Staff Stories: Kwesi Joseph
Planted with purpose – How one staff grad is improving green spaces through continued education
By Grace DePaull
In the heart of Brooklyn, among raised beds and compost piles, you’ll find Kwesi Joseph, an urban gardens specialist for Cornell Cooperative Extension, who spends his days helping New York City grow – literally. Based in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Joseph supports communities across the city’s boroughs in cultivating green spaces. By blending community engagement with a deep-rooted love for gardening, he has helped foster resilience and self-reliance through vibrant green hubs.
“I feel like a kid in a scientific playpen,” Joseph said. “I really appreciate the autonomy I’m given in my role to be creative and come up with projects and trials to create the best gardening tactics. I get to give back in a non-traditional way. It’s all about taking care of our soil and our plants because, in return, they will then take care of us.”
His passion for the soil took root early. As a child in Guyana, South America, he was captivated by the feel of dirt and clay – a fascination that stayed with him after moving to New York City at age twelve and later led him to earn a bachelor’s degree in geology.
In 2011, during a stressful time in his life, he revisited that early connection with encouragement from his wife. Joseph transformed an underused part of their backyard into a garden – a decision that would quietly lay the groundwork for his future career.
“I started reading about gardening like crazy,” Joseph said. “I began experimenting in my backyard, using rock dust as a soil amendment to add trace elements to the soil and nematodes [microscopic worms] to kill cucumber beetles that are harmful to plants. I was using nature to fight nature.”
With specialties in soil fertility and integrated pest management, Joseph is hands-on and deeply committed to applying science in practical, community-based ways. In just four years at Cornell, he has helped launch four new gardens across the city.
And as his work expanded across boroughs and within different communities, so did his vision. Joseph began to see that creating long-term, sustainable change in urban agriculture required more than hands-on knowledge — it demanded strategic thinking, system-level insight and the ability to connect grassroots efforts with broader infrastructure and policy frameworks.
That realization led him to pursue an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) at Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. Initially encouraged by Professor Jenny Kao-Kniffin to pursue a Master of Science (MS) in Soil and Crop Sciences to sharpen his knowledge of the scientific method, Joseph instead enrolled in Cornell’s EMBA Metro NY program to balance his deep technical knowledge with strategic thinking and practical tools for scaling community impact beyond the garden beds.
“It was tough,” Joseph admitted. “I knew it would be, but I wasn’t prepared for just how hard it is, being both a full-time staff member and student. There were times when imposter syndrome bubbled up, and it's definitely a sacrifice when it comes to time spent with loved ones. But I just leaned on the support of those around me – they were my village that got me through.”
For twenty-two months, Joseph commuted every other weekend to the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island and even made several trips to Cornell’s Ithaca campus for classes. To stay grounded during that time, Joseph relied on the support of Cornell’s Men of Color Colleague Network Group, university executive coaches and his classmates.
“Don’t give up,” Joseph said. “As hard as it may seem, there’s always a way through. But you can’t do everything alone. You have to rely on the people around you. I learned that reaching out for help doesn’t mean you’re weak or incompetent. There’s no way to be an expert at everything, so you may as well connect with classmates who are going through the same experience alongside you.”
Since completing his degree in spring 2025, Joseph has felt more equipped to grow not just gardens, but the infrastructure and partnerships needed to sustain them. He’s focused on integrating what he learned into his daily work.
“The further away you get from jobs that typically require an MBA, the more powerful the MBA becomes,” he said. “In this field, people don’t always see the need for the skills that come with a degree in business. But they matter.”
Now, Joseph is focused on expanding his impact. Through soil-focused projects like teaching biochar production in the Bronx or promoting nutrient-dense food that supports local nutrition programs, he’s helping communities cultivate more than plants – he’s growing opportunity, equity and stronger local systems.
“I’m not chasing money,” Joseph said. “My job is unique and there are so many creative ways to scale impact. I'm going to take advantage of what I’ve learned in my EMBA classes, along with the connections I’ve made, to develop entrepreneurial ideas that build real community value.”