Dr. Eric Burkhart is a botanist who specializes in ethnobotany, non-timber forest products and agroforestry in his teaching, research and educational outreach endeavors. He holds degrees in Economic Botany (BA, Idaho State University), Horticulture (MS, Penn State University), and Forest Resources (PhD, Penn State University) and is a faculty instructor in the Penn State Ecosystem Science and Management Department where he teaches botany-related courses in Field Dendrology and Invasive Plant Identification and Management.
Faculty Member/Instructor, Ecosystem Science and Management, Penn State University
3400 Discovery Road, Petersburg, PA 16669
Epb6@psu.edu

Anne Frances is Lead Botanist at NatureServe, where she guides plant conservation activities and supports the NatureServe Network. She leads NatureServe’s Global Ranking and Climate Change Vulnerability projects, and currently serves as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – North American Plant Red List Authority. Her diverse interests and experience in native plant conservation, ethnobotany, and restoration ecology help her to support NatureServe’s efforts to protect rare plants and their ecosystems. Anne has a PhD from the University of Florida, an MS from Florida International University, and a BA from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She serves as Affiliate Faculty at George Mason University.
Lead Botanist, NatureServe
4600 N. Fairfax Dr., 7th Floor 8 Arlington, VA 22203
Anne_frances@natureserve.org

Sarah Chamberlain holds dual appointments as Assistant Research Professor at Riparia and Curator of the PAC Herbarium at Penn State University. As Curator of the PAC, she manages a collection of over 100,000 plants and seeds, conducts workshops and tours, and directs a project to digitize PAC’s Pennsylvania and Mid-Atlantic collections. She has taught numerous workshops on plant identification, particularly related to grasses, sedges and rushes. She has also developed materials to aid in identification of this challenging group of plants, including a Field Guide to Grasses of the Mid-Atlantic, published in April, 2018 by Penn State Press.
Curator, Penn State (PAC) Herbarium
208 Mueller Lab • University Park, PA 16802
sjm20@psu.edu

Dr. Sybil Gotsch’s research is focused on understanding the form and function of epiphyte communities in the Tropical Montane Cloud Forest. She has been a faculty member in the Department of Biology at Franklin and Marshall College since 2012. Prior to 2012, Dr. Gotsch worked as a post-doc in the cloud forests of Veracruz, Mexico (University of New Hampshire) and the Cerrado of Central Brazil (North Carolina State University). Dr. Gotsch received her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Stony Brook University in 2006. Her doctoral research addressed the effects of seasonality on leaf traits of common tree species in wet and dry seasonal tropical forests.
Assistant Professor of Biology, Department of Biology, Franklin and Marshall College
415 Harrisburg Avenue, Lancaster, PA 17603
sgotsch@fandm.edu

Art Gover has been involved in weed control/plant community manipulation for 30 years, focusing on natural areas with DCNR-State Parks for the last ten years. Managing invasive species before they exert significant influence is a fundamental tenet of his management approach. This presentation will endeavor to identify the subtle differences between a number of exotic species and very similar native species, relying largely on vegetative characters.
Research Support Associate, Penn State University
116 ASI Building, University Park, PA 16802
aeg2@psu.edu

Kay Havens holds a BS and an MA in Botany from Southern Illinois University and a PhD in Biology from Indiana University. She joined the Chicago Botanic Garden in 1997. She is currently the Garden’s Senior Director of Ecology and Conservation and Senior Scientist. Her research interests include the effects of climate change on plant species, restoration genetics, pollination networks, ex situ conservation, and invasion biology. She chairs the Non-federal Cooperators Committee of the Plant Conservation Alliance and collaborates with a variety of academic institutions, agencies and stewardship organizations to help improve conservation efforts for plants.
Senior Director of Ecology and Conservation and Senior Scientist, Chicago Botanic Garden
1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, IL 60035
khavens@chicagobotanic.org

Joe Isaac is a botanical consultant and Project Manager with Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc. (CEC) in Pittsburgh. He has been employed by CEC since 2003. Joe received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Biological Sciences with emphasis in Plant Sciences from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. He serves on the Pennsylvania Botany Symposium Committee and the Pennsylvania Vascular Plant Technical Committee of the Pennsylvania Biological Survey.
Project Manager, Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc.
333 Baldwin Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15205
isaacb@carnegieMNH.org

Roger Latham has worked as a research ecologist, conservation biologist, and environmental planner since the year the Endangered Species Act was passed (1973). After earning a PhD in Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, he served as Pennsylvania Director of Science and Stewardship for The Nature Conservancy, post-doctoral researcher in biogeochemistry and fire ecology in Penn’s Department of Geology, and faculty member in the Department of Biology at Swarthmore College. For the last 18 years he has been a full-time consultant, conducting applied research and planning for agencies and organizations involved in wildlands stewardship and endangered species recovery.
Consultant, Continental Conservation
P.O. Box 57, Rose Valley, PA 19086-0057
rel@continentalconservation.us

Chris Martine, the David Burpee Professor at Bucknell University, spent his childhood tromping through the woodlots and culverted streams of suburban New Jersey. By the time he was a teenager he had memorized a handful of Golden Guides, but it wasn’t until a few years later, as a first-gen college student, that he realized a person could “do nature” as a career. A significant focus of his life since then has centered on a desire to a) discover cool stuff and b) tell people about it. Chris actively engages non-science audiences across multiple outlets, including as host/producer of the YouTube series “Plants are Cool, Too!”
David Burpee Professor, Department of Biology, Bucknell University
1 Dent Drive, Lewisburg, PA 17837
Ctm015@bucknell.edu

Dr. Robbin Moran is the Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany at The New York Botanical Garden. His research interests are ferns, horsetails, and lycophytes. He has published over 120 scientific papers and four books on ferns. His general interest book, A Natural History of Ferns, won the Garden Writers Association Award for best writing. Each year Robbin teaches a fern course at the Eagle Hill Biological Station in coastal Maine, and a graduate-level course, Tropical Plant Systematics, for the Organization of Tropical Studies in Costa Rica.
Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany, The New York Botanical Garden
2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10458-5126
rmoran@nybg.org

John Wenzel was a professor at Ohio State University for 17 years, and joined the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in 2011. As Director of Powdermill Nature Reserve, the research field station of the museum, he has built new education and research programs including greatly expanded emphasis on plant biology.
Director, Powdermill Nature Reserve, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
1795 Route 381, Rector, PA 15677
WenzelJ@CarnegieMNH.org

David Werier is a student of the flora of eastern North America (primarily New York State) and author of the recent Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of New York State. He is particularly fascinated with the hyperdiverse genus Carex and enjoys sharing his plant knowledge with those that are interested. He regularly offers plant identification workshops on different “challenging” taxonomic groups and is known as an inspiring, patient, knowledgeable, and clear teacher. He strives to have his students walk away inspired and ready to work independently.
Consultant, David Werier Botanical and Ecological Consulting
245 Eastman Hill Road, Willseyville, NY 13864
Nakita@lightlink.com

Peter Wilf is a paleobotanist who uses fossil plants to investigate ancient ecosystems, past environmental change, and the evolution and extinction of plants and plant-insect associations. He emphasizes research questions with relevance for modern climate change, biodiversity, biogeography, and ecological processes. Principal field areas include Patagonia, Argentina, and the Western Interior USA. Recently Peter’s lab group, in collaboration with colleagues at Franklin & Marshall College, has been using the techniques of deep-time paleobotany to better understand the precolonial vegetation of southeastern Pennsylvania from subfossil leaf mats preserved under abandoned-milldam deposits.
Professor of Paleobotany, Department of Geosciences, Penn State University
537 Deike Building, University Park, PA 16802
pwilf@psu.edu

Grady Zuiderveen is a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Penn State researching medicinal herbs native to the eastern United States. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Plant Biology and Biomedical Science from Grand Valley State University and an MS from Michigan State University and has helped teach courses in Field Dendrology and Forest Measurements and Management.
PhD Candidate, Ecosystem Science and Management, Penn State University
224 Forest Resources Building, University Park, PA 16802
Gjz5033@psu.edu