Conference Speakers & Bios
Natalie Carmolli
Natalie is rooted in horticulture, having worked in the family floral business until college, where she earned her degree in fine and theatrical arts. Now an avid gardener, writer, and public speaker for Spring Meadow Nursery, Natalie delights in sharing her expertise and enthusiasm about the art of gardening, using Proven Winners ColorChoice flowering shrubs.
Lynne Golodner
Lynne is the author of nine books and thousands of articles as well as a marketing entrepreneur, writing coach and host of the Make Meaning Podcast. She teaches writing around the world, leads writers retreats and facilitates The Writers Community. She fuses her marketing expertise with her writing background in webinars and masterminds focused on arming writers with the tools to market their work and build consistent author brands.
Derek Haynes
Following in the footsteps of notable Black plant scientists like George Washington Carver and Percy Julian is no easy task, but Derek Haynes is more than up to the challenge. With a background in Botany, and working in vaccine and therapeutics development using non-traditional plant-based technologies, Derek certainly practices what he preaches.
Peggy Hill
Peggy Hill is a writer, speaker, and plant ho. In 2019, she won first place in Toastmasters International’s Humorous Speech Contest for District 77, which includes Alabama and parts of Florida and Mississippi. In 2022, she won first place again with another humorous speech for the District’s Tall Tales Speech Contest. She speaks about gardening regularly and gave the keynote presentation at the Longleaf Botanical Gardens 2022 Spring Garden Symposium. Her writing credits include over one hundred articles for the now-defunct magazine Alabama Gardener, and she is best known for her witty back page articles.
Gail Hudson
Gail Hudson is a multiple award-winning storyteller: a writer/journalist, photographer and video producer with a 35+ year career in the broadcast and media relations industry. She’s also a horticulturist with a Master’s degree in Horticulture. Gail writes and photographs gardens for Northern Gardener magazine and several national publications. She owns Gail Hudson Media, a video production and communications company.
Kathy Jentz
Kathy Jentz is editor and publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine and hosts the popular GardenDC Podcast. She is also the editor of the Water Garden Journal (IWGS),The Azalean (ASA), and Fanfare, for the local daylily society. She is the author of Groundcover Revolution and co-author of The Urban Garden: 101 Ways to Grow Food and Beauty in the City. Kathy’s work has been featured in numerous area publications including Pathways Magazine and Washington Women magazine. In addition, she has appeared on regular gardening guest spots on Channel 9, Channel 4, as well as WTOP, WAMU, and WOWD- LP radio stations in Washington, DC. Currently, she is the President of the Silver Spring Garden Club and is on the board of several other garden clubs and organizations.
Sean & Allison McManus
Sean and Allison McManus, owners of Spoken Garden and content creators, love teaching about all kinds of plants and flowers, including plant care, pruning, and bulb care. They garden in the PNW zone 8b and teach first-time gardeners through their Spoken Garden YouTube channel, their quick “DIY Garden Minute” podcast, their Spoken Garden website, & their book “The First-time Gardener: Growing Plants and Flowers" published by Cool Springs Press in 2021. They're inventors of The Little Dibby and The Dibby XL (winner of the 2023 NGB 'Green Thumb Award') dual-purpose garden tools for seed-sowing and seedling transplanting. They love sharing content on their YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts.
Carol Michel
Carol J. Michel is an award-winning author of several books including five gardening humor books and two children’s book. As the holder of degrees in both horticulture and computer technology, she spent over three decades making a living in healthcare IT while making a life in her garden. She started writing about gardening on her blog called May Dreams Gardens which lead to numerous magazine articles, her books, many articles for Family Handyman’s website, and a podcast called The Gardenangelists. She was named a GardenComm Fellow by Garden Communicators International in 2021
Lucy Mercer
Lucy Mercer 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.
Christy Page
Michael Perry
A multihyphenate of the plant world, Michael Perry (AKA Mr Plant Geek) is a TV presenter, speaker, hortpreneur and author of Hortus Curious, a visual menagerie of the weirdest and wackiest plant species. Michael got his start in new product development at Thompson & Morgan before quickly working his way up to becoming an authoritative voice knowledgeable in all areas of horticulture. Having presented guest slots on ITV’s This Morning and Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch, and regularly speaking at RHS Flower Shows and industry exhibitions across the globe, Michael’s focus on the fun and trendy side of gardening encourages and nurtures the new generation of gardeners.
Joseph Perry
Joseph Perry is an attorney who counsels authors, editors, agents, publishers, and other creatives in the book and magazine publishing industries. Joseph is also the founder of the literary agency, Perry Literary, Inc. He currently works as an Associate Editor at Thomson Reuters. He received his juris doctor from St. John’s University School of Law, where he was an Articles Editor for the St. John’s Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Journal. Prior to founding The Law Offices of Joseph J. Perry P.C., Joseph worked as a legal analyst at Sony Music Entertainment. Joseph holds a BA and MA in English from St. Bonaventure University.
Carol Reese
Carol Reese is a retired Extension Horticulture Specialist, a nationally-known speaker, blending equal parts gardening knowledge, natural lore, and quirky humor. Her B.S. and M.S. in Horticulture are from Mississippi State University, and she could also add her Phd. if she “had ever written that damn dissertation!” While there, she taught classes in Plant Materials, and co-taught Landscape Design for non LA majors alongside a “real” landscape architect. She has written numerous articles for garden magazines, has served as Q&A columnist for Horticulture Magazine, and wrote a weekly gardening and nature column for the Jackson Sun for two decades.
Richard Restuccia
Richard Restuccia, Global VP of Business Development at Rivulis Irrigation, passionately advocates for water efficiency, spreading awareness of its financial and social benefits. He actively contributes to industry events and policy discussions to promote water management best practices. With a master's in agriculture, Richard pioneers irrigation technology and water conservation, and as host of the Rivulis Irrigation Training Series, he educates thousands annually about water conservation, sustainable practices, and water management. He also writes and edits the Jain Irrigation Water Blog. Watch for Richard's new book on saving water in your garden due out in the Spring of 2025.
Valerie Smith
Valerie Smith is a content strategist with Sod Solutions who writes and manages content on the Sod Solutions website for homeowners and manages a blog, newsletter and YouTube channel called Sod University. Her focus is on SEO, analytics, UX, and website content writing. Valerie has a master’s degree in professional communication and a bachelor’s degree in English publication studies from Clemson University.
Christopher Sheridan
Christopher Sheridan is an award-winning civic educator, pursuing a second career in horticulture and garden communications. He has a certificate in Ornamental Horticulture from Longwood Gardens, and a fragrant plant library is comparable with most public gardens. He’s developing programming with the Longwood education department and building a comprehensive database of fragrant plants in cultivation.
Peter Wigren
Peter Wigren is a technologist, technology futurist, US Patent holder, data wizard and marketing expert. Peter believes that research and data are powerful tools to make any business thrive no matter what size. His no-nonsense, "in the trenches" approach demystifies research, marketing and other technologies to help make them useful tools to the small business owner.
Diane Blazek
Diane Blazek, Executive Director of All-America Selections and National Garden Bureau has been deeply (and happily!) immersed in gardening from an early age. From growing up on a small family farm in Missouri to her small suburban lot in the Chicagoland area, she is passionate about everything green. After spending 15 years with Ball Publishing, Diane moved to take on her current role where she can be even closer to the end consumer. Both organizations are in an exciting period of growth and influence both inside and outside the industry. Innovative ideas and progressive programs for consumers, garden communicators, public gardens, and a full range of growers and retailers have benefited all segments of the horticulture industry.
