Speaker Bios
Nancy Lee Adamson
Nancy is an ecologist interested in community connections between plants, people, pollinators, other wildlife, and the micro-organisms we all depend on. She studied native bees that are important for crop pollination at Virginia Tech in entomology (PhD) and native grasses at the University of Maryland (MS). She has worked in environmental conservation throughout her career—with the Xerces Society, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Forest Service, briefly with Virginia’s Natural Heritage Program, and now with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Newberry, SC. She hopes you’re inspired to notice and document flower visitors more (grasses do have flowers!) and appreciates all that you do to support healthy communities. Find her pollinator clips on YouTube c/o MelittologyNancy.
Jarod K. Anderson
Jarod K. Anderson has three best-selling collections of nature poetry, Field Guide to the Haunted Forest, Love Notes from the Hollow Tree, and Leaf Litter. His memoir Something in the Woods Loves You (Timber Press/Hachette 2024) explores his lifelong struggle with depression through a lens of love and gratitude for the natural world. His novel Strange Animals is forthcoming from Ballantine/Random House in 2027. Jarod has gained a large audience with his vivid appreciation of nature and his open, vulnerable discussions of mental health. He has had an eclectic career, ranging from teaching college English courses to managing marketing and events for academic and ecological nonprofits. He lives in Ohio between a park and a cemetery.
Clara Aus
Clara is a lepidopterist and educator at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia. Although she has fulfilled multiple roles at Lewis Ginter, her passion for nature education always shines through. As the former Butterflies LIVE! Coordinator, she designed educational signage, activities, and programs for all ages in the butterfly exhibit. Now, she spends her workdays leading school field trips, scout programs, or adult education classes. Recently, she also started helping design the future butterfly exhibit as part of the Lewis Ginter Conservatory expansion project. In her spare time, she likes to explore the outdoors, spend time in her garden, photograph native butterfly species, and make fun educational content for her social media pages. You can follow along on Instagram: @ClaraButterflyEducator, Facebook: Clara Aus, Lepidopterist, or TikTok: @ClaraAus982.
Brannen Basham & Jill Jacobs
Brannen Basham and Jill Jacobs are owners of Spriggly's Beescaping, a nature education and habitat restoration business with a special focus on native plants and native pollinators. On the habitat restoration side of their business, they offer in-person and online consultation services for wildlife-focused sustainable landscaping, full-scale 2D and 3D design, and on-site implementation when available. On the nature education side, they offer a variety of educational courses, both in-person and online, including a 16+ hour on-demand video series called Gardening for the Planet. Their Native Plant Conference course will be a condensed version of that content, which covers everything from attracting pollinators, to integrative pest management, to tackling drainage issues. In addition, they create nature-based interpretive exhibits and informational signage and have published two books with more on the way. In addition, Brannen serves as the resident nature writer for the Sylva Herald.
Adam Bigelow
Adam Bigelow is a horticulturist and amateur botanist who lives in Cullowhee, NC and has been studying the plants and wildflowers of Southern Appalachia for over 20 years. Adam is the owner/operator of Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions, an eco-tour business leading guided plant walks in WNC. He is an avid organic gardener and founded and managed the Cullowhee Community Garden for ten years. Adam is a member of the planning committee for the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference and has attended the conference for many years.
Greg Bruhn
Greg is a mostly self-taught naturalist who was exposed to the outdoors by excellent teachers: his parents and my maternal grandfather. His family moved to Asheville, NC just before he enrolled in the first grade, and they often traveled along the Blue Ridge Parkway and through the surrounding mountains. His family taught him the value of observation coupled with an on-going curiosity of the natural world. After graduation from high school, he attended Brevard College where he experienced the beauty of Pisgah National Forest on many hikes and drives along the Parkway. His professional career involved the vocational instruction of mentally challenged young adults through horticultural therapy in a workplace setting in Tidewater Virginia. Greg currently lives in Raleigh, NC where he pursues the propagation of trees, shrubs and perennials in a backyard nursery that is rapidly running out of space. Most of the plants he grows are Southeastern natives, although he also shares a fondness for camellias, heirloom apples, and pears. The tree in the background of his personal photo is a Devilwood (Cartrema americana) that he grew from seed about 15 years ago. This will be Greg’s 14th Cullowhee conference, and he looks forward to re-connecting with old friends and making some new ones.
Grace Buffaloe
Hailing from a small town in Eastern North Carolina (Laurel Hill), Grace has found herself living in the Blue Ridge for the last five years. She attended Warren Wilson College (go Owls!) where she worked as a member of the Land Stewards work crew. She received her bachelors in Environmental Studies with a concentration in ecological forestry in the spring of 2022 and immediately began a brief tenure at the North Carolina Zoo. You can now find her working on UNC Asheville's campus where she began in the fall of 2022 as a member of the grounds crew. Here, she has worked in establishing a landscape that is filled with natives and enjoyed by all. She takes personal interest in environmental education, conservation, and of course, native plants!
Kim Calhoun
Kim Calhoun (she/her) loves reconnecting folks with our plant and tree friends through foraging walks, workshops, and personalized plant rambles around the NC Triangle. Kim’s playful, reverent, and accessible teaching style has made her offerings popular going on 18 years. Planty Kim’s elders, teachers, ancestors, and life-long roots in Chatham County, NC deeply inform all that she does. She believes foraging is a powerful reminder that there is enough for us all when we share the Earth’s gifts equitably. Kim is currently writing a guide & recipe book Eat Wild Greens Everyday to introduce folks to her favorite plentiful, free, healing, delicious, and nourishing plants growing in the Piedmont. Enjoy her article for the NC Botanical Garden “Finding Native Edible Greens in Your Yarden,” follow her foraging celebrations on Instagram @plantykim, and learn more at her website, AbundanceHealingArts.com.
Owen Carson
Owen has been a professional consulting botanist/plant ecologist at Equinox for over 13 years, where he enjoys collaborating with designers, planners, landscape architects, and engineers to ensure that a site's ecological resources - the flora, fauna, and supporting abiotic environment - are protected, restored, respected, and celebrated throughout the course of a project. Owen attended Brevard College, where he earned an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science and Ecology with a minor in geology. His interest is piqued by complex ecological interactions, and he enjoys immersing himself in studies of the natural environment. Owen thrives while in the field and is adept at identifying Southern Appalachian flora and recognizing the unique natural community assemblages found in the region. He and his wife, Sarah, fell in love in (and with) Brevard, where they now raise their twins Liam and Hazel, spending their free time gardening with native plants, floating the French Broad River, and exploring state and national forests.
Dillon Conner
Dillon Conner is a landscape architect and arborist with Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc., a northern Virginia based natural resource consulting firm. His work focuses on water resource-related projects including stream and wetland restoration, green infrastructure, stormwater management, and native planting design. Dillon believes that landscape architects have much to offer in the realm of ecological restoration by helping to create landscapes that are both publicly engaging and environmentally sustainable. When he’s not on the clock, you can find him in the garden at his home in Rixeyville, Virginia or smallmouth bass fishing on the Shenandoah River.
Tradd Cotter
Tradd Cotter is a microbiologist, professional mycologist, and retired landscape designing professional, who has been tissue culturing, collecting native fungi in the Southeast, and cultivating both commercially and experimentally for more than thirty years. In 1996 he founded Mushroom Mountain to explore applications for mushrooms in various industries which currently maintains over 300 species of fungi for food production, mycoremediation of environmental pollutants, and natural alternatives to chemical pesticides. Tradd sold Mushroom Mountain in 2022 to pursue his interests in psychedelic assisted therapy an focus on research in the medical field. In 2014, Cotter completed and published the best-selling book Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation (2014), that is still one of the top ten releases with the publisher, Chelsea Green. Tradd has won numerous awards for his work including the prestigious Clemson University Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2013).
Shannon Currey
Shannon Currey is a horticultural educator with Izel Native Plants. She’s worked in the nursery industry since 2006, developing expertise in graminoids and expanding her knowledge of native forbs. A sought-after speaker and author, she presents to diverse audiences nationwide. She currently serves on the North Carolina Plant Conservation Program Scientific Committee, has advisory roles with several organizations, and served on the Board of the Perennial Plant Association. She lives in Durham, NC.
Katie Davis
Katie Davis is currently the nursery and greenhouse supervisor at the world’s largest natural habitat zoo, North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. She previously spent over a decade working in the private sector of the wholesale native plant industry focusing on wetland restoration and public outreach. Katie has channeled that experience into promoting plant conservation efforts in the beautiful environment of the Uwharrie National Forest and within the niche field of Zoological Horticulture.
Emily Driskill
Emily Driskill is an alumna of The Evergreen State College where she earned a B.A./B.S. with concentrations in Botany and Sustainable Agriculture. Through seasons of botany fieldwork in the Pacific northwest, western Rockies, southern Appalachians, and mid-Atlantic coastal plain, she has gained a loving familiarity with native plants and their places in the ecosystem. Emily has been a horticulture professional since 2016 and is founder and head grower of Tanager Plants, a wholesale native plant nursery. In addition, she co-founded and currently serves as landscape designer for Blackbird Landscapes in Mars Hill, NC.
Carson Ellis
Carson Ellis, born and raised in Asheville, NC, has been a life-long explorer of the mountains of Western North Carolina. Her love for the natural world inspired her to pursue a career studying and cultivating native plants. Following undergraduate work in environmental science and horticulture, she completed her M.S. Biology at Western Carolina University, where she researched the pollination networks of rock outcrop plant communities. As a horticulturist, she has worked with the Highlands Biological Research Station, Memphis Botanic Garden, and Tennessee Plant Conservation Alliance, and joined The North Carolina Arboretum in 2022 as the Curator of the Native Azalea Collection. A lover of the arts, she enjoys painting, ceramics, and messing around on the mountain dulcimer in her free time. She considers the natural world her biggest source of inspiration and celebrates horticulture as the ideal marriage of art and science.
Elizabeth Evans
Elizabeth is a lifelong crafter, repurposer, and plant enthusiast. She is always looking for ways to turn trash into something useful, fun, and beautiful.
Kurt Frega
Kurt Frega is the owner and operator of Carolina Habitats, a Chapel Hill nursery specializing in southeastern natives, landscaping, and environmental education. An alumnus of NC State, Frega spent the decade prior to 2021 working at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences as Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians. Carolina Habitats is a venture that grew from his diverse background in biology, personal interest in public art, and dedication to education and outreach. Coordinating and partnering with artists and clients in Durham and Chapel Hill, Frega incorporates native plants into nontraditional settings: urban commercial spaces, public municipal environments, private residences, retail terraces, and planters. Recent projects have involved using industrial artifacts with historic significance as planters, seating, and borders for courtyards as well as traffic control.
Erika Galentin
Erika is the Lead Creatrix, Clinical Herbalist, and Clinical and Business Mentor of Sovereignty Herbs. She is the host of the Herbal Practice Connexion (HPX) and the Herbal Sensorium podcast. Her home base and medicine gardens are located just outside of Athens, OH but she serves a national and international community with her renowned herbs & wellness coaching, online and in-person classes and workshops, and clinical mentorship programs. In addition to clinical practice, Erika is both a student and teacher of horticulture, native medicinal plant conservation and ecology, and the phenomenological and Goethean study of plants and their medicinal virtues. With her dedication to medicinal plants native to Ohio and the Greater Appalachian region, Erika teaches, lectures, and writes on native medicinal plant conservation and applied ecology, propagation, herbalism, and clinical efficacy.
Cheryl Geiger
Cheryl is a horticulturist, landscape designer, and owner of Secret Garden Landscapes based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The ecological sciences guide her approach to gardening, with 20 years experience in horticulture and environmental conservation, including 10 years working in western North Carolina. She further promotes the mission of building ecologically functional landscapes through education and community outreach, serving as board member for the Native Plant Initiative of Greater New Orleans.
Matt Gocke
Matt Gocke is the Greenhouse and Nursery Manager at the North Carolina Botanical Garden. He and his staff are responsible for growing southeastern US native plants for use in the NCBG habitats and display gardens and for sale to the general public. Prior to working at NCBG, Matt worked as a residential landscaper, received a Master's Degree in Forestry and was a staff member at NC State University, Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources. His research focus was developing rooting protocol for stem cuttings of native tree species including loblolly pine, sweetgum and a variety of oak species. In his free time Matt likes to hang with family and friends, play drums, go on bike rides and travel.
Tom Groves
Tom Groves is currently a Senior Botanist/Ecologist in the Rare, Threatened and Endangered Species Division of a Civil Engineering firm providing ecological services across the New England region. In Tom’s current position, he provides expert level rare plant surveys and mitigation strategies for large-scale projects in the region. Working closely with Natural Heritage programs and clients to plan and execute mitigation strategies to protect and preserve the regions rarest flora. In addition to this work, Tom also has an extensive background in invasive plant management and habitat restoration. As a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP), Tom has provided expert level advice and execution of over 1,400 acres of habitat restoration annually for various invasive plant species and agencies. Tom regularly teaches plant identification courses for organizations and institutions like The Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage and Great Smoky Mountain National Forest, Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association, New Hampshire Association of Natural Resource Scientists, University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension, Framingham State University, and Grafton Nature Museum. Tom also has a presence in the online community through Instagram (@plants.are.people.too) and through YouTube and is excited to be returning to the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference as a field trip leader to one of his favorite spots, Panthertown.
Nicole Harris
Nicole brings 15 years of professional experience in horticulture, ethnobotany, and design, teaching and collaborating with organizations like the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, SOLO SouthEast, and the SCC Outdoor Education Program. Her focus involves harmoniously blending natural environments with human-made spaces to combine function, ecological design, and wildlife conservation. Nicole is simply in love with growing plants on her mountain homestead.
Stephan Hart
Stephan is a trained taxonomic botanist who teaches plant ID and use at the University of Florida, Nantahala Outdoor Center, 4H, and for a multitude of organizations for over 30 years. His eye for detail, and expertise in landscape scale and architecture lend to designing memorable and enjoyable outdoor environments. Botanizing by boat is his favorite past-time.
Holly Haworth
Holly Haworth grew up just outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in East Tennessee. She is an award-winning author whose work has been included in The Best American Science and Nature Writing and listed as notable in The Best American Travel Writing. While she was earning her MFA at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, she traveled down the Blue Ridge on long weekends to the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, earning a Southern Appalachian Naturalist Certificate in her home region. Since then, she has become a passionate educator, working to unite her training in creative writing and as a naturalist, offering students rich creative experiences in the more-than-human world. In her first book of poems, The Way the Moon, she followed the seasonal changes with each of the moon’s phases over the course of a year in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her forthcoming nonfiction book This Resounding World: A Field Guide to Listening, has received the Robert B. Silvers Foundation Grant for Works in Progress. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Orion, Literary Hub, Lapham’s Quarterly, Oxford American, The Bitter Southerner, Creative Nonfiction, Terrain.org, Virginia Quarterly Review, In These Times, The Utne Reader, Sierra, and at the On Being radio program blog. She is creating a habitat for ecological writers at her Substack, which can be found at hollyhaworth.substack.com
Karin Heiman
- Karin was born with a curiosity and fascination with nature which she has translated into her career. She has been involved with environmental work for nearly every type of federal and state agency, including state Departments of Transportation, USDA, National Park Service, USFS, US Fish & Wildlife Service, National Institute of Health, EPA, US Army COE, USAF, state Natural Heritage Programs, and numerous universities, land trusts and engineering firms. Conservation work with land trusts has been a main focus. When she stumbled upon lichens in college, she was blown away by them and has been fascinated ever since (including that she will soon have a genus named after her).
Sally Heiney
Sally worked on a 12-acre wholesale flower farm, an herb farm and a composting service/farm project before moving from Indiana to North Carolina in 1996 where she was introduced to the native plant world working for Kim Hawks at Niche Gardens. The North Carolina Botanical Garden sent her to her first Cullowhee Native Plant Conference in '99 and she never looked back. She can talk about weeds all day… the good (native) ones and the invasive, with a focus on management. Since retiring from NCBG, she has worked with the New Hope Bird Alliance's Bird Friendly Habitat Project identifying native and invasive plants for homeowners to improve biodiversity for our birds and fauna.
Kelly Holdbrooks
Kelly Holdbrooks is executive director of Southern Highlands Reserve, a nonprofit native plant garden and research center on Toxaway Mountain in Western North Carolina. Over the past decade, she has built a network of conservationists and advocates for preserving the unique ecosystem of the Southern Appalachian mountains. Kelly’s research in experiential methods and the humanism of nature earned her a master’s degree in landscape architecture, with honors, from the College of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia. She also earned bachelor’s degrees in international studies and political science from Rhodes College and was a three-sport NCAA athlete. She is a founding member of the Southern Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative (SASRI), a public-private partnership working to restore the second most endangered ecosystem in the United States, the high elevation spruce-fir forests of the Southern Blue Ridge.
Jeff Jackson
Jeff Jackson, The Hell Hole Naturalist, is a 40+ year landscape designer, environmental consultant, and native plant and habitat explorer. Growing up in coastal South Carolina, he is a life-long lover of the outdoors. When not consulting or teaching about native plants, he can often be found kayaking the black-water creeks and reservoirs of the coastal plain or botanizing out in the rich diversity of Berkeley County.
Gary Kauffman
Gary has been the botanist/ecologist program manager for the National Forests in NC (NFsNC) since April of 2007. The NFsNC cover 1.3 million acres across 4 forests, the Nantahala and Pisgah NFs in the mountains, the Uwharrie NF in the Piedmont, and the Croatan NF in the Coastal Plain. Gary has been with the USFS since 1992, all in NC, working as a botanist, analyzing sustainability of harvested botanical products such as ginseng, recommending restoration of rare plants and communities, and updating forest plant revisions. He has a master’s degree in botany and has lived in western NC for the last 37 years.
Scott LaGreca
Scott got his PhD in Botany from Duke where he was a student of the well-known lichenology duo Bill and Chicita Culberson. Since grad school he has worked in four major herbaria and has published over 50 articles on lichens and other fungi. His research ranges from biodiversity inventories, chemosystematics, and the evolution of the genus Ramalina. Most recently, Scott completed an updated checklist of the lichen species of Mount Mitchell, including proposals for five species to be protected at the state level. He is currently the Plant Collections Manager at Sarah P. Duke Gardens.
Lenny Lampel
Lenny is a Natural Resources Supervisor with Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation’s Division of Nature Preserves and Natural Resources. He is responsible for conducting biological assessments and inventories, monitoring populations of federal and state listed rare plant species, coordinating various fauna and flora studies and projects, and managing the biological collections housed within the Dr. James F. Matthews Center for Biodiversity Studies. Lenny holds an MS in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England and a BA in Biology from SUNY College at Old Westbury. Lenny lives in Concord, NC with his wife, three children, and their big, furry dog and cat.
Ron Lance
Ron Lance is a Land Manager with the North American Land Trust and has been the caretaker at Big Ridge Preserve since 2013. He has held previous posts in natural history education and interpretation, biology, forestry, botany, and horticulture since 1975. He served on the Board of the International Oak Society for 12 years and has authored and co-authored numerous publications dealing with native woody plants of the Southeastern U.S., including 15 separate publications on Crataegus. A native of the Appalachian region of North Carolina, he now resides near Mountain Rest, SC.
Dr. Drew Lanham
A native of Edgefield, South Carolina, J. Drew Lanham is the author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, which received the Reed Award from the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Southern Book Prize, and was a finalist for the John Burroughs Medal. Most recently, he is the author of Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts. He is a birder, naturalist, and hunter-conservationist who has published essays and poetry in publications including Orion, Audubon, Flycatcher, and Wilderness, and in several anthologies, including The Colors of Nature, State of the Heart, Bartram’s Living Legacy, and Carolina Writers at Home. Lanham is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. An Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University, he and his family live in the Upstate of South Carolina, a soaring hawk’s downhill glide from the southern Appalachian escarpment that the Cherokee once called the Blue Wall.
Margot Lester
After four decades of getting paid to sling sentences, Margot knows the challenges of producing high-quality writing – and lots of strategies for making the process easier. An award-winning journalist, author and editor, she combines her experience on both sides of the desk with research-based tactics to build on each writer’s strengths. The Carrboro, N.C., native is a popular writing coach who works across genres with people at all skill levels, including academic researchers, fundraising and marketing pros, students, and emerging and established authors. A graduate of the UNC School of Journalism, she’s part of NASA’s Earth to Sky Climate Communication community of practice and participated in the first writing program at Highlands Biological Station last summer. Margot’s also a certified interpretive guide/naturalist and environmental educator.
Chris Liloia
Chris Liloia is a Curator at the North Carolina Botanical Garden, a conservation garden in Chapel Hill. She is responsible for the care of the habitat gardens which represent plant communities of the southeastern United States and display rare and common species in naturalistic settings. She also maintains NCBG’s carnivorous plant collection. She is knowledgeable in the cultivation of southeastern native plants and in the creation of gardens that are beautiful and brimming with biodiversity. Prior to joining the NCBG staff in 2000, she worked in ecological restoration in NJ and in south Florida. She earned her B.S. in Natural Resource Management, Conservation and Applied Ecology from Rutgers University.
John T. Manion
After several varied careers, John realized his greatest passion was for plants! He earned an undergraduate degree in plant science at State University of New York at Cobleskill and a Master’s Degree in Public Garden Leadership at Cornell University. He has worked at several botanical gardens and arboreta, including the Royal Botanical Garden in Edinburgh, Scotland. After working as Historic Gardens Curator at the Atlanta History Center, he became the Kaul Wildflower Garden Curator at Birmingham Botanical Gardens in Alabama, where he spent 11 years developing and refining its collection of native plants – the most comprehensive in the state. During that time, he designed and managed an immensely successful Certificate in Native Plant Studies program, as well as a biennial Native Plant Conference. Since 2022, John has been the Education and Outreach Coordinator at Overhill Gardens in Vonore, TN, where he develops and offers articles, talks, walks and multiday fieldtrips.
Paul Manos
Paul Manos is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Duke University and serves on the board of directors for Highlands Biological Station. His research emphasizes woody plants, especially the systematics of Fagaceae (the oak family), Juglandaceae (the walnut family), and related wind-pollinated families of flowering plants (Fagales). His other research interests include the phylogeography of eastern North American woody plants, and patterns of speciation via polyploidy in the true blueberries, Vaccinium section Cyanococcus (with Andy Crowl, Hamid Ashrafi, and Peter Fritsch).
Mossin' Annie Martin
WNC native and nationally recognized expert on creating moss landscapes, Annie Martin, known as Mossin’ Annie, infuses her passion for mosses with her knowledge of bryophytes and successful gardening techniques. Wearing many hats, Mossin’ Annie is a moss rescuer, small business owner, researcher, landscape contractor, garden speaker and published author of The Magical World of Moss Gardening (2015; Japanese translation, 2017). Owner of Mountain Moss Enterprises, Inc. and licensed NC Landscape Contractor, Martin offers consultation services, lectures/workshops, and turnkey installations emphasizing the year-round green appeal of eco-friendly mosses. At her Mossery in Brevard, NC, she cultivates shade, sun and versatile moss species for DIY moss gardeners and professional landscapers. Mossin’ Annie advocates benefits of native mosses as intentional horticultural choices.
Jim McCormac
Jim worked for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for 31 years as a botanist, and later specializing in wildlife diversity projects for the Division of Wildlife. He has authored or coauthored six books, including Birds of Ohio (Lone Pine 2004); and Wild Ohio: The Best of Our Natural Heritage (Kent State University Press 2009). The latter won the 2010 Ohioana Book award. He is a coauthor of the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II book. His book, Gardening for Moths, in collaboration with Chelsea Gottfried, was released in February 2023. Jim writes a column, Nature, for the Columbus Dispatch, and regularly publishes a natural history blog. He has written numerous articles in a variety of publications and has delivered hundreds of presentations throughout the eastern United States. He was named 2015 Conservation Communicator of the Year by the Ohio League of Sportsmen. Jim is an avid photographer, shooting a range of natural history subjects. He has had hundreds of photos published in various forums, including the TV show Jeopardy!
Kara McMullen
Kara is a Western Carolina University alumna with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science. As a committed outdoorswoman through paddling, backpacking, and angling, it made sense that Kara would choose a career field in the outdoors too. In the summer of 2020, she interned with Friends of Panthertown, completing a comparison of water quality upstream and downstream on the Tuckasegee River. Since then, she has worked for the biology department at WCU and with EBCI Fish and Wildlife. Friends of Panthertown hired Kara McMullen as their Trails and Stewardship Director in January of 2024 after two years on staff prior. She enjoys serving public lands with a mission of conservation and education in such a special place.
Ryan Merck
Ryan’s love of the outside world was developed over decades of observing and studying life in the awe-inspiring natural world of the oldest ecosystem that exists on Earth, the Southern Appalachians. After graduating with a horticulture degree from Clemson University, Ryan took the role of Greenhouse and Nursery Manager for the South Carolina Botanical Garden. For ten years, Ryan explored the world of plant propagation and nursery production, providing all the plant material for the SCBG installations and the semi-annual SCBG plant sales. During this time Ryan was also the SCBG Nature Based Sculpture Conservator where he worked with artists in residency and a student work force from four disciplines to install site inspired art across the 300-acre public garden. Currently, Ryan and his wife Carrie own and operate Blue Oak Horticulture in northern Taylors near Lake Robinson. Here Ryan and Carrie grow plants to provide sustenance to our biodiverse ecosystem.
Preston Montague
Preston Montague is a landscape architect and artist dedicated to connecting people with the natural world. Growing up in Virginia’s foothills, he developed an appreciation for nature through landscape painting with professional artists before working as a freelance exhibit artist and aquarium professional. Currently based in Durham, NC, he leads a studio focused on building landscapes that are rich in habitat, narrative, and outdoor experiences.
George Morris
Mr. Morris is a steering committee member and a long time conference attendee, dating back to 1989. He has been on the program leading field trips and stream restoration walks on campus since 2006. Mr. Morris is the owner of Ripple EcoSolutions which was incorporated in March of 2019. Mr. Morris designs, implements and oversees planting projects for various clients in riparian buffers, wetland and stormwater BMPs. He also oversees invasive plant species removal for various projects. Mr. Morris has an extensive background in riparian buffer and wetland planting, horticulture and landscaping with native plant species. Mr. Morris has over 35 years of experience in the environmental industry, including over 20 years with environmental restoration of native plant communities and over 20 years with removal of invasive species. Prior to Ripple EcoSolutions, Mr. Morris was Botanist/ Vegetation Specialist for River Works from 2004 to February 2019. Mr. Morris was also an Environmental Scientist for an environmental restoration planting company where his primary responsibilities were oversight of installation of bioengineering and riparian buffer plantings for stream and wetland restoration, as well as design and installation of BMP’s and rain gardens. He also owned Landscape Sanctuaries, specializing in the use of native plants in landscape situations. Prior to Landscape Sanctuaries, Mr. Morris was Superintendent of Grounds at Davidson College and oversaw the day to day maintenance of the college campus and athletic fields as well as the selection, planting, and accessioning of plants in the Davidson College Arboretum. Mr. Morris holds a B.S. in Plant Science from the University of Delaware. He is a certified Stormwater BMP Inspection and Maintenance Professional and licensed NC Landscape and Aquatic Pesticide Applicator in North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina. Mr. Morris serves on the board for the North Carolina Invasive Plant Council. He represents the landscape industry on the North Carolina Invasive Plant Council.
Geoffrey Neal
Geoffrey Neal works as Curator of the Coker Arboretum on the UNC Chapel Hill Campus. The Arboretum is a part of the North Carolina Botanical Garden and is a 5-acre haven that has been cultivated for 120 years. He also serves on the Steering Committee for this conference and has been a fairly regular attendee going back to 1994. Geoffrey writes a monthly column, Refugium, for chapelboro.com (your daily local news source). He also creates poems and snaps pictures that sometimes make it into ears, onto screens, over heads or under hands.
Bradley Odom
Brad Odom has over seven years of experience at Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW), working on a variety of scale and project types, including urban parks, arboreta, and conservation-focused agricultural operations. As part of the ConAg studio, he is currently managing several projects which focus on agroecology and the ability of working landscapes to provide and enrich agricultural, ecological, and recreational opportunities and stewardship. Brad received his BLA from Louisiana State University and is involved in a number of local organizations that allow him to explore and pursue his interests in native plants and ecologies of the region.
Jerry Parker
My name is Jerry Parker and I guess that I've always been from here....over seven decades on my familial farm combined with five generations of stewardship of a hundred plus acres of land living the proverbial stone's throw from perhaps the largest petroglyph on the East Coast named the Judaculla (slant eyed giant in Cherokee) Rock. I left for five years at UNC-CH and survived over four decades in health care to retire to the land of my spiritual lodestone. In 2011 I put 107 acres in a conservation easement with Mainspring Conservancy for historical and "forever" protection as approximately ten thousand visitors visit Judaculla Rock with its 1,500 glyphs. Sharing the history with others was my father's goal when he transferred 9/10 acre and Judaculla Rock to Jackson County in 1959 for protection that we didn't have the resources to achieve.
Cecile Parrish
Cecile Parrish was born and raised in San Antonio in her family’s gardens, enchanted by the magic she found there. She pursued an environmental science and sustainable agriculture degree at Warren Wilson College, which is centered around their 300+ acre diversified farm in Asheville, NC. She has worked on farms around the country for the past 8 years and is a certified master beekeeper. Cecile moved back to San Antonio in 2016 to work for IDEA Public Schools as their Farm Coordinator. Here, she started and now manages a 3-acre urban farm and recently launched a hydroponic farm for the district.
Sarah Parsons
Sarah’s passion is in the space where bugs and plants meet. She is an entomologist with a background in sustainable agriculture and sustainable landscape design and an Assistant Professor at WCU. Her current research looks at how to build better cities through an entomological lens. More specifically, she explores how urban land uses and zoning affect insect biomass and diversity within cities. Her research will inform city planners how to build cities, so that we conserve insect diversity at large.
Andy Pedonti
Andy Pedonti is a leader and team builder with 15 years of experience in the landscape industry. He is currently the landscape services superintendent at WCU.
Nadine Phillips
Nadine Phillips is a passionate nature lover and conduit for wonder. She is most at home, and most herself, in the forest. Nadine has led Forest Therapy walks since 2018 and is a certified Nature & Forest Therapy Guide accredited by the International Nature and Forest Therapy Alliance (INFTA). She is active in the native plant movement as a gardener, President of the Mississippi Native Plant Society, and as historian for the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference. Nadine has been featured in DeSoto and Okra magazines and appeared as a guest speaker on episodes of the Native Plant Podcast and Nature Revisited. Nadine is an avid photographer, always seeking to capture nature’s beauty and wonder. All of her interests revolve around nature and promoting biodiversity to support the interconnected Web of Life. Nadine is also a longtime volunteer and instructor at The Crosby Arboretum, the premier native plant conservatory in the Southeast located in Picayune, MS.
Annabel Renwick
Annabel Renwick is the curator of the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants at Sarah P Duke Gardens in Durham. She is from Durham in the UK and received her PhD from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth researching grassland communities. Annabel worked as a plant research scientist in industry and academia (Oxford University, University of Bristol, and the University of Bayreuth). Prior to moving to North Carolina in 2008, Annabel turned to her passion for gardening and trained as a garden designer at ‘The English Garden School’ at Chelsea in London. The intersection of grassland communities, design of landscapes and ecological research culminated in the design, development and management of Sarah P Duke Garden’s rendition of a piedmont prairie. Latterly she has been using ecological design approaches to landscapes such as pocket prairies and gardens for wildlife.
Mitchell Robinson
Mitchell Robinson joined the staff of Strawberry Plains Audubon Center as the Conservation Education Manager in January of 2014. Mitch most recently served for five years as the Education Coordinator, Land Manager and Interim Director at Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve in Austin, Texas. Within these capacities, he helped develop and implement active land management plans for endangered species within the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve System, including Golden-cheeked Warblers and Black-capped Vireos. His expertise includes endangered, threatened and invasive species management; interagency and non-profit collaborations; research design; private lands consultation; and naturalist education. Mitch lives in Holly Springs with his two dogs and can usually be found at home reading to them or playing their favorite folk songs on the guitar when not exploring the grounds at Strawberry Plains.
Laura Lee Rose
Laura Lee Rose is a native of South Carolina and has lived in the Lowcountry for many years. Certified Nursery Professional and recently retired from the Clemson Extension Service, she taught Master Gardener classes and encouraged professional landscapers. A board member of the South Carolina Native Plant Society and President of the South Coast Chapter, Laura Lee encourages the use of native plant material and sustainable landscaping. She enjoys spending time with her Grandchildren.
Lyn Rutherford
Lyn Rutherford’s education in Biology at Warren Wilson College in the mountains of North Carolina gives a theoretical grounding to the practical skills she has cultivated across a varied career. She has done trail work, conservation, habitat restoration, invasive plant management, fine gardening, and, most recently, stormwater management through green infrastructure plantings. Lyn’s work for the City of Chattanooga as a Natural Resources Supervisor has given her particular expertise in the intersection of native plants and stormwater management in urban watersheds. She manages municipal bioretention/rain gardens, riparian buffers, naturalized basins, green roofs, and wetlands and is a certified SCM Inspection and Maintenance professional. Throughout nearly a decade of service to the City’s Public Works and Parks departments, and volunteering with the Wild Ones, she has been a tireless advocate, educator, and hands-in-the-dirt worker for native plants on public lands. Inseparable from her advocacy for native plants is her pursuit of better working conditions, education, and recognition for the workers who enable them to flourish.
Shelby Sanders
Shelby Lyn Sanders joined the Foothills Land Conservancy staff in 2017. She is the Director of Natural Resources, working internally to oversee all aspects of land management as well as in the field, preparing baseline documentation reports and annual monitoring of conservation easement properties. Shelby graduated from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville in 2015, receiving a B.S. in Wildlife & Fisheries Science with a focus on management. An Oklahoma native, Shelby has called East Tennessee home since 2009. Her background includes working in both Tennessee and Kansas studying the ecology of grassland birds for UT’s Center for Native Grassland Management. Shelby Lyn also spent a year working for the Southern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service in conjunction with UT, where she assisted with the data collection for various projects assessing growth and competitiveness of upland hardwoods in the Southern Appalachian region. Shelby is a whole-hearted native plant enthusiast and is involved in several local organizations and initiatives aimed at increasing awareness about the value and use of native plants in the landscape. In her free time, Shelby enjoys birding, botanizing, hiking, and watching any kind of racing, especially NASCAR.
Dawn Sherry
Dr. Dawn Sherry is an avian ecologist by training and a native plant enthusiast thanks to the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference! She is a Professor of Biology at Middle Georgia State University where she serves as the Carolyn Wynn Smalley Endowed Chair of the Department of Natural Sciences. When she’s not in the classroom, she enjoys hiking, kayaking and any excuse to be outdoors.
Matt Sprouse
Matt is the founding partner at Sitework Studios, a full-service landscape architecture firm. He received a Bachelor of Science in Design at Clemson University in 1995 and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia School of Environmental Design in 1998. He also received a Graduate Certificate in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development at the Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia in 1998. His free time is spent enjoying the southern Appalachian Mountains; hiking, photographing and camping with his family. You can also find him wandering in his mountain native, pollinator and wildlife friendly garden.
Courtney Locklear Steed
Courtney Locklear Steed, Lumbee, is the founder of the Cultural Burn Association. She lives on her ancestral farm in Prospect, a Native American community in Robeson County. As the CBA Executive Director, Courtney advocates for Indigenous sovereignty within the realm of the Native land stewardship. She was inspired by the tutelage of her maternal grandfather, Ezra Locklear, and the traditional relationships between Lumbee people and their land that include the use of fire. The Cultural Burn Association’s mission is "healing our ancestral lands and honoring our cultural traditions through fire focused ecology." They aim to restore pre-colonial landscapes within the tribal community using traditional burning practices.
Raven Sterling
Raven started pulling English Ivy for homeowners as a side job 6 years ago, out of love and concern for trees and native plants in the Blue Ridge subrange of the Appalachian Mountains. Recognizing the diversity and significance of the ecology of the area, she created a business to eradicate invasive plants, after recognizing the threats they posed. The business runs crews of specialized landscapers who use hand tools to remove and reduce invasive plants of the Southern Forests, primarily vines, shrubs and trees. Raven Invasive Plant Management is now a thriving small business sought throughout North Carolina, South Carolina and beyond for mindful management of invasive plants without the use of chemicals. Raven’s clients include The Nature Conservancy NC, Naturaland Trust in SC, several HOAs and many private land owners.
Doug Tallamy
Doug Tallamy is an American entomologist, ecologist and conservationist. He is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. He has written and co-authored several books as well as papers. Tallamy advocates for home gardens and landscaping that bridge the gaps between parks and preserves in providing habitat for native species. He has spoken on the connections between plants and insects and how those relations are important to birds. He has called for smaller lawns He was interviewed about the need to plant more native plants by Utah Public Radio. Tallamy has overseen rigorous field-studies that examine native versus introduced flora as caterpillar hosts and chickadee habitat
Corlee Thomas-Hill
Located in Cherokee, NC, Corlee is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). She received her BA in History from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and previously worked for the EBCI as a GIS Technician researching historical EBCI lands, working with Natural Resources, and mapping for Wildland Fire. She then coordinated the Remember the Removal (RTR) bike ride for the EBCI from 2019 to 2022, a memorial bike ride that travels the Northern Route of the Trail of Tears in partnership with the Cherokee Nation. Corlee is a 2015 RTR alumni rider, which inspired her interest in supporting conservation efforts in the natural areas along the trail, including Port Royal State Historic Park, Pea Ridge National Military Park, and Dunbar Cave State Park, among others. She’s been involved in Indigenous land movements and climate change activism since 2016. In her free time, Corlee enjoys mountain biking, road biking, adventuring with her dogs, and spending time outdoors being active.
Patrick Thompson
Patrick Thompson grew up on Shades Mountain near Birmingham AL. He has been employed by AU’s Davis Arboretum since the year 2000. Patrick has curated the Arboretum’s native oak and deciduous azalea collections since 2008, overseeing their certification by the Association of the Public Gardens of America’s Plant Collection Network. His master’s thesis shed some light on native azalea propagation. Current work efforts include genetic conservation of recalcitrant Alabama native tree species, developing the Arboretum’s collections, breeding and selecting new deciduous azalea cultivars, and numerous rare plant species projects with the Alabama Plant Conservation Alliance.
Lauren Ulich
Lauren Ulich joined Upstate Forever’s Land Conservation team in 2021 and currently serves as the Assistant Director of Stewardship and Land Management. She oversees the Stewardship team and a portfolio of over 32,000 acres of protected lands in the Upstate of South Carolina. Eager to apply her plant conservation experience gained during her time spent at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, Lauren established a new Land Management initiative at her organization-- building the program from the ground up! Upstate Forever now offers enhanced support to their network of landowners and partners in conservation to improve and restore habitat on protected lands. Through this work, Lauren enthusiastically advocates for the application of improved land management strategies, encourages conservation collaboration and creatively leverages funding to protect critical lands, waters, and the unique character of the Upstate of South Carolina.
Malcolm Vidrine
Malcolm Vidrine is a Professor Emeritus of Biology at Louisiana State University Eunice. His works include more than 20 books, 120 scientific articles, and numerous presentations. His discoveries include: leprosy in wild armadillos, intricate diversity and complexity in freshwater communities of mussels, fish, and mites, where mussels notably for freshwater reefs, population ecology of mosquitoes, discovery of remnants of native prairies, leading efforts to rewild prairies, develop of complex models in mussel and mite associations and coevolution, and recent molecular phylogenetics revealing complex evolutionary relationships within water mites parasitizing freshwater mussels, globally. He continues to teach general biology to introductory classes, while managing his gardens--a 2-acre prairie in his front yard, aka, The Cajun Prairie Gardens.
Dayna Walton
Dayna is a printmaker, illustrator, and mural artist who makes work advocating for the tiny and ‘creepy crawly' parts of nature, highlighting the importance and beauty of the overlooked. She graduated from Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids Michigan, earning her BFA and Excellence Award in Printmaking in May of 2019. After falling in love with WNC during her residency with the Smoky Mountains National Park in 2019, she recently relocated to the area where she runs a backyard screen printing studio. Here she creates prints from her ink drawings that she offers at local shops, art fairs, community gatherings, and more. When she's not creating, she works alongside nature centers, museums, public libraries, and similar groups to lead workshops and paint murals. Through collaboration, science and art come together and inspire others to learn about and tend to the ecosystem they themselves are a part of.
Scott Ward
Scott Ward is a Research Botanist with North Carolina Botanical Garden. He works closely with Alan Weakley, Michael Lee, and the Southeastern Flora Team to bring important updates to the Flora of the Southeastern United States (FSUS), and its primary products (Flora PDF, phone app, web app). This work entails dichotomous key writing, herbarium research and collection, collaborations with botanical illustrators, and the assimilation of diagnostic photographs for ~10,000 vascular plant taxa occurring across the Southeastern US. Additionally, Scott leads botanical instruction at NCBG, teaching courses on grass and sedge identification, and also leading interpretive botanical hikes in nearby natural areas. Scott continues to work diligently to fulfill a major goal of the Southeastern Flora Team: bringing improved digital access of flora resources to a variety of botanists, naturalists, ecologists, and field-biologists across the 25-state southeastern flora region.
Tyler Wayland
Tyler Wayland is currently serving as the Business Development Manager at Roundstone Native Seed, LLC. Tyler holds a B.S. in Agribusiness-Ranch Management from Texas A&M University- Kingsville. Prior to joining the Roundstone team, he served as an Associate Director for the Texas Native Seeds Program operated by the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M- Kingsville. With the Institute, Tyler led the East Texas Natives Project, a regional effort within Texas Native Seeds focused on increasing the success of large-scale native plant restoration across East Texas and the West Gulf Coastal Plain. The move to Roundstone Native Seed in 2023 has given Tyler an opportunity to expand on his work and passion for enabling successful large-scale native plant establishment across the eastern United States. Early career work for Tyler includes time with an erosion control company in Houston, Texas, and 5 years of service in the United States Navy.
Alan Weakley
Alan Stuart Weakley is an American botanist with expertise in the systematics, ecology, and conservation of the flora of the Southeastern United States. Weakley is the director of the UNC Herbarium at the North Carolina Botanical Garden and an adjunct associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Flora of the Southern & Mid-Atlantic States, a manual covering the approximately 7000 vascular plants found in the Southeastern United States.
David Rahahę́-tih Webb
David Rahahę́·tih Webb is an award-winning author, artist, conservationist, scientist, and historian- rooted in the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina where he serves as a culture keeper and historian. He is a traditional and contemporary Native American artist and was the recipient of the Artist in Residence in Everglades fellowship for October 2024. A lifetime environmental educator, David brings three decades of professional experience and two decades of nonprofit business leadership to his role as executive director of Muddy Sneakers Outdoor Classroom. Previously, David was CEO of The Wonder Gardens—a historic zoological park, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida Nature Center, and Miami-Dade County’s environmental education, ecotourism programs, and the county’s sea turtle protection program. He also led teams at regional museums, gardens, and aquariums, and taught public school science. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Global Indigenous Forum Center at FIU.
Brandon Wheeler
Brandon Wheeler has spent much of his adult life searching for rare plant species across the state of North Carolina. From rappelling the rocky face of Mount Craig surveying Cliff Avens (Geum radiatium) to wading into the lukewarm water of Lake Phelps to map the single population of Military Rush (Juncus militaris) south of Delaware, Brandon has traveled far and wide across the state of North Carolina to conserve and identify rare species of plants. Now as the Conservation Ecologist for the North Carolina Botanical Garden, Brandon is combining his field experience with a background in ecology and genetics gained in a graduate degree at Western Carolina University to bolster NCBG’s conservation efforts and support their mission of science-based conservation and restoration. When not in the field, Brandon enjoys brewing coffee, riding his bike, and cheering on the Durham Bulls.
Kristen Wickert
Over the past nine years Dr. Kristen Wickert has utilized the social media app Instagram to educate the general public on the natural world around them. The posts to her personal Instagram account, with the username KaydubsTheHikingScientist, include information about organisms and conservation efforts to expose the public to the world around them, especially in the wild and wonderful world of Appalachia. Her educational background includes a bachelor’s in Forest Biology and a master’s and PhD in Plant Pathology. Her master’s work focused on controlling hemlock woolly adelgid to preserve Eastern hemlock. During her PhD she researched plant pathogenic fungi in controlling the invasive tree-of-heaven. She continues to study the natural world and educate others through several outlets, including publishing of her field guide “Plants of the Appalachian Trail”.
Robin Whitfield
Robin Whitfield is a Mississippi artist whose mission is to connect to nature and help others do the same. Her creative work begins with observations of nature in rivers, swamps and forests. Her paintings are poetic explorations of visual and ecological relationships. Robin works on paper with traditional watercolors or directly with foraged plant & mineral pigments. Robin graduated from Delta State University in 1996 with a BFA in painting. She gives creative workshops and exhibits her work where art, nature and conservation overlap. In 2018 she founded the non-profit Friends of Chakchiuma Swamp to manage and interpret Lee Tartt Nature Preserve located near her downtown studio. She is currently serving as executive director. Robin Whitfield lives and works from her studio in Grenada, Mississippi.
Marc Williams
Ethnobiologist Marc Williams has taught hundreds of classes to thousands of people about plants, humans, other life forms and their interface. His training includes a B.A. in Environmental Studies/Sustainable Agriculture from Warren Wilson College with a minor in Business and a M.A. in Appalachian Studies/Sustainable Development from Appalachian State University with a minor in Planning/Geography. He has over 20 years of experiences working at various restaurants, farms, and travels throughout 30 countries in Central/North/South America, Europe and all 50 states in the USA. More information can be found at www.botanyeveryday.com and www.plantsandhealers.org.
Thomas Woltz
Thomas L. Woltz, Senior Principal of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW), leads his firm in the artful creation and revitalization of public landscapes. Working at the intersection of culture and ecology for the sustainability of the public realm, Thomas has led the expansion of NBW to include scientists and historians as integral contributors to the design of projects ranging from restoration ecology in large urban parks to post-industrial sites and educational campuses. Through this collaborative and cross-disciplinary approach, NBW’s designs reveal lost or erased histories in the landscape. The work of NBW now stretches across thirty states and twelve countries.
Zach Wood
Zach Wood is an ecologist and land manager with a focus on grassland restoration. A native of Georgia, Zach grew up near Swainsboro in central Georgia. He earned his B.S. in Natural Resource Management with a wildlife focus from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, GA. With over seven years of experience in habitat restoration and land management, Zach has worked extensively to improve habitats for imperiled species such as the eastern indigo snake and the red-cockaded woodpecker, utilizing tools such as heavy equipment, herbicides, and prescribed fire. He was also part of the team that developed the new Georgia Native Seed Network. Zach manages the Georgia Native Seed Network, focusing on making native plant materials more accessible and supporting habitat restoration efforts across the region.
Jeffrey Zahner
Jeffrey Zahner grew up in Highlands, NC, and has spent most of his life outdoors, developing a deep appreciation and knowledge of the southern Blue Ridge. A lifelong interest in botany and gardening led to a degree in Horticulture from Clemson University, and eventually the start of Chattooga Gardens Nursery, a garden center in Cashiers, NC. Providing knowledge and availability of native plants for gardeners, landscapers, and architects is central to Chattooga Gardens’ mission. For decades, Jeff has been working with the rare Oconee Bells (Shortia galacifolia), learning its needs in propagation and production. A long-time contributor to the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference, Jeff has been leading field trips for over 20 years and is a true believer in the power of nature education. Looking to the future, with development of natural areas increasing over the region, Jeff has served on the board of the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust for 20+ years, protecting land for future generations.
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