Ben Shardlow is the Board Chair for the Creative Enterprise Zone, a place-based non-profit organization dedicated to attracting and supporting creative people and businesses in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

As an urban planner and designer focused on complex public spaces, Ben has worked on developing innovative programs to grow the urban tree canopy in challenging sites for over a decade. In the largely-industrial Creative Enterprise Zone, Ben launched the 100 Trees Initiative, a slow and steady approach to planting and caring for trees that seeks a sweet spot between the scale of operation – a small non-profit can manage and the long-term impact.

In Ben's day job is the Chief of Staff for the Minneapolis Downtown Council & Downtown Improvement District, where he has worked since 2012 addressing the root causes of a variety of public space challenges, including urban forestry.

Basil Camu loves trees. And soil, wildflowers, insects, bats, fungi - basically everything to do with terrestrial ecosystems. He is fully committed to caring for this beautiful planet. He is a Treecologist, ISA Board Certified Master Arborist, Duke University graduate, and Wizard of Things at Leaf & Limb. Though trees are his passion and profession, he also loves tending to the native flowers in his garden, growing Piedmont Prairies, and propagating plants from seed. Some of Basil's favorite pastimes are hanging out with his wife and sons, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, powerlifting, hiking, and sprinting. His next favorite things in life are reading, garlic, traveling adventures, blazing hot peppers, pickles, and food from Lucettegrace in downtown Raleigh.

Sandy and Julia Shettler are a mother-daughter team with Tree Action Seattle, which advocates for Seattle's trees at the neighborhood level and at City Hall.

Sandy is a medical social worker with a background in public health. She focuses on the physical and mental health benefits of living near trees, and the need to bring these benefits to deforested and underserved urban communities. Julia is an electrical engineer by training and works in climate tech. She is deeply interested in preserving the natural environment as a common-sense solution to climate change.

Tree Action Seattle is a collective effort that was sparked by the City of Seattle’s July 2023 approval of the cutting of a large western red cedar. Nicknamed “Luma”, the Snoqualmie Tribe identified the tree as historic and culturally modified. This singular tree illuminated glaring flaws in Seattle’s tree code.

Activists nicknamed “Droplet” sat in Luma’s branches and did not leave until the property owner chose to protect Luma. The community that coalesced around Luma’s protection catalyzed a movement focused on transparency, accountability, and sound urban forest policy.

Erica Kratofil is Co-Executive Director for The Giving Grove, where she helps lead a national network of urban community orchard and food forest programs. As a social worker, Erica is passionate about community vitality and the many ways that urban orchards benefit both people and the planet.

Erica is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and has a master’s in social work and nonprofit management from Washington University in St. Louis. She has worked previously in education, food security initiatives, and community-based housing programs. She also served as a social work field instructor for the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Amy Stewart is the New York Times best-selling author of the The Drunken Botanist, Wicked Plants, and several other popular nonfiction titles about the natural world. She’s also written several novels in her beloved Kopp Sisters series, which are based on the true story of one of America’s first female deputy sheriffs and her two rambunctious sisters.

Her books have sold over a million copies worldwide and have been translated into 18 languages.

She lives in Portland with her husband Scott Brown, a rare book dealer.

You might’ve heard Amy on NPR’s Morning Edition or Fresh Air or seen her profiled in the New York Times. Her checkered television career includes CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, the PBS documentary The Botany of Desire, and–believe it or not– TLC’s Cake Boss. (The cake was delicious.)

Amy’s 2009 book Wicked Plants was adapted into a national traveling exhibit that terrified children at science museums nationwide for over a decade. Even better, a few bars around the world are named after The Drunken Botanist.

It’s an honor just to be nominated, but it’s even better to win, and she’s won a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the American Horticulture Society’s Book Award, and an International Association of Culinary Professionals Food Writing Award.

Amy travels the country as a highly sought-after public speaker whose spirited lectures have inspired and entertained audiences at college campuses such as Cornell and Harvard, corporate offices like Google (where she served tequila and nearly broke the Internet), conferences and book festivals, botanical gardens, bookstores, and libraries nationwide.

Dr. Glynn Percival is the Senior Arboricultural Researcher at the Bartlett Tree Research and Diagnostic Laboratory. Dr. Percival primarily focuses on how environmental stress (drought, heat, and waterlogging) influences tree growth and susceptibility to pest and disease attacks. He is the author of more than 100 scientific papers, magazine articles, and book chapters, and is an honorary lecturer at the University Reading and the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew in the UK.

Cyrus Copeland, a writer and nonprofit pioneer, planted his first tree as a tribute to his father—a red oak on the grounds of Valley Forge. Year after year he returned to the tree. But it wasn’t until Cyrus traveled to the West Bank and witnessed the deep relationship between Palestinians and their olive trees that an idea sparked: Could planting trees bring prosperity and balance to a high-conflict region? Collaborating with the Palestinian Farmers Union, he launched Treedom for Palestine, harnessing the power of the olive tree as a catalyst for change.

Copeland’s dedication to civic engagement stems from his parents, educators from Iran and America, who instilled in him the value of fostering understanding among diverse communities.

Cyrus began a decade-long career on Madison Avenue developing strategies for clients like Kodak, Chrysler, and Chase, but found his true calling as a writer and social change advocate. His most recent book, OFF THE RADAR (Penguin/Blue Rider), won him the Chautauqua Prize, and his writings have been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Slate, NPR, and BBC.

Beyond his literary achievements, Cyrus is also a sought-after speaker and has delivered talks at conferences and cultural events worldwide.
Cyrus is an alum of Haverford College, Villanova, and Cornell University.

Dr. Christine Carmichael is the award-winning Founder and Principal of Fair Forests Consulting, LLC, which she began in July 2019. She is also the best-selling author of Racist Roots: How Racism Has Affected Trees and People in Our Cities—and What We Can Do About It.

She holds a Ph.D. in Forestry with a Specialization in Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change and a holds a Graduate Certificate in Community Engagement from Michigan State University. Dr. Carmichael has published research explaining why 25% of Detroit residents eligible to receive a free street tree between 2011-2014 chose to decline this offer. Since its inception, Fair Forests Consulting, LLC has partnered with several U.S. cities and urban forestry organizations to develop strategies to achieve environmental justice goals through urban tree planting, stewardship, and community engagement.

Marielle Drennan is the owner of Champion Tree & Plant Health Care, a full-service plant health care company based out of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and servicing the Main Line and surrounding areas. Marielle is an ISA Certified Arborist® and a Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Certified Pesticide Technician. Prior to forming Champion Tree, Marielle worked on her husband's pruning crew for several years. She is a passionate collector of David Austin and antique roses, as well as a Pennsylvania Big Tree enthusiast. Marielle is a graduate of Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, Virginia where she majored in mass communications and double-minored in studio art and film and visual culture studies.

Cliff Drouet is a Forester with the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement(OSMRE) which is a federal agency under the Department of the Interior. Cliff is working with the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative(ARRI). The program restores old surface mine sites throughout Appalachia by planting native seedlings and establishing wildlife habitats. This reforestation program was started in 2004 by OSMRE and it has evolved into a highly successful program with good seedling survivability and growth. Having native trees growing on old mine sites greatly improves air, water, and soil quality while providing wildlife habitat and recreation benefits on the site. The ARRI program partners with private landowners, federal, and state agencies, non-profits, academia, and corporations to restore old mine sites back to native forests across Appalachia.

Cliff graduated from Louisiana Tech University in 1980 with a B.S. in Forest Management and he is a member of the Society of American Foresters. His professional background includes working as a Procurement Forester for 11 years in the industrial sector then he worked as a Consulting Forester for 25 years. In 2016 he began working as a Federal Forester in Kentucky.

Cliff is a proud military veteran who served for 36 years and completed four combat tours. He is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel with experience as an Engineer and Military Intelligence Officer.

John Perlin is a Professor and Visiting Scholar in the Department of Physics at University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization.
Perlin says, “It is my hope that this edition of A Forest Journey will make clear the imperative humanity faces because losing our forests would not merely be the end of nature, it could mean the end of us.”
Originally published in 1989, the book’s comprehensive coverage of the major role forests have played in human life …….earned its recognition as a Harvard “Classic in Science and World History” and as one of Harvard’s “One Hundred Great Books.”

In this latest edition, Perlin cites data on how humanity has cut down half the trees on the planet in the last 12,000 years and that deforestation continues at an alarming pace with 15 billion trees removed per year. That’s 500,000 square miles of forested land lost since the first edition of A Forest Journey was released.

Perlin is also the author of three other books: A Golden Thread: 2500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology; From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricity; and Let It Shine: The 6000-Year Story of Solar Energy.

Perlin lives in Santa Barbara, California.

Neelam Patil, M.Ed., MFA, is a Climate Literacy and Science Teacher in the Berkeley public school system. She was awarded TIME Innovative Teacher of the Year 2022 by TIME Magazine based on her work teaching children they can do something about climate change. Ms. Patil spearheaded the planting of the first Miyawaki schoolyard forests in North America in Berkeley, California. While teaching her students about deforestation, they wanted to do something immediate and impactful. They demanded, ‘Let’s plant trees!’, and the rest is history.

Ms. Patil has been an educator since 2000. Her work specializes in empowering children to face the most pressing challenges of our time through climate resilience, mindfulness, plant based culinary education, and youth urban forestry. She is a certified SKY Breath instructor and recently founded a non-profit, Green Pocket Forests, whose mission is to green urban spaces using the Miyawaki method.

Robert Lundgren has a Bachelor of Plant Science and Fine Arts minor from the University of Delaware, and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. He worked at landscape architecture firms, Olin and Andropogon and is now at Penn working as the University Landscape Architect within the Facilities & Real Estate Services Division, shepherding a variety of landscape projects on the 300-acre campus arboretum. He is an artist, an award-winning designer and an avid naturalist. His responsibilities at Penn include research, campus planning, tree care and management, garden design, ecological and environmental initiatives and maintenance protocols.

Dave Muffly has been planting trees (especially oaks) in the Bay Area and other California locations for more than 30 years. Dave began his tree career when he received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, at Stanford University. Moving from engineering to ecology, Dave managed native oak plantings at Stanford with the non-profit Magic, in a project that has yielded more than 4,000 established oaks in 40 years. Dave then branched into fruit trees, and urban tree plantings, with a special focus on street trees.

Dave subsequently became a Board Certified Master Arborist and designed/oversaw the 101 Freeway Soundwall planting as part of the East Palo Alto Tree Initiative led by the non-profit Canopy. This radical and experimental 1000-tree drought adaptation planting succeeded far beyond expectations and laid the foundation for the changes reverberating through the California tree nursery industry today. The East Palo Alto Tree Initiative became the proof of concept for the even more radically diverse plantings at Apple Park in Cupertino, where Dave spent seven years as Apple's Senior Arborist. Today Dave works as a senior arborist and horticultural futurist.

Daniel Hinkley is a plantsman, author, lecturer, nurseryman, and horticultural consultant. He earned a B.S. in Horticulture and Horticulture Education from Michigan State University and an M.S. in Urban Horticulture at the University of Washington. His first garden, Heronswood, near Kingston, Washington is now owned and operated by the Port Gamble SKlallam Tribe and is open to the public throughout the year.

Dan's current garden, Windcliff, is just a few miles from Heronswood. It sits on a high bluff overlooking the Salish Sea. For forty years, Hinkley has traveled the globe to similar climates to observe and preserve plants that deserve recognition as possible new additions to landscapes worldwide.

He has written four books and has been recognized by his peers in receiving numerous awards for his work, including the Liberty Hyde Bailey award from the American Horticulture Society, the Scott Gold Medal from the Scott Arboretum, and the Veitch Memorial Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society.

Mr. Al Key has been involved in the green industry for 30 years as an owner of DeepRoot Green Infrastructure, LLC. Together with his partners, he co-invented the SilvaCell® and has received several patents for his inventions which address trees and stormwater management in the urban setting. He has written for a wide range of publications, including the Journal of Arboriculture and Civil Engineering News. As Vice President, he established a representative network nationwide, set up major distributorships, and has been instrumental on projects such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center, and the MIT SOMA Center at Kendall Square, Cambridge MA. Mr. Key is a former Board Member of TreesNY, a Bronze Level Sponsor of the American Chestnut Foundation, a Forestry Committee member of the Wantastiquet Trout Club, and an Affiliate Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

Doug Oster is the Pittsburgh’s Garden Guru and host of the popular radio show The Organic Gardener on KDKA radio every Sunday morning. He writes a gardening column for The Green Voice, the newsletter for Pittsburgh Earth Day.

Oster appears on KDKA-TV’s Pittsburgh Today Live as a contributor.
He’s also host of the Talking Trees podcast for the Davey Tree Expert Company along with starring and producing In Doug’s Garden, a weekly television show for CBS/KDKA Streaming.

Oster is proud to work as a consultant with Farm to Table of Western Pennsylvania/Buy Fresh Buy Local. In that capacity he teaches organic gardening classes, helps in the creation and maintenance of local gardens, and works with the team to help underserved communities.

In addition, Doug hosted, produced and wrote the one-hour special “The Gardens of Pennsylvania” for PBS which won the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary.

His fifth book, “The Steel City Garden; Creating a One of a Kind Garden in Black and Gold” demonstrates how to create a garden using Pittsburgh’s favorite colors.

The garden personality has a strong following on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Oster’s most satisfying accomplishment was founding Cultivating Success, a garden program for foster and adoptive children.

John Grimshaw has been interested in plants his entire life, as both gardener and botanist. He holds a first class degree in botany and a doctorate in the ecology of the forests of Mt Kilimanjaro from Oxford University. His Tanzanian connections remain important, and he’s proud to be an honorary elder of the Maasai community of Lerang’wa, Tanzania. African plants remain an important botanical interest, but he is fascinated by all plants and has grown a huge diversity in his gardens. He has travelled widely to see plants growing in habitat. His first book was The Gardener’s Atlas (1998), recounting the journeys plants have made from their source to our gardens.

Working in The Netherlands for the seed company K. Sahin, Zaden. B.V., John was responsible for developing perennials and other plants for the seed trade. This gave him invaluable experience of commercial horticulture and management. Following that he joined Colesbourne Park in Gloucestershire as Gardens Manager, where he was responsible for maintaining and developing the historic Elwes family garden, especially the snowdrop collection. He co-authored the monograph Snowdrops (2002) with M Bishop & A Davis, published by Griffin Press. Between 2004-2009 he was lead author of a major book on trees introduced in the past 35 years, entitled New Trees, Recent Introductions to Cultivation, with co-author Ross Bayton. It was sponsored by the International Dendrology Society and was published by RBG Kew, in May 2009.

In August 2012 he became Director of The Yorkshire Arboretum, North Yorkshire, with responsibility for the 120-acre arboretum and 20-acre Ray Wood, on the Castle Howard estate. This involves a wide range of management and administrative duties, fundraising and networking as well as active curation of the extensive collection. In 2021 the arboretum opened the country’s first dedicated Tree Health Centre, to raise awareness of the problems facing trees from diseases, pests and climate change. He was appointed MBE for ‘services to tree health and plant conservation’ in the 2024 New Year Honors List.

John is a member of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Nomenclature and Taxonomy Advisory Group, the RHS Woody Plant and Gardens Committees, and in 2012 led the RHS review of the Award of Garden Merit.

He speaks and writes widely on horticultural and tree-related subjects. Other interests include the arts, cookery and poultry-keeping.

He is also Editor-in-Chief of the International Dendrology Society’s Trees and Shrubs Online www.treesandshrubsonline.org, an encyclopedic work covering all temperate woody plants.

Richard McCoy is a 30 plus-year green industry professional, American Green Zone Alliance (AGZA) Northeast Regional Representative and owner of Richard A. McCoy Horticultural Services Inc., established in 1995 and incorporated in 1998 as a conventional landscape company.

McCoy’s company began a transition to become one of New Jersey's first completely organic, ecological, and low-impact land care companies in 2005. Currently, McCoy Horticultural offers organic lawn and land care solutions, native plants, and green infrastructure design and installations. McCoy’s off-the-grid battery electric landscape maintenance is powered by a prototype self-designed solar trailer, and he uses autonomous robotic lawn mowing.

Richard is a NOFA Accredited Land Care Professional, holds a Rutgers Organic Land Care Certificate and is an AGZA Certified Service Pro. McCoy is also an active New Jersey Nursery and Landscape Association member.

In addition, Richard is an advisor to many professional groups as well as being an organic, ecological, and low-impact land care educator to contractors, municipal and institutional workers on how to transition to alternative land care methods.

Mark Richardson is the Director of Horticulture for the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill in Boylston, Massachusetts. He leads a team of horticulture staff and oversees a living plant collection that spans sixteen distinct garden spaces, two conservatories, and over 100 acres of surrounding woodlands and wetlands. He has a passion for ecological horticulture and native plants, and he lectures on various topics including “How to Kill Your Lawn.” He is the co-author of the book Native Plants for New England Gardens (Globe Pequot, 2018).