About

I have served on the Cornell Public Garden Leadership Advisory Committee since 2012, which supports graduate education for Cornell Botanic Gardens and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. In this role, I’ve enjoyed providing tours, mentoring students, and hosting them for dinner in my home. I first set foot at “Cornell Plantations” in the 1980s for a meeting of what is now the American Public Gardens Association (APGA). I met the prior and current Cornell Botanic Gardens directors, Don Rakow and Christopher Dunn, through APGA, and have co-presented with each. I wrote the Outreach Chapter for Public Garden Management, co-edited by former director Don Rakow.

I have served as executive director of Queens Botanical Garden, the place where people, plants and cultures meet, since 1994. I am also adjunct faculty, teaching public garden management, at Farmingdale State College. I graduated from the University of Connecticut in environmental horticulture (1980), and New York University in public administration (1991). I have worked at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York City Legislature, Columbia University Press, and in the nursery/florist business. I have been on the board of MetroHort Group and Green Guerillas, and created a master plan for Glenwood Lake Park in New Rochelle, New York, where I live. I have also published articles in Public Garden and other publications.