Meet the 2022 Honorees
Hall of Fame: Cathy Wilkinson Barash
Hall of Fame is the highest honor GardenComm can bestow on a member whose life and career has materially affected and advanced the mission and values of GardenComm.
Cathy Wilkinson Barash has been an integral member of GardenComm since she joined 35 years ago, when it was known as the Garden Writers Association of America. She served on the board for many years, starting in 1990 as a regional director, then as national director, working her way through every position on the executive committee until her years as president from 2003 to 2005, followed by two years as president of the GWA Foundation. Cathy served four years as chair of the GWAA publications committee, was a liaison to the Honors and Awards committees, and organized two regional meetings. In 2010, she was honored as a Fellow. Since 2016, she has been the copy editor for On the QT.
Since 1986, Cathy has managed a successful freelance business as an editor, speaker, photographer, writer, and author of 16 books. She's best known as the author and photographer of the 1993 book, Edible Flowers from Garden to Palate, which was the winner of a GWAA Award of Excellence and nominated for a Julia Child Cookbook Award.
Cathy has written for numerous newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, Newsday, and Christian Science Monitor. A nationally acclaimed speaker on a variety of topics, Cathy enjoys sharing her knowledge in person as well as on radio and television. Her photographs have been published in hundreds of books, magazines, newspapers and calendars. A lifelong New Yorker from Long Island, Cathy moved to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1997 to become executive garden editor for Meredith Books. She left Meredith in 2001, remaining in Des Moines where she freelances, lectures, photographs, and writes. She was senior editor at Garden Gate magazine in 2011 and 2012, and cohosted the program “Gardening Today” on WHO radio from 2016 to 2019.
Since childhood, Cathy has gardened organically. She firmly believes in edible landscaping, a passion which led writer Anne Raver of The New York Times to dub her a “gourmet horticulturist.”
Fellows: Sally Cunningham & Bill Johnson
Fellow recognizes a member in good standing who has demonstrated exceptionally high degrees of skill, professional ethics, and dedication to GardenComm’s mission and values. Two Fellows may be named each year.
Sally Cunningham is the author of the books Buffalo Style Gardens and Great Garden Companions.She is a prolific contributor to organic gardening publications. For 30 years Sally has been a speaker, a columnist for The Buffalo News and Buffalo Spree Magazine, and a popular TV gardening personality. Sally was formerly a Cornell Cooperative Extension Educator and award-winning landscape professional in New York State. She is proud to have co-founded the National Garden Festival (now called Gardens Buffalo Niagara). She hosted our association in Buffalo for our 2017 conference. During Covid, Sally wrote two novels and is seeking an agent.
Bill Johnson is an award-winning photographer and writer specializing in wild and horticultural plants and the insects who partner with them. As a stock photographer with a file of over 450,000 images, his work has appeared nationally in more than eleven hundred magazines, books and calendars. This year, he reached a milestone, publishing in 100 magazine issues each of Fine Gardening and The American Gardener. He wrote the monthly column ‘Insect ID’ for Horticulture magazine for 8 years and has written articles for Birds & Blooms magazine, Minnesota Gardening magazine and many others. He is the co-creator and photographer of the children’s book Minnesota Bug Hunt, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press in 2013. Since joining GardenComm in 2008, Bill has won 14 Silvers from the annual media awards: four for writing and 10 for photography. And one Gold, for writing. He has served on the board as a regional and national director for a combined five years.
The Green Medal Award: LaTasha Powell
The Green Medal Award recognizes the accomplishments of individuals or allied organizations dedicated to wise and respectful care of the Earth, and implementation of sustainable and regenerative practices.
LaTasha Powell, with her partners Princess Haley and Michelle Horovitz, created Appetite for Change (AFC) in 2011—an amazing organization that teaches people to grow, cook, and eat good food. From its start, Appetite for Change has listened to and responded to the North Minneapolis community. For example, in response to their community’s needs and wishes for an option other than the 30 fast food restaurants in the community, Breaking Bread Café was opened in 2015. The central theme is: Real Food for Real People. AFC also supports Station 81 Drink & Eatery and the West Broadway Farmers Market. Another focus for Appetite for Change and its partner organizations is the distribution of meal boxes. During a 30-week growing season, they deliver meal boxes weekly to more than 400 households throughout the Twin Cities. The boxes are filled with fresh and locally-sourced ingredients for 12 meals and include flavorful recipes. People try new foods, or actually old foods, that their grandparents and great-grandparents knew, but that fell out of fashion when easy fast food became available. They learn to eat seasonally. Since the summer of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Appetite for Change distributed 108,000 pounds of produce from seven urban gardens, 21,000 meal boxes (there is a waiting list), and 247,000 servings of food distributed at 26 sites. But there is more: The community, especially the young ones, are learning how to garden, how to make good food choices, and how to make good activity choices. Appetite for Change supports BIPOC individuals and community in all aspects of life: safety, farming, food, education, and is an exemplary model of the ability of food to support and change a community. To learn more, go to the AFC website: appetite for changemn.org. And check out Christy Wilhelmi’s podcast interview with Tasha: gardenerd.com/blog/podcast-appetite-for-change-with-tasha-powell/
The Emergent Communicator Award: Danae Wolfe
The Emergent Communicator Award recognizes a member under the age of 40 who has demonstrated exceptionally high degrees of skill, professional ethics, and dedication to GardenComm's mission and values.
Danae Wolfe is a writer, photographer, and content creator with 13 years’ experience crafting compelling narratives to connect people with nature. Through her website, social media, children’s books, public speaking, and column in The American Gardener magazine, she has reached global audiences with science-based education about the importance of gardening for wildlife. Her community conservation initiative, Chasing Bugs, reaches millions of people monthly through Facebook and Tiktok. In 2018, Danae presented about the importance of insects and spiders at TEDxColumbus and her talk has since been featured on TED.com. In 2020, she released her debut documentary, Chasing Bugs, a short film highlighting the global importance and decline of insects and how gardeners can help. In 2022, she published two children’s books—The Fantastic World of Bugs and Deep in the Branches.
Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award: Dr. Dan Herms
Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award recognizes individuals who communicate new ideas, concepts, or scientific findings related to horticulture and gardening in terms that are easily understood by laypersons.
Dr. Dan Herms is vice president of Research and Development for The Davey Tree Expert Company and provides leadership for research and technical programs, including climate science. Prior to joining Davey, Herms was a professor in the Department of Entomology at The Ohio State University for 21 years, where he served on the OSU Climate Change Outreach Team. His research and outreach programs focus on the ecology and management of trees, including interactions with insects, soils, and climate. Prior to joining Ohio State, he worked for 13 years at The Dow Gardens, a public garden in Midland, Michigan, where he directed the plant health care program. In an interview to Michigan State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, he said, “Develop communication skills. Take advantage of every opportunity to give a presentation. Work on your writing skills.”
The Wilfred J. Jung Distinguished Service Medal: The National Garden Bureau
The Wilfred J. Jung Distinguished Service Medal honors a GardenComm allied trade member that, as a company, has promoted gardening, helped expand the profession of garden communications, and supported the overall objectives of GardenComm and its membership.
The National Garden Bureau, a non-profit organization educates, inspires, and motivates people to increase the use of garden seed, plants, and products in homes, gardens, and workplaces. It serves as the marketing arm of the gardening industry. NGB members are experts in the field of horticulture, and its information comes directly from these sources. In 1920, James H. Burdett, a newspaper journalist and advertising manager of a seed company, saw the need for basic instruction in backyard gardening. He pioneered the idea of enlisting horticultural writers and broadcasters in the effort of mass education to create a population of gardeners. NGB celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2020.