Conference Speakers & Bios
Erin Alladin
Erin is an author, editor, and presenter who spent her twenties teaching sustainable gardening to urbanites at Garden@Kimbourne Community Permaculture Project in Toronto. When she moved back to her home turf of Northern Ontario in 2020, the itch to teach remained, so she began the blog Earth Undaunted, which takes the big ideas behind regenerative agriculture and makes them accessible to gardeners on a home scale—including gardeners who are disabled or chronically ill. When Erin started a TikTok account to promote the blog, she fell in love with video content and now posts joyfully to 61,000 followers.
Heather Andrews
Heather Andrews is a published author, photographer, videoblogger and speaker who routinely works with homeowners and businesses to create high yield gardens with native pollinator habitats. She combines her background in research to enable gardeners to attract pollinators to grow more food sustainability.
Louise is co-principal of Verdant Earth Educators, a green industry consulting and education firm. Formerly a senior horticulturist at the Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia, she is a certified arborist holding certification from the International Society of Arboriculture. Louise currently teaches Botany and Garden Appreciation courses at the Barnes Arboretum School of Horticulture of St. Joseph’s University, as well as workshops and lectures for Longwood Gardens, Mt. Cuba Center, Tyler Arboretum, and other venues. Louise is a graduate of Temple University’s College of Environmental Design and has international gardening experience as a guest gardener for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Landscape in Windsor, UK.
Mason is the Director of Growth at Jack's Fertilizers and the Co Vice President of NICH (The National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture. In his current role Mason works to help growers, garden centers, and consumers better understand the finer points of fertilizer and why it is so necessary to their success. In his role at NICH, Mason is helping the commercial horticulture industry better connect with the realms of academia and extension to offer a consistent message to the garden consumer. Mason also serves as Vice President of the board for America In Bloom.
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C.L. Fornari writes, speaks, and broadcasts about plants and gardening. Her goal is to keep people excited about plants and gardening, while using Nature as their prime gardening coach. For several years she has taught classes on Cannabis at her local IGC and to community and garden clubs.
Herb Frazier is a Charleston S.C.-based writer. He is senior projects editor at the Charleston City Paper. Frazier has edited or reported for five daily newspapers in the South. He is the author of Behind God’s Back: Gullah Memories.
Galen Gates has been instrumental in designing, establishing, and maintaining the Chicago Botanic Garden’s 27 world-class display gardens, and four extensive natural areas. He also led the effort to environmentally improve the 81 acre, nine-island lake system within 385 acres over 30 years. During his tenure at CBG, he grew the living collections to include representatives from 95% of the world’s 200 countries and increased individual plant species from 4,000 to nearly 10,000 with individual plants growing from 500,000 to 2.5M.
Sylvia holds an ornamental horticulture degree from the University of Florida. Sylvia is a landscape designer/garden consultant and has 40 years experience as a wholesale specialty grower of tropical ornamental plants in her Zone 10b-11 South Florida Nursery. Her time spent on local and state boards and committees for Florida’s Nursery and Landscape Association, the Florida Farm Bureau, the Tropical Research and Education Center, the Miami-Dade County Cooperative Extension Service and the University of Florida’s Wedgworth Leadership Institute, to name a few, has helped shaped the grower, designer and consultant she is today. In November of 2018, Sylvia was added to NICH leadership. She currently serves as Co-Vice President.
Warren currently serves as Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Hunter Industries. He is responsible for providing global leadership and strategic guidance in the organization’s sustainability and social impact initiatives. Warren oversees the company’s Climate Action Plan, the annual sustainability report, and their employee volunteer and giving programs which includes Hunter’s Community Grants committee. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Ornamental Horticulture from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California and received an Executive Master of Sustainability Leadership from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. He has been an instructor in the UCLA Extension Sustainability Certificate Program and a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University in the School of Sustainability.
Stacey Hirvela
After earning her degree in linguistics from the University of Michigan, Stacey Hirvela realized her true calling was in the garden. She attended the New York Botanical Garden School of Professional Horticulture, followed by stints as a rooftop gardener in Manhattan, the horticulturist for Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park, and as a garden editor and radio host for Martha Stewart Living. She currently serves as marketing manager for Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs and co-hosts the radio show, podcast, and YouTube show, Gardening Simplified On Air.
Matthew Ingram
Attorney by Day. Afternoon and Weekend Gardening Warrior. Matthew is a YouTube and Social Media Creator for The Southerner's Northern Garden. Born and raised in Alabama, he moved north to Ohio in 2016 and fell in love with the garden and green industry. Matthew uses his social media channels to fulfill his desire to learn, teach, and share with other gardeners - new and old.
After two other careers, in 1992 Debra turned her avocation of plant study and gardening into her full-time career. Debra is passionate about gardening, sustainable garden design and the natural world, and enjoys sharing knowledge through her writing, public speaking, and garden consulting in the private and public sectors. In addition, she mentored the future of the landscape industry at Columbus State for 24 years (1995-2019) and is currently guiding gardeners in the art of creating habitat and beauty at Groovy Plants Ranch. Debra boasts an eclectic garden packed into 2/3 of an acre.
Mr. Joseph McGill, Jr., is the founder of the Slave Dwelling Project and a history consultant for Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, SC. By arranging for people to sleep in extant slave dwellings, the Slave Dwelling Project has brought much needed attention to these often-neglected structures that are vitally important to the American built environment.
Lucy is a writer and content creator living near Atlanta, Georgia. She is the Gardening Expert and Content Strategist for the nation’s largest home improvement retailer. Her qualifications include serving her community as a certified Master Gardener (extension volunteer) and gardening on 10 mostly wooded acres outside of Atlanta. She created a food blog in 2009, A Cook and Her Books, and that’s where you’ll find her on the socials, sharing stories about good gardening and good food.
Susan Mulvihill is a longtime garden educator and coach. She was the Sunday garden columnist for the (Spokane, Wash.) Spokesman-Review newspaper for almost 20 years and has been a Master Gardener for 22 years. She is the author of The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook and The Vegetable Garden Problem Solver Handbook, and co-author of The Northwest Gardener's Handbook. In 2014, she started creating videos for her YouTube channel, Susan's in the Garden. She now has over 500 videos. Her website is SusansintheGarden.com and she posts daily on her Facebook and Instagram feeds
Lorraine has been writing books about native plant gardening in the U.S. and Canada for 30 years. She is the author of more than 10 books on topics such as native plant gardening, urban agriculture, composting, and environmental issues. Her most recent book is A Northern Gardener's Guide to Native Plants and Pollinators, co-authored with Dr. Sheila Colla and with an introduction by Douglas Tallamy. Other books include 100 Easy-to-Grow Native Plants Grow Wild! and Tending the Earth. Lorraine is a Past President of the North American Native Plant Society and a former board member of Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes.
Noelle is an author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant. She received her degree in Botany from Arizona State University. Popularly known as the 'AZ Plant Lady,' she teaches desert dwellers how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful gardens that thrive in hot, dry climates. Noelle is the author of the AHS award-winning book, "Dry Climate Gardening," and her new book, "The Water-Smart Garden," will be released later this year. She is an instructor at both The Desert and Tucson Botanical Gardens and is a columnist for Phoenix Home & Garden Magazine.
Eva is a speaker, horticultural and environmental consultant, garden coach, and an award-winning educator. She is a faculty member at Longwood Gardens for the Professional Horticulture Program and Continuing Education Department. Monheim’s other endeavors include the award-winning The Plant a Trillion Trees Podcast which is heard in over 100 countries. She is the author of Shrubs & Hedges: Discover, Grow, and Care for the World’s Most Popular Plants, a member of GardenComm, and is a Certified Arborist®. Eva is co-principal of Verdant Earth Educators, LLC (VEE) a company that writes educational documents and standards, SOPs, landscape management plans, and trains professionals in the green industry.
Gale is the marketing director for the National Garden Bureau. Gail has a Horticulture degree from the University of Illinois and has worked in the industry for over three decades.
Adriana is the Videographer/Photographer for Proven Winners® ColorChoice® Flowering Shrubs. She earned a degree in Film & Video with an emphasis on Documentary film, from Grand Valley State University. She has been doing professional video work in the horticultural industry for five years. Her work includes creating commercials for Hulu and broadcast tv, making time-lapse videos, drone videography, and creating extensive forms of content for social media platforms.
Valerie is a Clemson University graduate with a Master's in Professional Communication, Valerie manages all website content and traffic for Sod Solutions and Lawnifi. Her interests include artificial intelligence, SEO, analytics in GA4 and Google Search Console, and UX, showcasing her diverse expertise in digital communication. She enjoys gardening, running, reading, and playing guitar in her free time and she has two cats.
Rick is currently co-host of the Gardening Simplified Show, a radio show, podcast and YouTube show from Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs. Hosted by life-long gardeners Rick Vuyst and Stacey Hirvela, the Gardening Simplified show is designed to share our love of plants and gardening. Whatever your skill or experience level, you’ll find something interesting, useful, and just plain fascinating in every episode. Rick was host of the award winning Flowerland show (Winner of 7 MAB awards for broadcasting excellence) on NewsRadio WOOD 1300 and 106.9 FM and nationally on iHeart radio from May 1, 1993 to June 4, 2022.
Sarah is an award-winning brand strategist with a focus on influencers and social media. She specializes in creating inclusive, trend-responsive marketing programs that build brand trust and community. Through her work at Branch & Bramble, a digital marketing agency for lifestyle brands, Sarah has helped many brands tell their story, from your favorite celebrities to global leaders like Paramount and Patagonia. Her work and insights have been featured on Social Media Today, NASDAQ, Yahoo, and more.
