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Board of Directors

CNPS is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors and Chapter Council, who work in concert with the Executive Director, staff, and the organization’s 35-chapter network to fulfill the CNPS mission.

Board of Directors

Angel Garcia

Chapter Council Representative

Angel Garcia first became acquainted with California native plants as an undergraduate student but truly recognized their importance—especially in urban environments—when creating his first garden.

April Owens

Secretary

April Owens was hooked on California native plants since her first field trip with Glenn Keator on Santa Cruz Island, and she’s been studying them ever since. She’s built a career on the belief in urban landscapes as conservation islands—wonderful havens for California’s flora and fauna. April owns a landscape design and installation firm that specializes in California native planting and sustainable design. She has created hundreds of gardens from Southern California all the way up through Oregon. She also co-created the Habitat Corridor project (HCP) and serves as Executive Director. HCP creates California native urban demonstration gardens and to date have replaced over 375,000 square feet of turf with natives. To think of all of that habitat and biodiversity makes her joyful. She also has served on the local chapter of the California Native Plant Society Milo Baker for the past ten years, currently as Horticulture Chair and a member of the Communications Committee.

Brent Mishler

Director

Brent Mishler has been a died-in-the-wool California botanist since his high school days working as a ranger-naturalist for the Los Angeles County Nature Center Unit. He received Bachelors and Masters degrees at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, then went on to get a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Having spent his career as a botany professor first at Duke University then at the University of California, Berkeley, he currently is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Integrative Biology at UCB where he was Director of the University and Jepson Herbaria for 30 years. His research interests center on the ecology and evolutionary biology of bryophytes (mosses and liverworts), as well as the history and theory of phylogenetic systematics, particularly the vexing issue of species concepts. He has been heavily involved in developing electronic resources to present taxonomic and distributional information about plants to the public, with applications to conservation concerns. He has most recently been involved in developing new “spatial phylogenetic” tools for studying biodiversity using large-scale phylogenies and collection data in a geographic and statistical framework. He is enjoying serving on the CNPS Board, which gives him a chance to step out of the ivory tower of academics to get more involved in direct conservation action.

Carol Witham

Treasurer

Carol is a California native and has had a love for nature her entire life. She has been a CNPS member since the 1980s and is very active in the Sacramento Valley Chapter. Since the early 2000s she has served several terms on the state board including as President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Director. Carol is a recently retired independent consultant with a specialty in vernal pool ecosystems and an expert in both the flora and fauna. Carol continues to teach workshops on vernal pool plant taxonomy and endangered fairy shrimp monitoring techniques, participates in numerous committees and working groups related to vernal pool conservation and species recovery, and is working on analyzing decades of data for eventual publication. But it is the belly botany that gives her the most joy!

Gordon Leppig

Director

Gordon, an active member of the North Coast Chapter, lives near the Mad River (Wiyot: Baduwa’t) estuary in Humboldt County. He is a retired Supervising Environmental Scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Originally from New Jersey, his interest in plants and natural history began as a child and was nourished by his mother. Gordon studied cooking and worked in kitchens for over 10 years before moving to California and studying Botany at Humboldt State University. (He still loves to feed people.) He was curator of the Humboldt State University Herbarium for 10 years before joining the Department of Fish and Wildlife, where he conserved native plants and their habitats through environmental review, permitting, and habitat restoration. Gordon especially enjoys--and is most interested in--wetland habitats, including fens, salt marshes, montane meadows and lakes. He has a fond appreciation for sedges, rushes, and grasses and enjoys writing, discussing and teaching about California’s wetland plants and habitats. An avid bicycle commuter and public transit enthusiast, Gordon seeks to be the kindest person he has ever met.

Larry Levine

Chapter Council Representative

Larry has been a CNPS member since the 1980’s. He studied botany and subjects related to plant ecology at Humboldt State University. Larry worked on the habitat requirements of two rare plants, then shifted focus to web-related services, and developed an online, easy to update version of the CNPS Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants. Larry enjoys facilitating communication between people with opposing views so they find common ground. He wants to promote more dialogue among Chapter Council Delegates between Chapter Council meetings and intends to lead public plant walks again. When not involved with CNPS, Larry can often be found at Balkan music and dance events.

Leslie Warren

Director

Leslie grew up in rural Marin County and has been a conservationist throughout her life. She graduated from UC Berkeley in City and Regional Planning and has her masters in public policy from USC. She practiced as a planner and economic development professional for many years. She’s lived in Auburn for nearly 40 years, where she reared her family. Leslie served on the Placer County Planning Commission, co- founded Placer Nature Center, was a founding director for Placer Land Trust and led the Alliance for Environmental Leadership. Leslie is President of the Redbud Chapter CNPS and serves on the Board of Directors of the Sierra Foothills Audubon Society. She’s a working artist, an avid hiker, and an adventure traveler. She actively manages her family property for habitat and perpetual conservation. Leslie is delighted to serve and learn as a member of the CNPS Board of Directors.

Robin Mitchell

Director

Robin Mitchell grew up in New Mexico, where she developed a love for the outdoors and native plants. Moving to California for college (earning a BA in Environmental Studies from UC San Diego and a masters in Architecture from UC Berkeley), she quickly became interested in California ecosystems, taking classes at Tilden Botanic Garden in Berkeley, and reading and experimenting in her own garden. She believes in “plant it and they will come”—if you provide habitat by planting native species, insects, birds and other critters find it and thrive. Robin works at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the Building Technology and Urban Systems Division, developing software for architects and engineers to design more energy-efficient buildings. She is a UC Master Gardener, member of the El Cerrito Urban Forest Committee, the El Cerrito Community Garden Network, and the El Cerrito Garden Club, and promotes the use of California native plants in all those venues. She is also on the CNPS Calscape 2.0 Committee, the Carbon Neutral Committee, and the Statewide Communities Committee.

Steve Schoenig

Director

Vince Scheidt

Vice President

Vince has been an active member of CNPS since 1980. He has assisted with listing petitions, litigation, rare plant studies, and the annual San Diego Chapter fall plant sale for many years. Vince graduated from SDSU and UCLA where he received an MA in Biology. He lives in San Diego, where he owns a small private environmental consulting firm specializing in biological studies and endangered species surveys. He enjoys propagating native plants, specializing in rare Dudleyas, and maintains a diverse native plant garden filled with dozens of uncommon species. He is passionate about endangered plants and unusual plant communities, and loves the outdoors.

Vivian Neou

President

Vivian Neou is a retired software executive. She became interested in native plants after she retired and started hiking. That led her to volunteer at the CNPS SCV Nursery, where she became the nursery manager. She's a past president of the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and is active in many other roles in the chapter. Vivian enjoys leading hikes for Midpeninsula Open Space District, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve and Edgewood Park & Natural Preserve.
Chapter Council

The CNPS Chapter Council is comprised of 35 volunteer delegates, each representing one of CNPS’s local and statewide chapters. Delegates establish policies and resolutions pertaining to native plants and native plant communities to further the CNPS’s Strategic Plan and guide its program work on behalf of their local chapter membership.

Delegates elect the CNPS Board of Directors, its officers, and the officers of the Chapter Council.

Judy Fenerty

Chapter Council Chair

Judy joined CNPS in 1995, shortly after moving to California. She has been an active volunteer for the CNPS Santa Clara Valley Chapter since 2001, when first introduced to the wonders of the local serpentine flora on Coyote Ridge in south San Jose. Judy has served on the Santa Clara Valley chapter board for many years and in many roles. Judy retired in 2018 from a career in environmental consulting, and now enjoys camping, hiking, and travel.

Orchid Black

Chapter Council Vice Chair

Bio coming soon

Carrie Strohl

Secretary

Bio coming soon
Executive Director
Jun Bando
Executive Director

Jun Bando is the executive director of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS), a nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to protecting California’s globally significant native plant biodiversity. In this role, she represents more than 13,000 CNPS members and leads a statewide team of staff and volunteers across 35 chapters in California and Baja California Norte, Mexico. She also serves on California’s 30×30 Partnership Coordinating Committee and on the California Biodiversity Network Steering Committee.

Jun applies multicultural and multinational perspectives gained from two decades of service in the nonprofit, academic, and public sectors to lead the development of inclusive teams and strategies. Her prior experience includes serving as a senior advisor to the California Council on Science and Technology and as a senior staffer in the U.S. Departments of State and Defense. She holds a PhD in Ecology from UC Davis and a B.S. in Environmental Studies from San Jose State University.

Jun’s work at CNPS is rooted in commitments to protecting biodiversity, empowering an extensive network of volunteers and staff, and building a more inclusive conservation community.