Our Leaders

Bill has lived in California since birth, growing up in the Santa Monica Mountains. Bill has a background in agricultural research and has lived in the San Luis Obispo area for the past 25 years. He is currently managing a small farm, growing vegetable and CA native seed, as well as teaching at California State Polytechnic University. Bill knows the flora of the Central Coast, being an active hiker and explorer.

Bio coming soon...

Bio coming soon...

Catherine Capone is a lifelong gardener.  She is a primarily self-taught in the areas of plant propagation, garden design, and California native plants.  Ms. Capone earned a bachelors degree from San Francisco State University with a major in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences with an emphasis in Ecology and went on to complete 100 plus additional units in the area of Special Education.  She retired from teaching in 2013 after 39 years as a special education teacher in grades K-8.  While working full time, Catherine was also the sole owner of Cal Natives Nursery, a propagation and retail nursery in Porterville California specializing in local California native plants.  She is currently working part time as a Practicum supervisor for Tulare County Office of Education. The Tule River and its vegetation have been the focus of her interest since moving to Porterville in 1990.  She also coordinated a survey of Valley Oaks in the Porterville Area with updates from 1996 until 2005.  Catherine has served on the board of the Alta Peak chapter of the California Native Plant Society and has held many offices in the chapter.  She is currently the president of the Tule River Parkway Association and the project manager for a native plant demonstration garden project and restoration in a thirteen acre site along the Tule River.

Christina is an ecological engineer and senior scientist with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, where she specializes in the protection and restoration of aquatic ecosystems, especially estuarine wetlands. Her interest in native plants was fostered during long childhood bike rides exploring the unique botanical riches of her native New Jersey Pine Barrens. After earning a BS in Biological Resources Engineering from the University of Maryland, she moved cross-country to earn an MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley, and fell in love with California’s diverse landscapes. Christina is a director of the NorCal High School Cycling League, and provides volunteer science and engineering support to a range of North Bay non-profits including the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, Marin Conservation League, and the Tamalpais Lands Collaborative. She lives with her husband Brian, a menagerie of pets, and a small native garden in Fairfax, CA.

Cris is a board member of the South Coast Chapter of CNPS and is the Stewardship Manager for the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy where he is responsible for implementation of land stewardship activities on nature preserves. In the past, Cris specialized in the management and restoration of coastal sage scrub habitat, coastal salt marshes, coastal dunes and marine habitats. Cris also works as a bilingual instructor with Greywater Action, a nonprofit dedicated to creating a sustainable water culture. He was born and raised in Los Angeles and loves to give back to his community. His goal is to have an educational native plant garden accessible in every community of Los Angeles. You can typically find Cris volunteering his time with various nonprofits, leading workshops for underserved communities.

Dave has a degree in marine biology from CSULB, and has enjoyed a long career with California State Parks in Orange and San Diego Counties. He retired as a Senior Environmental Scientist working with natural resources, planning, and interpretation along the coast.  He’s volunteered time on science and conservation matters, and a small restoration project on the Huntington Beach Mesa.

John became entangled with native plants while working as a park docent and landscaper in the 1980s. He has degrees from University of California Santa Cruz, San Francisco State University, and University of California Davis, where he received a doctorate in plant biology. After teaching at the State University of New York Brockport for several years, John returned to California and since then has been working as an ecologist for environmental consulting and engineering firms. For nearly 30 years, John has been active in California’s botanical community. His activities have included  serving on CNPS’ original vegetation committee (then the “Rare Plant Communities” committee), editing the California Botanical Society’s journal Madroño, and serving as president of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of CNPS.

Lucy grew up in Truckee and now lives in Santa Cruz. She has been an active member of CNPS since 2017 and began serving as vice president and chapter council delegate for the Santa Cruz chapter in 2018. Lucy graduated from UCSC with a BA in environmental studies and is currently self employed as a gardener for residential landscapes, specializing in locally native and regionally appropriate plants. She offers consultation, ecological design and perennial landscape management as well as vegetable garden and orchard creation and management.

Steve is a California native, grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles and attended U.C. Berkeley where a Botany 1 class turned him into a native plant convert. Steve has served on the board of the Los Angeles/Santa Monica Mountains Chapter since 1983 and has taken on numerous roles: newsletter editor for over 20 years, president for 2 years, treasurer for over 20 years, and manager of the chapter's website since its inception. His state CNPS service includes a two-year term as Director-at-Large, and stints as Treasurer (1995-2004), and chapter council representative to the board (2012-2013). Steve has been active with numerous conservation issues and has represented CNPS on the Bureau of Land Management's California Desert Advisory Council (1992-1997) and the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Areas Steering Committee (1986 – present). He is an advocate for native plant horticulture: his home garden has been included on the Theodore Payne Garden Tour several times; and he has pushed for native plant landscaping along Los Angeles busways and metro lines with great success. Steve's philosophy is that if you can protect the native plants, you can protect the fauna and, thus, maintain California's incredible biological diversity. This goes hand in hand with controlling non-native invasive species. He believes that as a Society we also have to focus on the human side of the equation, and gardening with natives is a very comfortable entry point into the world of CNPS. Many public landscape projects include native plants; it is important that these areas look great, so maintenance is just as important as planting. These public native landscape projects are often in urban areas. The future of CNPS depends on how effectively we can introduce the environmental ethic to all city-dwellers.

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.