GO NATIVE U INSTRUCTORS

Daniel Atha is a botanist who has collected more than 16,000 plant specimens and has discovered plant species new to science. He retired from The New York Botanical Garden after nearly three decades of research in all 50 of the United States as well as in Vietnam, Bolivia, Mexico, Belize, South America, and the Caucasus of western Asia. He has published more than 60 scientific papers, a book on the plants of Belize, and was the lead author on a botanical inventory of New York’s Central Park. His work in research, conservation, and art has appeared widely, including in the journal Nature, Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society, The New York Times, Vogue, and the Wall Street Journal.

Patricia Butter is a botanist and the garden manager and educator at The Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College. She is currently conducting floras of Ward Pound Ridge Reservation and Rockefeller State Park Preserve. She holds a certificate in botany from The New York Botanical Garden, where she also teaches; a certificate in sustainable gardening with native plants from Go Native U at Westchester Community College; and a BFA from Pratt Institute.  

Joshua DiPaola is the natural resource specialist for Rockefeller State Park Preserve, where he oversees wildlife conservation and ecosystem management for more than 1,700 acres. He has a master’s degree in animal behavior and conservation and has wide work experiences, including for the Central Park Zoo and an aquatics lab. He has also volunteered at a wildlife rehabilitation center, supported a disease ecology project at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, and performed field research on critically endangered wildlife in Southeast Asia.

Kim Eierman is an ecological landscape designer and environmental horticulturist specializing in native plants. She is the founder of EcoBeneficial based in Westchester County. Kim teaches at several institutions, presents nationwide on ecological landscape topics, and provides horticultural consulting and landscape design to residential, municipal, and commercial clients. She is the author of The Pollinator Victory Garden: Win the War on Pollinator Decline with Ecological Gardening and is a member of The Native Plant Center’s Steering Committee.

Missy Fabel is an ecological landscape designer and horticulturist with a focus on native plants. She works as an ecological landscape manager on private estates in Westchester and Orange counties and as a freelance native plant designer and consultant. Missy has a certificate in botany from The New York Botanical Garden and a certificate in sustainable gardening with native plants from Go Native U at Westchester Community College, where she is a member of The Native Plant Center’s Steering Committee.

Lindsey Feinberg is the native plants manager at Westchester County’s Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center, where she oversees the native plant and seed growing operations. She also manages wild seed collection throughout the county. Lindsey trained as a seed collector under the Bureau of Land Management’s Seeds of Success program in partnership with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank, to collect seeds for restoration and resiliency along the East Coast.

Bob Finkelstein, who had a long career as an environmental toxicologist, is co-chair of The Native Plant Center’s Steering Committee, and co-president of Healthy Yards New Rochelle, where he transformed his yard into a native plant and Pollinator Pathway garden. He is also a member of the New Rochelle School District Green Initiatives Education Committee, working to facilitate the implementation of environmentally sustainable practices.

Michael Hagen is curator of the Native Plant Garden and Rock Garden at The New York Botanical Garden. Previously, he served as staff horticulturist for Stonecrop Gardens in Cold Spring, New York, and as garden manager at Rocky Hills in Mount Kisco, New York.

Duncan Himmelman, PhD, is the former education manager at Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware. He earned his doctorate in ornamental horticulture at Cornell University, taught college during a 24-year span in the U.S. and Canada, and currently operates a landscape design and horticultural consulting business in the tri-state area.

Carolle Huber is a landscape architect who practices suburban ecology in New Jersey and the Catskills, with a focus on creating landscapes that are environmentally sustainable and cause no harm to future generations. She holds degrees in environmental science and landscape architecture. An award-winning practitioner, Carolle is widely published, including in Edible Jersey and Wild Ones. 

Taro Ietaka is Westchester County’s Assistant Director of Conservation and the supervisor of Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, the largest park in the County. A naturalist and certified arborist, he has been instrumental in the County’s invasive species management and biodiversity programs. A member of The Native Plant Center’s Steering Committee, Taro also is the past president of the Connecticut Westchester Mycological Association, past steering committee member of the Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management, and co-founder of the Beech Leaf Disease Coalition.

Sarah Kornbluth, a field associate at the American Museum of Natural History, is a native bee specialist and an expert at identifying bees to species. She conducts ecological research and surveys to examine bee communities and explore the function of habitat management regimes, and has worked on powerline rights-of-way across the country, in agricultural areas, and in urban and suburban sites.

Ann Perkowski is principal of Lady Clippers, a boutique landscaping firm that specializes in fine-garden hand pruning. She is a Master Gardener and travels extensively to study proper and creative pruning techniques, including a recent residency at Sissinghurst Castle Gardens in the UK.

Clare Pierson has been studying herbal medicine since 1993 and teaching since 2004 in venues around Westchester County, including at Westchester Community College, Stone Barns Center, Bethany Arts Center, and Rockefeller State Park Preserve. She conducts weed walks, lectures, and medicine-making classes for gardening groups, civic organizations, and scout groups, and sells her herbal creations at the Pleasantville Farmers Market, the Teatown plant sale, and the Herb Society Fair.

Jessica A. Schuler is Program Coordinator for Natural Resources at Westchester County’s Lasdon Arboretum. Previously, she was director of the Thain Family Forest at The New York Botanical Garden, where she was responsible for the management and ecological restoration of the 50-acre old-growth forest as well as for the development of education and research programs. She teaches about urban forest restoration, invasive species, and native plants. An ISA-certified arborist with a BS in plant science from Cornell, she is a past member of The Native Plant Center’s Steering Committee.

Carolyn Summers is co-founder of Go Native U and is co-author with Kate Brittenham of the newly revised Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East. Carolyn’s 300-acre Flying Trillium Gardens and Preserve in the Catskills is open to the public by appointment. She holds a bachelor of science in landscape architecture from the City College of New York and has worked for the Trust for Public Land, the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. She is a member of The Native Plant Center’s Steering Committee.

Lynn Trotta is a skilled naturalist, outdoor educator, and eco-spirituality facilitator with more than 20 years in private practice. She guides individuals and groups of all ages to find grounded peace and healing through a rooted and sacred relationship with nature.