Franklin

Jackie serves as the Admin and Property Manager for St Luke’s Youth Center, also known as SLYC. Jackie oversees the after school club; MOMs(Moms On a Mission) which is a SLYC parent and caregiver group that meets to address the needs of the families and community and finds a way to accomplish the goal, and...

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