Meet our homegrown staff
Ginger Shocklee
Director, Leadership Team
Teacher: Homesteading Class and Gardening Class
Ginger is a mother to four amazing kiddos, ages 31, 21, 19, and 16, and "Gigi" to five bouncing grandbabies! She also has an amazing son in love, with another joining the family this year! She loves hanging with her kids and grandkids.
In 2003, Ginger departed from the corporate sector, having worked at Blue Cross & Blue Shield in the Quality Department. There, she developed databases and workflow processes that significantly saved time for end users, thus decreasing associated overhead and financial costs.
For decades, Ginger owned and operated a home-based custom cake business under Texas Cottage Law. She hand crafted over 1,000 baked creations including wedding cakes, graduation cakes, and birthday cakes. Countless cupcakes, cake balls, and cookies have also found their way out of her kitchen. Her icing bags and tips have been retired for a while, except on very special occasions for the family.
Ginger has been to five of the seven continents doing missions work, with South Africa holding a dear place in her heart after having visited there several times. Her family also participated with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) in 2013. It was on her initial trip in 2006 to South Africa that The Bridge Connections nonprofit (parent organization to Homegrown) was born. Through this nonprofit, over these last few decades Ginger has also started and run a food pantry, clothing closet, twice monthly community meals (free to the public), an annual Christmas Outreach, and Homegrown, with the latter-most two still currently active. The dream for "The Bridge" is to one day have a large parcel of land for community-style living, growing and harvesting food, a nutritious food pantry for the community, and expanding the educational opportunities of Homegrown.
As a hobby (and way of life!), Ginger loves to grow her own food and/or find great deals on organic non-gmo foods. With a focus on zero food waste, she researches ways to dehydrate, pressure can, powder, and freeze food, attempting not to discard anything usable. With all of this tasty, healthy food, you will most likely find her spending any and all spare time creating and baking in her kitchen. She also loves to research the benefits of using herbs and natural remedies over traditional medicines.
A final interesting fact: Ginger has lived in a tiny house for five years (collectively) with 3 of her children, together sharing 258 sq ft of space with 3 beloved doggies.
Director, Leadership Team
Teacher: Homesteading Class and Gardening Class
Ginger is a mother to four amazing kiddos, ages 31, 21, 19, and 16, and "Gigi" to five bouncing grandbabies! She also has an amazing son in love, with another joining the family this year! She loves hanging with her kids and grandkids.
In 2003, Ginger departed from the corporate sector, having worked at Blue Cross & Blue Shield in the Quality Department. There, she developed databases and workflow processes that significantly saved time for end users, thus decreasing associated overhead and financial costs.
For decades, Ginger owned and operated a home-based custom cake business under Texas Cottage Law. She hand crafted over 1,000 baked creations including wedding cakes, graduation cakes, and birthday cakes. Countless cupcakes, cake balls, and cookies have also found their way out of her kitchen. Her icing bags and tips have been retired for a while, except on very special occasions for the family.
Ginger has been to five of the seven continents doing missions work, with South Africa holding a dear place in her heart after having visited there several times. Her family also participated with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) in 2013. It was on her initial trip in 2006 to South Africa that The Bridge Connections nonprofit (parent organization to Homegrown) was born. Through this nonprofit, over these last few decades Ginger has also started and run a food pantry, clothing closet, twice monthly community meals (free to the public), an annual Christmas Outreach, and Homegrown, with the latter-most two still currently active. The dream for "The Bridge" is to one day have a large parcel of land for community-style living, growing and harvesting food, a nutritious food pantry for the community, and expanding the educational opportunities of Homegrown.
As a hobby (and way of life!), Ginger loves to grow her own food and/or find great deals on organic non-gmo foods. With a focus on zero food waste, she researches ways to dehydrate, pressure can, powder, and freeze food, attempting not to discard anything usable. With all of this tasty, healthy food, you will most likely find her spending any and all spare time creating and baking in her kitchen. She also loves to research the benefits of using herbs and natural remedies over traditional medicines.
A final interesting fact: Ginger has lived in a tiny house for five years (collectively) with 3 of her children, together sharing 258 sq ft of space with 3 beloved doggies.
Tina Flippin
Leadership Team
Teacher: Herbs and Edible Flowers, Foraging and Survival, Ohana
Tina is a Paramedical Aesthetic Practitioner of 21 years, and her love of teaching began in her mid-twenties as a national educator for Med-Surge-Advances, The National Procedures Institute and Empire Medical, teaching physicians and their staff on cosmetic chemistry and laser physics. Fast forward 15 years, and Tina now has a passion for teaching children (including her own), not only all things science, but manners and social etiquette as well.
Tina holds traditional core values, morals and ethics close to her heart and hopes to teach this to generations to come.
She looks forward to spending time with her son, husband, dogs and cat. She loves to travel, read, teach, SCUBA dive, fish, formulate, volunteer at animal shelters, play board games, try different international cuisines (the weird stuff), spend time with family and friends, and go to church.
Leadership Team
Teacher: Herbs and Edible Flowers, Foraging and Survival, Ohana
Tina is a Paramedical Aesthetic Practitioner of 21 years, and her love of teaching began in her mid-twenties as a national educator for Med-Surge-Advances, The National Procedures Institute and Empire Medical, teaching physicians and their staff on cosmetic chemistry and laser physics. Fast forward 15 years, and Tina now has a passion for teaching children (including her own), not only all things science, but manners and social etiquette as well.
Tina holds traditional core values, morals and ethics close to her heart and hopes to teach this to generations to come.
She looks forward to spending time with her son, husband, dogs and cat. She loves to travel, read, teach, SCUBA dive, fish, formulate, volunteer at animal shelters, play board games, try different international cuisines (the weird stuff), spend time with family and friends, and go to church.
Beth Pryor
Leadership Team
Art Director, Social Media Manager
Hi! I’m Beth Pryor. My family has been homeschooling for over 9 years. Our eldest son graduated from Wylie High School and UT Dallas; we started homeschooling our middle son in 7th grade, and our daughter has been homeschooled from the start. I’ve been a co-op teacher for 5 years and have taught K-8 history/geography, science, and art classes, as well as a kindergarten class. I’m also on the admin board for 5 different homeschool organizations. My kids and I have been involved in archery, soccer, swimming, chess club, and a variety of groups and activities to enrich our schooling experience. We joined Homegrown in its inaugural season and have never left!
Professionally, I have been an art director and brand manager for over 24 years. I began my career in web development after graduating from UT Dallas in 2000. With over a decade each in corporate marketing and as a freelance entrepreneur, my experience has equipped me to offer well-rounded perspective to the unique creative needs of an organization, whether startup, non-profit, small business, or large enterprise. I offer brand management, identity consultation, print and web design, web and social media development and optimization, content strategy, copywriting, and more to a variety of industries. A large portion of my work has been serving the education sector via postsecondary trade school clientele.
My hobbies include continuing education, genealogy, travel, cooking, photography, and enjoying the great outdoors. Our family has learned so much together and is so glad to have incorporated Homegrown into our journey.
Leadership Team
Art Director, Social Media Manager
Hi! I’m Beth Pryor. My family has been homeschooling for over 9 years. Our eldest son graduated from Wylie High School and UT Dallas; we started homeschooling our middle son in 7th grade, and our daughter has been homeschooled from the start. I’ve been a co-op teacher for 5 years and have taught K-8 history/geography, science, and art classes, as well as a kindergarten class. I’m also on the admin board for 5 different homeschool organizations. My kids and I have been involved in archery, soccer, swimming, chess club, and a variety of groups and activities to enrich our schooling experience. We joined Homegrown in its inaugural season and have never left!
Professionally, I have been an art director and brand manager for over 24 years. I began my career in web development after graduating from UT Dallas in 2000. With over a decade each in corporate marketing and as a freelance entrepreneur, my experience has equipped me to offer well-rounded perspective to the unique creative needs of an organization, whether startup, non-profit, small business, or large enterprise. I offer brand management, identity consultation, print and web design, web and social media development and optimization, content strategy, copywriting, and more to a variety of industries. A large portion of my work has been serving the education sector via postsecondary trade school clientele.
My hobbies include continuing education, genealogy, travel, cooking, photography, and enjoying the great outdoors. Our family has learned so much together and is so glad to have incorporated Homegrown into our journey.
Machali Shocklee
Age Group Leader: Blue Hi my name is Machali but I go by Mach for short. I am 20 years old, and I am the blue age group leader. I love working with kids and animals! When I am not at Homegrown, I enjoy my job at a local dog boarding facility. Any free time I have, I enjoy hanging out with my doggies, riding and working with horses and going on road trips! In the future, I hope to attend dog grooming school and start my own dog grooming business or do something with animals. I have been with Homegrown since 2021 when it started and Homegrown days are my favorite day of the week! I greatly enjoy working here and getting to know each student! I look forward to getting to know your kids this semester and learning about nature with them. |
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