Speakers

Jean Austin, Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, MCE. Jean has more than 20 years communications and teaching experience in business and community settings. She has worked in the insurance and financial services industry, the aging network, and in nutrition and anti-hunger organizations. She received a M.S. in Human Nutrition from Drexel University in Philadelphia in 1998.

In 2001 Jean joined the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension as a Family and Consumer Science Educator. As an Extension Educator she conducts community education programs both within Maryland and countrywide. Her nutrition programs often include gardening tips or culinary history. Based on the Eastern shore in Kent and Queen Anne’s counties Jean receives numerous questions on home canning problems and techniques.

She is active in professional organizations and serves on the Board of Directors for the Kent County Local Management Board for Children and Families.

Vinnie Bevivino is the farm manager and program coordinator of the Master Peace Community Farm in Riverdale, MD. A project of Maryland Cooperative Extension, he is researching how small urban and suburban farms can be more productive and economically viable.

Ray Bosmans Professor Emeritus, U. of MD; President, Mid-Atlantic Turtle and Tortoise Society worked for MD Cooperative Extension 30 years as county extension agent, regional specialist in horticulture at HGIC, and director of Extension’s Region 1. He currently teaches as adjunct faculty in the Institute of Applied Agriculture.

Ray has a lifelong interest in reptiles and amphibians, and serves as both president of the Mid-Atlantic Turtle and Tortoise Society, an organization dedicated to the conservation of turtle species and the proper care in captivity, and the reptile and amphibian education work group for the MD Dept. of Natural Resources.

Cindy Brown, Assistant Director at Green Spring Gardens, started her gardening career in tandem with her passion for cooking. Her desire to have specialty herbs and vegetables led her to experiment with edibles and test the climatic limits of the mid-Atlantic region.

Cindy is a regular contributor to Washington Gardener magazine, appears on local TV and radio shows and speaks frequently at various horticultural venues. She designs gardens with a mix of ornamentals and edibles for a gourmet garden that appeals to all your senses.

Bryan Butler is a MCE Senior Agent in Fruits and the Carroll Co. Center Extension Director. Bryan has been with Extension almost 20 years in Frederick and Carroll Counties. He grew up in a family-owned pick-your-own orchard and has been involved in fruit production all his life―including as a current hobby at home.

Chrissa Carlson is the Project Leader for Food Stamp Nutrition Education (FSNE) in Baltimore. Within FSNE, she runs a program called “Gardening for Nutrition”, providing nutrition education through vegetable gardening at schools, recreation centers, and senior centers. This position marries her education and training in ecology, agriculture, and urban horticulture with her passion for nutrition, physical fitness, and the culinary arts.

Prior to joining Maryland Cooperative Extension, Chrissa worked with several non-profits in Baltimore and completed an internship on a small organic vegetable farm in Athens, Georgia. She holds an MS, Ecology from the University of Georgia and a BS, Biology from the University of Maryland.

Chrissa lives in Baltimore City where she lovingly tends her edible landscape and does her best to share the joys of homegrown vegetables with her friends and neighbors.

Brian Clark is the Maryland Cooperative Extension Agent for Prince George’s County in Agriculture and Natural Resources, specializing in commercial horticulture. He has a B.S. in Entomology from the University of Wisconsin Madison and a M.S. in Entomology from the University of Nebraska Lincoln.

Mr. Clark has 7 years experience in the green industry and 4 years in pest control. Before joining Maryland Cooperative Extension, Mr. Clark worked at the University of Maryland College Park as an Urban IPM specialist, Landscape IPM specialist, and oversaw the campus’ hazardous tree inventory.

Dave Clement Ph.D. is an MCE Regional Specialist in Plant Pathology and is located at the Home and Garden Information Center.

Ann English, Rainscapes Program Planning Specialist, Montgomery Co. Rain Gardens for Environmental Stewardship: Habitat and Stormwater Management.

Ann English, RLA, ASLA, LEED AP, earned her B.A. in American History and Architectural History from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.R.P. degree from Penn State and an M.L.A. degree from the University of Georgia. At the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, she is a Rainscapes Program Planning Specialist and coordinates the Rainscapes Rewards program.

Prior to joining the DEP Rainscapes, her career focus had been on creating environmentally sustainable design solutions and integrating low impact methods of stormwater management into cost-effective and beautiful design solutions in both residential and public projects. Recent projects addressed ways to apply LID tools, such as rain gardens and permeable pavements, to solve a range of planning and site related issues.

In 2007, she designed the new Brookside rain garden as part of a grant from the National Fish & Wildlife Federation to create a series of rain garden templates for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. At the University of Georgia’s School of Environmental Design and the George Washington University Graduate Program in Landscape Studies she has served as an adjunct faculty member teaching a variety of courses.

Stanton A. Gill, Extension Specialist, IPM Nursery and Greenhouse Management, Central Maryland Research and Education Center. Stanton is also an Adjunct Professor (Full Professor rank), Landscape Technology Program, Montgomery College in Germantown, MD. He’s written or collaborated on 6 books and travels the country and the world lecturing at professional conferences.

Scott Glenn, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Maryland. Dr. D. Scott Glenn earned his Ph.D. in Weed Science in 1979 from the University of Kentucky. He started with the University of Maryland as an Assistant Professor in the Agronomy Department in 1980. Dr. Glenn is currently in the Plant Sciences and Landscape Architecture Department.

The primary focus of his research program is perennial weeds and the environmental impact of herbicides. Glenn has taught Weed Science at the University of Maryland for 28 years. Glenn served on the Executive Board for the Northeastern Weed Science Society for 8 years and was elected President in 2004.

Connie Hoge is a Carroll Co. Master Gardener. Connie’s grandfather taught her to garden and her grandmother taught her to cook and she’s been doing both ever since. She has a landscaping consulting certificate from the National Gardening Club and lectures and teaches about gardening, flower arranging, cooking and nature. She’s also a flower show judge and a beekeeper.

Miriam MacGillis, a Dominican Sister of Caldwell, New Jersey is the Founder of Genesis Farm, a learning center where people of good will are welcome to search for more authentic ways to live in harmony with the natural world and each other. In 2005 she received the Thomas Berry Award, and in 2007 was named among the planet's top 15 green religious leaders by Grist magazine. Miriam is an inspiring teacher who has lectured all over the world.

Genesis Farm’s Community Supported Garden cultivates biodynamic fruits and vegetables on 50 acres of fertile chemical free soils for over 250 local families who are shareholders in its economic base. For over 16 years it has evolved as a highly successful model of small scale agriculture, independent of the highly competitive market system which has so devastated small family farms in the US.

Genesis Farm (www.genesisfarm.org) is also a Learning Centre for Earth Studies. In collaboration with four colleges and universities it offers graduate and undergraduate credits in Earth Literacy, a field of study and a movement of people based on the insights revealed through the convergence of contemporary science and the wisdom of people.

Genesis Farm has also helped to establish the Foodshed Alliance of the Ridge and Valley, a grassroots effort to sustain the farmers, agricultural lands and rural way of life of the northwest area of New Jersey. The Alliance seeks to enable farmers to make a viable living and stay on the land.

Wanda MacLachlan, Area Educator, Environmental Management, MCE, works in the area of urban nutrient management focusing on residential water quality issues. She has developed a landscape certification program, the Bay-Wise Landscape Management Program, through which Master Gardener volunteers certify landscapes as environmentally sound in fourteen counties (and counting) in Maryland.

Wanda conducts volunteer training and homeowner classes, writes Bay-Friendly fact sheets and is involved with the Chesapeake Conservation Landscape Council. She has been with Extension since 1984, starting in Baltimore City as the urban agriculture agent. In 1992, during budget cuts, she was transferred to Montgomery County where she worked as the commercial horticulture agent. In 1995, she switched over to her current position.

Mary Kay Malinoski is an MCE Extension Specialist in Entomology and the creator of the Home and Garden Information Center’s Plant Diagnostic website. She is currently working on a diagnostic web site for invasive insects and diseases.

Betty Marose is an Extension Specialist in Weeds and in Pest Management, MCE. She teaches both basic and advanced Master Gardener classes in weed identification and control.

Coleen McCarty, City Farms Coordinator, Baltimore. After a career in sales and marketing at Panasonic, Coleen took an early retirement and thought she would take it easy for the rest of her days. However, she found herself in a garden most of the time…in her own yard, public spaces in her community, and most of all in her City Farm plot. In February, 2005 she became City Farms Coordinator.

Barbara Melera is president and CEO of The D. Landreth Seed Company. Landreth is the oldest seedhouse in America, established in 1784, and the fourth oldest US corporation. In September, 2003, she purchased Landreth from the then owners and proceeded to restore the company. Today Landreth is recognized as one of the leading providers of heirloom vegetable, flower and herb seed. The company ships its product worldwide.

Prior to purchasing Landreth, Ms. Melera was the Managing Partner of Tritech Partners, LLP, a seed stage venture capital partnership which invested in early stage technology enterprises in the Mid-Atlantic region. During her years as a venture capitalist she helped to found more than 30 companies and was a Director of more than 20 firms in the software, computer, telecommunication, environmental, healthcare, biotech and agri-science industries.

Throughout her career as an investment professional, she has been privileged to be involved with some of the most interesting, innovative technologies and entrepreneurs of the 20th century.

Richard C. Murray is an arborist, and the author of “Tree Biology Notebook: An Introduction to the Science and Biology of Trees”. His lifelong interest in ecology led him to a career in arboriculture, which he has pursued for over 35 years. He currently resides in Silver Spring, MD where he owns and operates Shannon Tree and Landscaping, Inc.

Martha Simon Pindale is the Propagation Manager at Emory Knoll Farms, in Street MD. This small, wholesale grower of hardy succulents supplies roofing companies that install green roofs. Before working at Emory Knoll Farms, Martha and her husband operated Bluemount Nurseries in Monkton, MD.

Margaret Pooler, Research Geneticist, USDA/ARS National Arboretum. A native of North Carolina, Margaret received degrees from the University of North Carolina and the University of Wisconsin. She has been leading the shrub breeding unit at the U.S. National Arboretum since 1996 where she works on developing improved woody landscape plants including flowering cherries, redbuds, and crapemyrtles.

Karen Rane is the director of the University of Maryland Plant Diagnostic Laboratory. She comes to Maryland from Indiana, where she served as Senior Plant Disease Diagnostician and Co-Director of the Purdue University Plant and Pest Diagnostic Laboratory. Karen has more than 20 years of experience in ornamental plant problem diagnosis. She has authored numerous newsletter and trade journal articles and conducted workshops on disease diagnosis and disease management for growers and extension educators.

Mike Raupp, Ph.D., Professor and Extension Specialist, Ornamental Horticulture, IPM
The goal of Mike’s research is to create sustainable landscape systems with minimal dependence on synthetic pesticides through the conservation and enhancement of biological diversity with special emphasis on natural enemy communities.

As an extension specialist, the focus of his laboratory is to develop and implement integrated pest management programs (IPM) for landscape, nursery and greenhouse systems. He emphasizes the use of resistant plant materials, manipulation of cultural regimes, and utilization of biological control. His extension programs provide training on the theory and practice of IPM to a diverse clientele. Please visit Mike’s web site at http://raupplab.umd.edu/bugweek/.

Jenny Reed is a landscape designer with a rich history of creating, installing, and maintaining residential landscapes for more than 20 years. Jenny earned her Master of Arts degree from the Conway School of Landscape Design. She is passionate about helping schools and watershed groups realize their dreams through designing rain gardens and wildlife habitats.

Debra Ricigliano is a Certified Professional Horticulturist, and an Horticultural Consultant at the Home and Garden Information Center, Maryland Cooperative Extension.

Andrew Ristvey, Ph.D. is the Eastern Regional extension agent for Commercial Horticulture for the U. of MD Cooperative Extension, stationed at the Wye Research and Education Center. He earned his Doctorate in Horticulture in 2004 after extensive research on nitrogen, phosphorus and water dynamics in container nursery operations. Andrew is presently active in several areas of extension programming and research development including greater sustainable nursery production, alternative crops and green roof systems.

Ginny Rosencranz, Extension Educator, Commercial Horticulture, has worked for the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension since 1994, acting as an Area Specialist for Commercial Horticulture for Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester Counties. She has her BS in Botany from the University of Maryland, College Park and her MS in Horticulture and Extension Education from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Ginny assists greenhouse growers, nursery growers, landscape contractors, garden center operators and golf courses with Integrated Pest Management and production issues. She teaches an annual Master Gardener course that attracts 20 interested citizens a year.

To assist the commercial growers and landscape contractors, she introduces new plants and garden topics to the general public by producing Delmarva Gardens, a 30-minute garden show that is available on public access channels in many Maryland counties. Ginny also has a weekly segment on plant care and gardening on the local CBS station.

John Speaker is an IPM Scout and the President and owner of Speaker's Garden.

Sara Tangren, Ph.D.,President, Chesapeake Natives

Founded the nonprofit Chesapeake Natives in 2005
Works with a corps of volunteers to create and maintain demonstration gardens in Annapolis, Takoma Park, and here at the University of MD, College Park
Manages several research grants on the topic of using natives for soil stabilization
Lives with her husband in Takoma Park where she gardens 1/5th acre, mostly in natives, vegetables, and herbs.
Currently working on 2 research projects: the spread of Saw-tooth oak and the conservation of the state’s native lupines.

Dr. Tangren is the founder and president of the nonprofit Chesapeake Natives. Her dissertation research explored the relationship between Maryland native plant communities, soils, and hydrology. During graduate school, she supplemented her income by designing, planting, and maintaining public and private native gardens and meadows, including a wildflower garden for the residence of the Vice President of the United States, and formal gardens for the platinum LEED certified headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

After graduation, she started and managed the only native seed production company in the Chesapeake watershed, which she has converted into the non-profit, Chesapeake Natives. Chesapeake Natives is planting public demonstration gardens at the University of Maryland College Park campus and at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Phillip Merrill Center. These gardens will contain over 100 native species propagated from local wild populations. She is the principal investigator on multiple grants for research to determine how to use locally native seed to replace the alien invasive species that are currently used to stabilize slopes.

Ned Tillman, Geologist, Author and Guide, is a lifelong resident of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and an active environmentalist. He’s enjoyed a long career in the environmental industry, and now advises organizations on how to become more sustainable. He serves as chair of the Howard County Environmental Sustainability Board and past chair of the Howard County Conservancy.

He received a BA from Franklin and Marshall College and a MS from Syracuse University in earth and environmental sciences. He has been on the staff of The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland. He also founded and served as president of Target Environmental and Columbia Technologies.

Lauren Wheeler, LEED AP, is the principal of Natural Resources Design, Inc. She has more than 20 years experience in landscape design and installation. Her love of the eastern deciduous forest led her to the Conway School of Landscape Design where she received a Master of Arts in Landscape Design with an emphasis on ecological landscape design.

She teaches at George Washington University’s Master’s in Sustainable Landscape Design and has appeared on HGTV’s Curb Appeal as a sustainable landscape designer. She has designed award-winning small urban gardens to large retirement communities.

Lauren loves to work with individuals and communities to unite the region’s ecosystems with their environment.

For more information, contact Robin Hessey

Last updated: 04/2/2009