CNPS Staff

Aaron is responsible for overseeing and managing the status review process for additions and changes to the CNPS Rare Plant Inventory (RPI) and the CNDDB, updating and maintaining the RPI, and supporting and monitoring the Rare Plant Treasure Hunt, California Plant Rescue, and Special Projects programs of CNPS. He has over 15 years of professional botany experience, with prior work in environmental consulting and as an ecologist for the San Luis Obispo Coast District of California State Parks, where he performed rare plant and vegetation surveys, prescribed fire management, and GIS specialties. Aaron also contracted with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct seabird monitoring, and with the Morro Bay National Estuary Program, publishing the Atlas of Sensitive Species of the Morro Bay Area (2010) and the Green Infrastructure Network of the Baywood Fine Sands Community (2013). He received a degree in Ecology and Systematic Biology with an emphasis in Botany from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where he also assisted with David Keil’s Field Botany course for five consecutive years. In addition to his enthusiasm for field botany and California floristics, Aaron enjoys being a dad and appreciates many hobbies, including snowboarding, photography, travel, tap dancing, ceramics, and woodworking.

Abra has a longstanding passion for ecology, which started when she volunteered as a child for the High Sierra Trail Crew. Graduating from Mills College as an EEB major, Abra has a certification in Field Methods from Sacramento City College. While she is familiar with survey methods for birds, fish, small mammals, and bats, Abra specializes in botanical identification. She has worked as a consulting botanist, and has had the great fortune to explore plant communities that range from salt marshes to high elevation conifers. In the future, Abra hopes to research the role of facilitation on the ability of salt marsh plant communities to respond to climate change.

Adam is a Lead Assistant Field Botanist working on various vegetation classification and mapping projects across California for the Plant Sciences Program. He grew up in Washington, Missouri near St. Louis and graduated from Maryville University studying Ecology. While there he researched the reproductive and pollination biology of 5 native Missouri species from the genus Tradescantia. Since that time, he has worked in numerous eco-regions across the west and particularly in California on a variety of projects. His fondest field season to date was surveying for bumblebees in northern Sierra mountain meadows for CDFW. Previous work includes vegetation surveys in the Mojave Desert, the Central Valley, and Modoc Plateau. His main hobbies include hiking, camping, photographing plant-pollinator interactions, and botanizing along the trails throughout California, while taking in all the state has to offer.

Adam works with the Rare Plant Team on the CNPS Rare Plant Inventory and other rare plant projects. He earned a B.S. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from U.C. Santa Cruz. Adam's career experience includes non-profit work and biological consulting.  He has worked on a variety of projects involving rare and special status plant and animal species in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties. Adam is passionate about biodiversity, conservation, and community science. In his free time he enjoys birding, botanizing, iNatting, reading, and playing fetch with his dog.

Alexis has previously worked in a variety of environments all over California such as maritime chaparral, coastal sage scrub, floodplain and riparian habitats. She majored in environmental studies and graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz while also working at the university's arboretum. In her free time she likes to share food with friends, take pictures of insects, and be outdoors with her family.

Álvaro Palacios Casanova is Conservation Advocate, where he works to protect and conserve native plants throughout California.  Álvaro has over a decade of experience in organizing and policy advocacy as an environmental justice practitioner, where he worked to stop oil and chemicals companies from poisoning low-income and communities of color. Álvaro is Xiu Maya, a survivor of colonialism, and an avid birdwatcher who loves to share the beauty of the natural world with people through naturalist walks and photography. Álvaro got his bachelor's and master’s from the University of California in biology and has a deep passion for indigenous people’s rights, conservation, and racial justice.

Alyssa is a conservation educator who is very passionate about making the outdoors feel welcoming and accessible to all. She brings extensive experience in environmental education for all ages from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. As an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major at the University of California Irvine, she worked on restoration projects in California, including planting thousands of prickly pear cacti. In her free time, Alyssa enjoys camping and hiking with her family, doing puzzles, and watching Disney movies.

Passionate about biodiversity and conservation, Amina joined CNPS in 2021. Amina is an avid gardener who fell in love with California’s native flora when she relocated to Los Angeles from the East Coast. She can think of no better role than one where she gets to engage, inform and inspire people around California’s native plants and the meaningful work of CNPS. Amina earned her BA from Bennington College and has created communications for WGBH Public Television, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Nickelodeon, and The World Bank. In addition to gardening, she enjoys spending time with family, friends, and pets—hiking, kayaking, reading, drawing, and hugging trees.

Andrea has two decades of experience in science-based public lands management: monitoring rare plants and plant communities, carrying out project compliance surveys, mapping and removing invasive plants, and responding to landscape-level threats such as Phytophthora, climate change, and altered disturbance regimes. She has worked in partnership to design indicators, metrics, status, and trends for land health; lead volunteers in botanical inventories; improve the quality and quantity of data submitted to CNDDB; and teach plant identification, field methods, and invasive plant management planning. She earned her B.S. in Biology from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where she spent summers on field research at a coastal grassland studying species composition and demography of the host plant of an endangered butterfly and decided to become a land manager. For fun, she teaches grass identification and makes acronyms and plant lists.

Angela coordinates seed banking efforts for the Rare Plant Program. She has a wide range of experience in rare plant monitoring, restoration, plant propagation, and environmental education. Her past work has included everything from pulling weeds and mapping rare plants to leading bird walks and counting bats. Prior to joining CNPS, she worked for Golden Hour Restoration Institute and Oaktown Native Plant Nursery. In her free time, she volunteers with the California Center for Natural History. She has a B.A. in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ann-Marie is the Horticulture Outreach Manager for CNPS, where she gets to spend her days supporting native plant communities and their people. She has spent a decade and a half serving landscapes and watersheds with nonprofits in California and Arizona. She holds a deep passion for plants and landscapes, having served as the Executive Director of ReScape California (formerly Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening Coalition), a nonprofit educating the large-scale landscape industry throughout Northern California on planning, constructing, and maintaining sustainable landscape. Prior to that she was with Prescott Creeks doing watershed planning and riparian restoration in Northern Arizona. Ann-Marie studied Watershed Management and Sustainable Community Development at Prescott College. Much of this work was driven by a childhood without a watershed, but with a diversity of plant and wildlife. One of her fondest wishes is to a redwood, or as much like one as possible.

Barbara is the Membership Manager, ensuring the chapters and individual members are engaged with the organization's work and mission. Since earning her bachelor's degree from California Lutheran University, she's spent her career in both higher education and environmental education including time at the Effie Yeaw Nature Center. With a passion for outreach to underserved and minoritized communities, she believes that all citizens of California should have the opportunity to enjoy, appreciate and protect the amazing beauty of our wild spaces and natural habitats.

Brendan joined CNPS in spring 2022 as the Natalie Hopkins Conservation Intern.  He has a background in horticulture with a Bachelors of Science from UC Davis in Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry with an emphasis in Greenhouse and Nursery Production, including extensive coursework in restoration ecology.  He has enjoyed over 15 years in the nursery industry working as an assistant manager and grower in the Sierra Nevada foothills.  Brendan’s knowledge and love of plants and nature led him from production to protection working with the CNPS’s conservation team.  His current project is the compilation of an annotated bibliography of scientific research and reviews relating to fuel breaks, effects of grazing, type conversion, invasive species, post fire recovery, effects of salvage, industrially managed forests, and restoration.  He also supports the conservation team in the review of proposed projects, environmental assessments/impact reports, and identifies research to support concerns and objections to these projects and assessments.  Brendan spends much of his time outside of work hiking with his wife Krysten and cattle dogs Maximus and Penny, as well as cooking, gardening, and maintaining a collection of unique and uncommon plant species.

Brock is responsible for overseeing and monitoring financial practices, supporting budget processes, managing human resources, and providing oversight of facilities and IT infrastructure. He brings over 25 years of finance, accounting and administration leadership competence to CNPS. Brock has worked for the State of California in a variety of roles (cost accounting, budgeting, finance, auditing, and grant administration). Most recently, he served 5 years as the chief internal auditor for the California State Board of Equalization and 6 years as the CEO/CFO of the Placer County Fair Association (non-profit). Brock earned a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration (Finance emphasis) from San Diego State University. Brock is comfortable in the California back country, but equally enjoys finance and operational process improvement. He possesses a passion for nature, travel, adventure, perpetual learning, and leaving the world better than he found it.

Caroline Martorano has over a decade of botany experience. She received her MS in Natural Resources from Cal Poly Humboldt, where she studied long-term effectiveness of fuel reduction treatments and its impact on the native plant community. She previously has worked in consulting and for tribal and federal government in California, Oregon and Washington. In her free time, she enjoys surfing, biking, and making art with friends.

Christine oversees fundraising from individuals, corporations, and foundations in support of CNPS.  She's held similar positions at environmental organizations such as Potomac Conservancy, NatureServe, and American Farmland Trust. Christine is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) and a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She received her Masters of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from McDaniel College.  Christine grew up on a dairy farm in Maryland and moved to California in 2014. She enjoys sleeping under the stars, cooking Indian food, and scouting for wildflowers.

Connor is the Operations Coordinator for CNPS. Born and raised in Sacramento he graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration. Prior to CNPS Connor lived in San Francisco producing concerts and festivals across the Bay Area. After his time in the music industry, he knew it was time to shift gears into another area that interested him, environmental advocacy. Nowadays, you can find Connor trail running through the Sierras, playing board games and discovering new music.

My botanical career began at UC Santa Cruz (1976–1981) where I and two other undergraduates were awarded Honors on our thesis documenting the flora and vegetation of a remote mountain range in California’s eastern Mojave Desert. For my Master’s degree at UC Berkeley (1985–1988), I completed a status survey of the vernal-pool grasses Neostapfia, Orcuttia and Tuctoria in California’s Central Valley. After earning my PhD in Integrative Biology (Plant Systematics) at UC Berkeley (1998–2004), I spent seven years in South Africa working as a faculty member at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (2008–2015). I have authored or co-authored > 30 scientific publications, including taxonomic revisions and descriptions of > 30 new plant species from tropical Africa and Madagascar. Since returning to California in 2018, I’ve begun a new research project on phylogenomics and population genomics of the Orcuttiinae (in collaboration with Dr. Travis Columbus of the California Botanic Garden). I’m also absolutely thrilled to be joining the Plant Science team at CNPS!

Ellen is Associate Rare Plant Botanist at CNPS, helping complete rare plant profiles. In a previous life, she was an herbarium botanist, performing plant IDs, leading collecting field trips, training students in plant identification, curating the herbarium, and publishing taxonomic papers. She is excited to be working for CNPS!

Evelyn came to CNPS after a year of organic farming and native landscaping. Before that, she studied and worked in Organizational Psychology and HR. However, her approach to people operations has been deeply transformed in the past two years from climate grief, increased awareness of destructive systems, and becoming more attuned to the profound interconnectedness of all things. She is grateful and thrilled to join CNPS in protecting plants, the planet, and all its inhabitants. In her free time, Evelyn enjoys tending to her veggie/native garden, listening to Flyte's latest album, backpacking in Joshua Tree, and baking fresh focaccia bread or garlic naan.

Ian started out as writer-photographer in South Africa in the mid-nineties, covering ecotourism, wilderness travel, national parks, and biodiversity. Since immigrating to the U.S., he has held writer-editor positions at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, Virginia Sea Grant, Oregon State University, and the National Park Service. Ian's work has been published in Discover magazine and on National Geographic News, and he has worked closely with NPR and PBS to disseminate marine and ocean research, biodiversity loss, and climate change findings. An instinctive storyteller, Ian enjoys coaching intern science writers and videographers. He lives on a small farm where his wife runs an equestrian business. Together they’re in a perpetual struggle to balance the need for both horse pastures and native plants. To that end, they have just planted their boundaries with coast live oak seedlings and are reintroducing hedgerows. Ian has an A.A in graphic design and photography, a B.A in physical education and geography, and a M.S. in environmental communications.

Jennifer works in the Vegetation Program to survey, classify and map vegetation in California. She co-teaches workshops on sampling methods and taxonomy and focuses on the classification and monitoring of grassland and other vegetation. She earned both a B.S. and an M.S. degree from the University of California, Davis in Plant Biology where her thesis focused on temporal dynamics of vernal pool grassland vegetation. She continues to participate in a state-wide classification project looking at fine-scale vegetation in vernal pools including ranking the rarity of these unique habitats. Botany is her first love and she has extensive experience working in different plant communities across the western United States, ranging from grasslands to forests, alpine peaks and saline marshes. Her favorite plant is one formerly known as Centunculus minimus.

Jessica Woodard is responsible for Calscape, CNPS’s platform connecting new gardeners and experts with the coolest native plants for their garden. Prior to CNPS, she worked in water conservation, focusing on sustainable landscaping and using data-driven information and technology to better communicate messages across different audiences. She received her Master’s in Geography at San Francisco State University and a BA in International Development/World Religions from McGill University. Currently, she finds inspiration and hope in the plant communities she tends to with the Skyline Gardens restoration project in the Oakland/Berkeley hills.

Jordan has been a lover of plants since a young age, growing up in their grandma's garden. This passion for plants continued on to college. Jordan attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA where they studied Biodiversity Conservation and Landscape Horticulture. Throughout their time they were a dedicated student curator at the Robert F. Hoover Herbarium, greenhouse and horticultural enthusiast, as well as teaching assistant for many botany courses. Jordan had the opportunity to work with the US Fish & Wildlife Service alongside Dr. Jenn Yost to help conserve a federally endangered plant species: Gambel's Watercress. In addition, they also worked with the Morro Bay National Estuary Program, graduate student Erin Aiello, and Dr. Yost to help transplant eelgrass in Morro Bay to preserve a dying population. This work really solidified Jordan's passion for ecosystem restoration and rare plant protection. At the CNPS, Jordan is an assistant field botanist in the Rare Plant Program. The main project Jordan works on is the Utom Project. Utom is a region, also known as the Santa Clara Watershed, in Ventura and LA counties that is home to about 45 special-status plant species. This project involves organizing Utom field data and collecting voucher specimens for the watershed. In addition to botanizing Utom, Jordan has also assisted Angela Pai in the California Plant Rescue Program with seed processing. In May of 2022, Jordan took the Botanist Certification Exam and passed, making them a California Certified Field Botanist.

Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco and raised in the Central Coast of California, Jose graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a BA in Geography/Environmental Studies. He is also a Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program (DDCSP@UW) alumni who is pursuing a career in conservation work with a strong intersection in science, community outreach, and environmental justice. As a way to connect with his environment, he loves to spend time outdoors, hiking, playing soccer and exploring creative outlets through drawing.

Julie is the Vegetation Program Director where she maintains standard methods for surveying, classifying, and mapping vegetation in California since 2001. She works collaboratively on vegetation inventory and monitoring projects with agencies, CNPS chapters and staff, and other partners. Julie co-teaches public workshops on vegetation surveying and mapping methods, and she archives and analyzes vegetation data from across the state. She is a co-author of the second edition of A Manual of California Vegetation with John Sawyer and Todd Keeler-Wolf, and a co-editor of California’s Botanical Landscapes with Michael Barbour, John Sawyer, and Todd Keeler-Wolf. She also is an Ecological Society of America Vegetation Panel member. Julie has an M.A. degree from Humboldt State University with a thesis on watercourse vegetation of the eastern Mojave Desert, and she holds two B.A. degrees from the University of California-Santa Cruz in Biology/Botany and Environmental Studies. She has worked as a vegetation ecologist and botanist for over 20 years including federal and state agencies like the National Park Service, US Geological Survey, University of California, and Department of Fish & Game. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, being in nature, hiking, creating artwork, and spending time with her two kids.

Dr. Jun Bando is an ecologist with a 20-year career spanning higher education, international diplomacy, and advocacy. Before coming to CNPS, Jun was the Senior Advisor for Strategy and Transformation at the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST). Prior to her work with CCST, Jun served as a special advisor and diplomat for the U.S. government, a lecturer at San Jose State University and the University of San Francisco, and consultant to the CSU Office of the Chancellor. She has degrees from San Jose State University and the University of California, Davis, where she earned her PhD in Ecology. She is thrilled to be part of an amazing team of people working to power the native plant movement through both head and heart.

Kate Cooper (she/her/ella) has been helping to raise funds in the non-profit sector since she was four years old. Through the years, she’s worked passionately and steadily with organizations she believes in, to do good in the world. At CNPS, she works closely with the Development and Communications teams to foster a seamless member experience across digital channels. Kate is a graduate of the Integral Program at Saint Mary’s College; a life-long champion of arts education, public broadcasting, and social equity causes; and a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Designer Society of America, and the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Kelsey works for the Vegetation Program on various classification and mapping projects across California. Her passion for native plants began at Humboldt State University where she earned a B.S. in Botany and started her first field position monitoring Whitebark Pine mortality in Lassen Volcanic National Park. After being sold on working outside with plants, she continued doing field work for UC Davis focusing on various ecology projects in post-wildfire forests and alpine meadows of the Sierra Nevada. Kelsey then moved on to the National Park Service where she surveyed and mapped the spread of Sudden Oak Death in Redwood National Park and lead vegetation surveys for the San Francisco Bay Area and Klamath Network Inventory and Monitoring Programs. In her free time she enjoys backpacking, cooking, playing drums and dancing samba.

Kendra is coordinating field work for the Vegetation Program. She earned an M.S. in Botany (Ecology emphasis) from Oregon State University, where her research compared the community composition effects of two fuel treatments on chaparral in southwestern Oregon. She also has a B.A. in Biology from Brown University. Before joining CNPS, she worked for the National Park Service in the Santa Monica Mountains, for the Missouri Botanical Garden coordinating their Madagascar specimens and data, and in horticulture for Yerba Buena Nursery, one of the first nurseries to specialize in California natives.

Kristen is the Rare Plant Program Manager, overseeing and coordinating field-based projects, including the Rare Plant Treasure Hunt, the California Plant Rescue, and other special projects within the rare plant program. She earned a B.S. in environmental management and a M.S. biology, both from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. She has worked as a professional botanist and ecologist for more than ten years across private, government, and non-profit sectors. Kristen has worked in diverse landscapes and habitats across the state, but her favorite places to explore are rocky, serpentine slopes – where her passion and enthusiasm for the conservation and exploration of the California flora began.

Laura grew up in Southern California exploring the coastal chaparral of San Diego County. She studied Environmental Science & Management at UC Davis and discovered her love of botany while working for the UC Davis Arboretum. After graduating, Laura became a Nursery Intern with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy followed by seasonal fieldwork in the Bay Area, monitoring post-fire recovery and mapping vegetation. Most recently, she worked as a Seed Technician for the Theodore Payne Foundation, focusing on native seed conservation. In her free time, Laura is a studio potter and makes wares inspired by the plants she encounters in the field.

With more than two decades of experience in strategic communications, digital strategy, and advocacy, Liv oversees Public Affairs for CNPS, where she and her team are working to inspire, activate, and grow California's native plant movement. She is focused on the intersection of policy, public engagement, and equity, driven by the belief that all people, regardless of their background or income level, should be able to enjoy a direct and rewarding relationship with the natural world. Her policy interests include wildfire and climate resilience, land-use equity, and biodiversity protection. Outside of work, you'll find her on the yoga mat, watching track and field, spoiling her dogs, and enjoying storytelling of all forms. She is a graduate of the University of Oregon with degrees in both journalism and political science.

Mark works in the Vegetation Program coordinating field work for vegetation classification and mapping projects in central California. He was born in California and in his past 22 years of professional work in horticulture, restoration and field botany has had the great fortune of botanizing throughout, and in nearly all eco-regions of the state. Prior to coming to CNPS,  Mark worked for several environmental consulting firms where he specialized in plant identification, floristic inventories, rare plant surveying, wetland delineation, invasive plant species mapping and monitoring, and restoration implementation and monitoring. Mark received a B.A. from University of California-Santa Cruz in Environmental Studies and an M.S. from University of California-Davis. In his free time, Mark enjoys spending time along the coast, being in and on the ocean, backpacking in the Sierras, and spending time with his wife and their furry babies, Pippin the cat and Maisy the dog.

Maya graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Environmental Science and Management, where she fell in love with native plants in both the natural and built environment. Before CNPS, she was a field technician for both the Bureau of Land Management in New Mexico and the Forest Service in the Sierras. She most recently worked as a landscape designer in the Bay Area. In her free time she loves to surf, go on bike rides, and cook with friends.

Originally from Massachusetts, Mike came to California after graduating from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a bachelor's degree in Natural Resources Conservation. Mike has worked in habitat restoration, seed collection, and plant surveying in a variety of habitats across the state and looks forward to working in many more. In his free time, Mike enjoys finding rare and unusual plant populations, writing freelance nature articles, and reading science fiction.

Savannah joined CNPS as an Assistant Vegetation Ecologist on various vegetation description and classification projects. She graduated from the University of Central Florida with an Environmental Studies degree. At the university, she also worked at the university arboretum and a plant physiology lab, conducting research on sunflower allelopathy. In her free time, Savannah likes to read, hike, and design tiny homes.

Nick is the Conservation Program Director. In this position, he oversees the conservation work of staff and volunteer advocates statewide. Nick’s work involves state and federal legislative advocacy, project-level work including presiding over litigation, participation in coalitions of environmental organizations, media relations, and supervising a team of talented conservation professionals. Nick earned his BS degree in Environmental Horticulture at UC Davis, and recently completed his PhD in botany at Claremont Graduate University. As a graduate student, Nick produced the first Flora of Tejon Ranch and studied evolutionary patterns in perennial Streptanthus (jewelflowers). He is a fellow of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation. From 2006-2010, he was employed by CNPS, first as a Vegetation Program Assistant, and later as the Rare Plant Program Director. Nick has also worked as a botanist for the U.S. Forest Service, Chicago Botanic Garden, and the private consulting industry. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, hiking, gardening, and photographing wildflowers-activities that are often not mutually exclusive.

Paul works in the Vegetation Program on the San Luis Obispo-Monterey County Vegetation Mapping Project. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, he graduated from College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, where he studied Botany and Ecology. Paul recently earned an M.S. in Biological Sciences from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where he fell in love with the flora of California’s Central Coast. Before starting his M.S., he worked for UC Davis on various field projects in the Sierra Nevada in post-wildfire forests and subalpine meadows. While wrapping up his master’s thesis, Paul worked again for UC Davis in the Transverse Ranges on a project in post-wildfire chaparral. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, iNatting, and growing orchids, carnivorous plants, and staghorn ferns.

Pete is a 2019 UC Santa Cruz alum now working in the Vegetation Program. He has experience mapping vegetation communities with the UCSC Arboretum where he developed his passion for CA flora. He has also collected demography data throughout the state for the Scarlet Monkeyflower through a long-term study with the University of British Columbia. In his free time, Pete enjoys video games, hiking, botanizing, and quality time with the bros.

Sam grew up hiking in the San Francisco Bay Area which sparked a love of plants and the outdoors. She attended Humboldt State University where she double majored in Botany and Environmental Biology. She has worked on several research projects in a variety of ecosystems across the country including a plant community ecology project in the alpine tundra of the Colorado Rockies and a fire ecology project in the longleaf pine savannas of North Carolina. Prior to joining CNPS, she returned to her home state and had been conducting rare plant surveys across much of Northern California including the Coast, Klamath, and Cascade Ranges, and the Modoc Plateau. In her free time, Sam enjoys hiking, botanizing, birding, reading, and experimenting with various fiber arts. Her most recent experiment was using black walnuts to dye wool.

Originally from New Jersey, once Scott made his way to California he became interested in the ecology of California and the West. He has worked to characterize land health and vegetation production on public lands, and now works with the Bureau of Land Management to analyze and apply Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) data throughout California. In his free time, he enjoys biking, skiing, and photography.

Tommy works as the Associate Vegetation Ecologist on the North Coast California Vegetation Mapping Project. Originally from Ontario, Canada, he graduated from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, where he earned a B.Sc. in Biology. Tommy has conducted vegetation surveys from the Boreal Forest in Northern Alberta to the Amargosa Sand Dunes in Southern California to the Wind River Range in Wyoming. While spending most of his career leading vegetation surveys, he has also worked with various wildlife species such as bighorn sheep, northern spotted owls, and Blanding’s turtles. In his free time, he enjoys backpacking, kayaking, and snorkeling. 

Tom is a lifelong Californian who grew up in Los Angeles and has a degree in Environmental Studies from San Francisco State Univerity. He has spent his career working for land management agencies in California concentrating on botany and invasive plant management. Tom worked as a Biological Science Technician performing plant surveys throughout Yosemite National Park, ran an interagency vegetation program as a Natural Resource Specialist with Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and most recently worked as the IPM Coordinator with Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.