Kenn Parry has a BS in Forest Management. He spent 35 years as a pest control business owner; 40 years as a u-cut Christmas tree farm manager and plant nursery manager. He owned and operated a specialized lily farm.

Thomas Van Hevelingen has been exposed to the nursery business throughout his life, starting work at his family nursery at the age of 5. Most of his twenties were spent working as a fisheries biologist, but he has worked at the nursery full-time for the last four years and is now co-owner, with his parents and sister, at Van Hevelingen Herb Nursery in Newberg, OR. The nursery specializes in herbs and climate-adapted perennials and shrubs. His personal interests include spending time designing his own garden, researching the history of plants in cultivation, learning about new plants, hiking, traveling and playing ultimate frisbee.

Darren Morgan has worked at Shonnard’s Nursery in Corvallis for 34 years and is currently the nursery manager. He specializes in trees and shrubs, edible gardening, and most recently beekeeping. Darren also teaches community education classes and workshops at Shonnard’s as well as through Linn-Benton Community College.

Carol Adelman: Carol has been growing peonies commercially for over 30 years. She willingly shares her knowledge to help gardeners successfully grow peonies. Carol is a member of the Northwest Peony Society and has served on the American Peony Society Board for 19 years. She is also a peony hybridizer and author.

Jessica Green: Jessica holds an M.S. in Horticulture from Oregon State University. She has over 15 years of experience in entomology and weed science at OSU, ranging from pest monitoring and conducting research trials to writing and editorial assistance for the PNW Management Handbooks. She is also a licensed pesticide consultant. Ms. Green lives in the forest with her mother, husband, son, and 28 chickens.

Paula Lupcho: Paula is a retired college teacher who moved to Oregon in 2006. She became a Master Gardener in 2007 in order to learn more about gardening in the PNW. The one thing she brought with her is a lifelong interest in roses that she “inherited” from her grandmother, mother and aunts. She has been growing roses throughout her adult life in So. and No. California, Nevada, and now in the Willamette Valley.

Dr. Christopher Daly: Dr. Daly is the director of the PRISM Climate Group and Chief Scientist for the Northwest Alliance for Computational Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University. He received his B.S. in Atmospheric Sciences from UC Davis, M.A. in Forest Geography from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Ph.D. in Physical Science from Oregon State University. The practical output of his research is the development of a climate mapping system (PRISM) which assimilates data from thousands of weather stations and produces daily as well as long term maps of weather and climate across the country. Digital PRISM maps are downloaded over one million times per month from the PRISM website (https://prism.oregonstate.edu) and are used in thousands of applications in sectors ranging from agriculture and hydrology to retail and energy. He was the lead author of the 2012 and 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Maps.

John Stables: John has taught high school horticulture for 30 years – 23 years at Hillsboro High School and 8 years at Amity High School. He has also taught adult horticulture education and Landscape Management through Portland Community College. He has experience installing irrigation systems in greenhouses including drip systems and ebb and flow hydroponic systems, in addition to setting up manifold systems for large-scale acreage drip systems utilizing T-tape and stake emitters.

Michael O’Loughlin: Michael is the Environmental Sustainability Manager at Clark Public Utilities in Vancouver, WA. He and his team have led the utility’s efforts to establish pollinator habitat at existing utility facilities. In his spare time, he is an instructor for the OSU Master Melittologist program and a member of both the Washington Bee Atlas and Oregon Bee Atlas. Michael serves on the Washington State Pollinator Health Task Force working on policy to protect the state’s various pollinators. In 2021 he and his brother were awarded the NAPPC Farmer-Rancher Pollinator Award for the US.

Muriel Nesbitt: Muriel is a Washington native but spent a lot of time elsewhere before retiring to Port Angeles, where she became a Master Gardener in 2009. She received her bachelor’s degree at Smith College and spent the next three years teaching high school in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She then pursued a PhD degree at the University of Washington in genetics, followed by a long tenure as a biology professor at UC San Diego.

Gwynne Mhuireach: Gwynne is a Research Assistant Professor in the Biology and the Built Environment Center. This is located in the Energy Studies in Buildings Lab within the Institute for Health in the Built Environment at the University of Oregon. She was born and raised on a small farm near Klamath Falls, Oregon. Her formal education includes a B.S. in Biology, Masters in Architecture, and Ph.D. in Landscape Architecture. Gwynne studies microbial communities associated with plants, soil, and air in urban and peri-urban environments. Her larger research interests lie in understanding how productive landscapes, such as farms and gardens, can promote human well-being.