Carolyn Edsell-Vetter

Greater Boston Area, Massachusetts United States

Worker-Owner and co-CEO at A Yard & A Half Landscaping Cooperative, Inc.

Design

“So, you run a landscaping company, and you have a divinity degree?” Yes, and that circuitous path was the perfect preparation for a really interesting job! I am one of 10 worker-owners at A Yard & A Half Landscaping Cooperative in Waltham, MA. The former owner, Eileen Michaels, hired me as a summer maintenance worker in 2000, and I stayed on to lead the company's transition to a worker-owned cooperative upon her retirement in 2014. I do some traditional CEO stuff – raising capital, budgeting, strategic planning – and some horticulturist/designer stuff – managing landscapes in riparian buffers, diagnosing plant problems, making beautiful and regenerative 4-season gardens. But unlike a...