James Affolter is the Director of Research at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia and a Professor in the Department of Horticulture. He is founding chairperson of the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance.

Mary Blodgett is a retired litigation attorney and a current tree farmer, gardener, and community volunteer.

Nicole Cavender is the Telleen/Jorgensen Director of the Botanical Gardens at the Huntington. She has been leading programs that span global plant conservation, tree science, urban forestry, and ecological restoration for more than 18 years.

Emily is the Vice President of Conservation & Research at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, and a rare plant specialist at heart.

Patrick is a botanist and explorer, familiar with most every garden tool – from shovel to sequencer – and now focused on leveraging genetic data to advance plant conservation through living collections.

Ed Guerrant is Retired Director of the Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank & Plant Conservation Program at Portland State University, in Portland, Oregon.

Jesus Antonio is the Director of Protected Natural Areas for CONANP (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas) in Juchitan, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Kayri Havens is the Chief Scientist and Negaunee Vice President of Science at Chicago Botanic Gardens.

Jenny is the Director of Research & Conservation at Denver Botanic Gardens, where she leads the team of scientists working to investigate and explain biodiversity patterns and processes. She has more than 20 years of experience in rare plant conservation.

Catherine Nicholson is a passionate environmentalist and long-time active member of the Garden Club of America.

Ari Novy is the President & CEO of San Diego Botanic Garden. Prior to this role, he was Chief Scientist at Leichtag Foundation in Encinitas, CA and Executive Director of the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, DC.

Robert Patterson is an experienced real estate, business and public agency transaction attorney, and a life-long plant enthusiast.

With a career spanning 25 years working in conservation, Paul joined BGCI as Secretary General in March 2015. He is the former Head of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) and, during his nine years at the helm, seeds from more than 25,000 plant species were conserved in the MSB.

Murphy supports The Morton Arboretum’s service to the public to improve the health of the urban forest in the Chicago region, protect threatened tree species around the globe, facilitate technology transfer to industry and the public, and provide professional leadership to the world’s arboreta.

Peter Wyse Jackson is the Director of Missouri Botanical Garden and George Englemann Professor of Botany, Washington University in St. Louis. In 1987, he joined IUCN where he helped to establish the international network organization for botanic gardens that became BGCI.