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Course Listing - by Instructor

Name Biography
Sam Anderson Sam Anderson is an Urban Agriculture Specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension. He works with urban farmers throughout New York City, providing technical assistance and resources with an emphasis on soil management and integrated pest management. Sam?s 14 years of agricultural work also include running a half-acre market garden on Long Island and managing farmer training programs at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and at New Entry Sustainable Farming Project. Sam holds an M.A. in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University.
Damon Arrington Damon Arrington is a Landscape Designer whose work bridges science and architecture with art and community. Damon obtained a Master's in Landscape Architecture from the City College of New York where he was a scholar for the J. Max Center for Inclusion and Equity. His notable architecture projects include The Hills on Governors Island, Jamaica Bay Restoration Project and park spaces for The New York Housing Authority. His recent research and design intervention work in West Virginia's 'Chemical Valley' gained him an American Society of Landscape Architecture Honor Award. He currently teaches Landscape Design at New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx and at Cornell University.
Patrick Austin Patrick Austin is the plant propagator and nursery gardener at BBG. A former BBG propagation intern, he has an undergraduate degree in Linguistics, and is always interested in learning about how plants got their names. He has also worked at Greenbelt Native Plant Center, propagating native plant species for habitat restoration around the five boroughs.
Elise Bernhardt Elise Bernhardt led nonprofit cultural organizations for over 30 years before she “reinvented” to follow her passion for flowers and start Fleur Elise Bkln. She brings her background as a dancer/choreographer and her studies of Ikebana (Japanese floral design) to her own designs. In her teaching, Bernhardt combines her experience building teams and her love affair with flowers. Her workshops are calm, creative, collaborative, and joyous.
Michael Troy Brown Michael Troy Brown is an honors graduate from the University of Florida with a bachelors in horticulture. He has accumulated extensive knowledge in the field of entomology, landscape design, tropical ornamentals, Mediterranean-climate plants, cactus, annuals, and perennials in his 20-plus years of work in the trade. Brown had the opportunity to study in Costa Rica with the University of Florida and created a design for San Jose?s Jardin Botanico Lankester. In 2006, he moved from South Florida to Southern California to immerse himself in Mediterranean climate plants and began designing at Descanso Gardens in Los Angeles, where he also lectured. He now resides in New York City where he consults and lectures.
Nancy Carey Nan Carey is a painter and potter. Her watercolors and sketchbooks are exhibited widely, and she teaches classes and workshops in watercolor painting, sketchbook journaling, and collage. She holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Erin Eck Erin Eck is the director of Continuing Education at BBG and has been teaching at the Garden since 2018. Erin has a background in public horticulture and was a gardener at the High Line for nearly six years. She began her career in urban gardening as a research assistant studying soil health in NYC’s community gardens. Erin holds a Master of Environmental Science degree from the Yale School of the Environment.
Kim Eierman Specializing in ecological landscapes and native plants, Kim Eierman is a certified horticulturist through the American Society for Horticultural Science, master gardener, master naturalist, and accredited organic land care professional. In addition to BBG, she teaches at the New York Botanical Garden, the Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College (where she is also on the steering committee), and several other institutions. Kim is an active speaker on many ecological gardening topics and also provides horticultural consulting to homeowners and commercial clients.
Sara Epstein Sara Epstein manages BBG's school programs and partnerships and enjoys teaching and learning about plants with everyone.
Joseph Giunta Joseph Giunta has led bird walks for the Nature Conservancy and the South Fork Natural History Society and taught a beginning birding course for Summer Fest. He has birded extensively in the U.S., Panama, Belize, Venezuela, and Costa Rica.
Evelyn Manlove Evelyn Manlove is passionate about exploring the intersection between the human environment and functional ecology. Building upon years of experience caring for and creating native plant focused residential gardens in the Philadelphia area, she found a niche for this pursuit among the horticulture staff at Brooklyn Bridge Park. As a gardener at the park, she became engaged in problem solving the challenges that emerge in this unique environment. Now, as park horticulturist, this remains among her primary responsibilities in addition to staff training and overseeing plant selection, new plantings, pruning and IPM. Evelyn is a NOFA Certified Organic Landcare Professional and holds a Certificate in Horticulture from BBG and a Certificate in Botany from NYBG. In addition to public and private gardening she has spent time in the floriculture and interior landscaping industries.
Ellen McCarthy Ellen started her career in garden education as Manager of the Family Garden at NYBG. She then spent 12 years as the Program Coordinator at Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, overseeing the children's garden and youth program there. She also coordinated the Urban Farm Project, helping develop urban farms on NYCHA property with AmeriCorps members. She has a Master's degree in education from Bank Street. Ellen loves plants and children, and she looks forward to showing you all the fun and unique plants in the garden.
Lydia Paradiso Lydia Paradiso is currently a doctoral student in a joint program between the CUNY Graduate Center and the New York Botanical Garden, where she studies conifer systematics and the spontaneous flora of New York City. She previously received a MSc in Plant Biodiversity from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. Lydia has taught at Lehman College and for NYBG's School of Professional Horticulture, and was project comanager of the NYC EcoFlora project, NYBG's community science program. She is also the current president of the Torrey Botanical Society, the oldest botanical society in the Americas.
Rhiannon Platt Rhiannon Platt is at least third-generation fiber artist. Raised by seamstresses, crocheters, and fiber artists of all kinds, she picked up her first needle almost two decades ago. Since helping her mom sew holiday decorations, Rhiannon has gone on to fabricate for Lion Brand Yarn, Shakespeare in the Park, and the Philadelphia Ballet, and teach at the New York and Brooklyn Public Libraries and 92nd Street Y. In between commissions, she finds time to embroider the nature she sees while camping with her dog, Buddy.
Carey Russell Carey Russell is a naturalist, educator, filmmaker and photographer based in New York City. He holds a master’s degree in forestry with an emphasis in landscape ecology, and is a certified interpretive guide, and a licensed guide and master naturalist in New York State. He has worked for the U.S. Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy, Discover Outdoors, and Khangi Nuruu National Park in Mongolia. Recently, he founded the Dendro Lab, a platform designed to improve the public’s relationship to nature through tree identification, which will include an online course, workshops, and podcast. As a filmmaker, he has been a frequent collaborator with director Terrence Malick (The New World, The Tree of Life); and directed and photographed the documentary series Tibetan Stories. Also a photographer, Russell recently published his first monograph, The New Arcadians, about the formative experiences of youth and nature at summer camp.
Valerie Striar Valerie Striar has led walking meditation at the Garden since 2014 with the intention of supporting our interconnection and reverence for the earth. Valerie has cultivated a longtime practice of mindfulness meditation and is certified with the Inner Strength Foundation and Inward Bound Mindfulness Education for Teens, iBme. She has completed trainings with Lama Rod Owens, Tara Brach; Jack Kornfield; Mindful Schools (the eight-week MBSR training), Compassion Cultivation Training, created at Stanford University; and yoga and trauma-informed training with The Lineage Project, among others. She has taught yoga in the Iyengar tradition for over 25 years. Valerie is also a performing dance and theater artist and is a master practitioner, facilitator, and advisor with Narrative 4, an international organization that brings people together in story exchanges to foster empathy, understanding, and connection.
Nsombi Woodson Nsombi Woodson is the founder of The Woodson Bloomery, an interactive floral art studio which teaches the artistic expression of floral design. Nsombi Woodson’s love of flowers began in childhood among the beautiful roses her grandmother grew in her Bronx backyard. Nsombi explains her artistic philosophy as “Trying very hard not to mess up what Mother Nature has given.” She loves demonstrating “the joyful, meditative, and restorative nature of floral design.” In her 20 year career, her floral designs have been featured in the Kips Bay Decorator Show House, Elle Decor Magazine, Southern Bride Magazine, Coveteur, and Architecture Digest.