Deryn Davidson is the Sustainable Landscape State Specialist for CSU Extension. In this role she conducts educational programming and provides consultation for public and private entities on ways to create sustainable and resilient landscapes. She holds a B.S. in Horticulture from CSU and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Arizona. Deryn believes that with thoughtful design and appropriate horticulture practices we can foster biodiversity and use nature-based solutions to enhance the livability and resilience of our urban areas.

Dr. Daniel Burcham is an assistant professor of arboriculture and urban forestry at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. He is interested in the persistence and preservation of large, mature trees facing various disturbances in cities, and he studies the natural adaptations and management interventions conferring longevity to individual trees and, at broader scales, limiting mortality rates in urban forests. He is also interested in the changes in tree growth and stability associated with various arboricultural practices, such as pruning. He earned a PhD in Environmental Conservation, with an emphasis in forest resources and arboriculture, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and he earlier obtained a BS in landscape horticulture and MS in public horticulture from the Ohio State University and University of Delaware, respectively. For nearly 10 years, he managed an arboriculture research program at the Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology, National Parks Board (NParks), Singapore, where he contributed to advancements in the science and practice of tropical arboriculture.

Scott Skogerboe has been the Propagator at Fort Collins Wholesale Nursery for the last 30 years, where he grows 300,000 trees and shrubs every year for sale to nurseries from Casper, Wyoming, to Albuquerque, NM, and just about everywhere in between.  Prior to working with his current employer, Scott was the owner of a small nursery specializing in fruit trees and berries adaptable to the rigors of growing on the high plains of the American Interior West.

He is a graduate of Colorado State University with a B.S. degree in Landscape Horticulture.  In 2016, Scott was awarded Commercial Horticulturist of the Year by the American Horticultural Society.

Scott, in his spare time, enjoys going out with his wife Dianne, also a professional Horticulturist, to explore new and old plants. They particularly look for old and obscure Apples.  One of his claims to fame is he discovered the last remaining tree planted by Johnny Appleseed.

Prior to becoming a horticulturist, Scott was a Sergeant in the US Army where he was a medic and a clinical specialist.  He had the honor of being selected to be the ambulance driver in the motorcades of President George Herbert Walker Bush and later with General Colin Powell.

Tim Buchanan was the City Forester for the City of Fort Collins for 41 years retiring in 2018. He holds a bachelor's and master’s degree from Colorado State University. In retirement, he continues to pursue his passion for promoting the best trees in Colorado and surrounding areas.

Ross Shrigley's journey into horticulture and gardening blossomed during his time at Colorado State University. After graduating with a biology degree in 1994, he nurtured his skills and knowledge further by establishing his own gardening business, which he successfully operated for seven years. In 2005, Ross's green thumb led him to the Denver Botanic Gardens, where he honed his expertise. Seeking new opportunities to contribute to the gardening community, he transitioned to Fort Collins Wholesale Nursery in 2012, assuming the role of Outside Sales Representative. With a wealth of experience under his belt, Ross now proudly serves as the Executive Director of Plant Select®, a nonprofit collaboration between Colorado State University, Denver Botanic Gardens, and esteemed horticulturists. In this role, he brings his passion, knowledge, and dedication to furthering sustainable gardening practices and promoting environmentally friendly plant selections

Dr. Sara LoTemplio is an Assistant Professor in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources and the director of the Restoring Attention and Affect in Nature (RAAIN) lab. She also co-directs the Collective for Nature Immersion Science and practice (CNISP).  She is particularly interested in the restorative effects of natural environments on attention and mood. She uses a variety of behavioral measures as well as psychophysiological measures such as ECG (heartrate) and EEG (brainwaves) in her research. She is also interested in how emotion affects cognition, and basic research into attention and cognitive control, and is a strong enthusiast of science communication and community engagement with science. To this end, she also is partially appointed to work with CSU Extension. In her free time, she is an avid gardener, and recently became a Colorado Master Gardener right here in Larimer County!

C. Kenneth Kassenbrock, MD, PhD, is an Emeritus Professor of Biology at Colorado State University, where he taught classes in Mycology, Cell Biology, and Human Genetics.  Trained as a physician-scientist, Dr. Kassenbrock did post-doctoral work in molecular genetics with the brewer’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and worked in cellular signal transduction and cancer biology at the University of Colorado Medical Center before moving to CSU.  At CSU, mycology moved from a long-held passion to a central career focus, and Dr. Kassenbrock continues to give invited presentations on a range of mycological topics to both University and public audiences.

Camille T. Dungy is the author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden. Soil was named book of the month by Hudsons Booksellers, received the 2024 Award of Excellence in Garden and Nature Writing from The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries, and was on the short list for the PEN/Jean Stein Award.

Dungy has also written four collections of poetry, including Trophic Cascade, winner of the Colorado Book Award, and the essay collection Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She edited Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, the first anthology to bring African American environmental poetry to national attention. She also co-edited the From the Fishouse poetry anthology and served as assistant editor for Gathering Ground: Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade.

Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, 100 Best African American Poems, Best American Essays, The 1619 Project, All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, over 40 other anthologies, plus dozens of venues including The New Yorker, Poetry, Literary Hub, The Paris Review, and Poets.org.

You may know her as the host of Immaterial, a podcast from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Magnificent Noise. A University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University, Dungy’s honors include the Academy of American Poets Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, an Honorary Doctorate from SUNY ESF, and fellowships from the NEA in both prose and poetry.

Camille Dungy, Award-winning Poet,  NBCCA Finalist in Criticism

https://www.instagram.com/camilledungy/

https://camilledungy.com/

Dr. Charlotte Oliver Regional Viticulture Extension Specialist, received her B.S, M.S., and Ph.D. in Plant Pathology with a focus on wine grapes from Virginia Tech. After graduating, she spent 3 years working with the Washington state grape industry for her postdoc. Charlotte took her position with CSU in July 2022 where her primary role is interacting with the Colorado grape industry and providing timely educational resources for commercial and backyard grape growers. Her current program has several foci: 1) fill in the educational gaps between research and CO grape growers, 2) evaluate the presence and distribution of grape viruses across the state, 3) evaluate table grape production on the Western slope, and 4) help farmers choose and use chemical application equipment more efficiently. 

Kat Reeves has over twenty years of restaurant experience and over twenty-five years of experience taking care of people's needs, as she is also a teacher. She is often the first person guests see when they walk in the door at her restaurant, Bistro Natuile, and it's her job to make sure people leave satiated and satisfied with every aspect of their experience. She is responsible for the wine and liquor program, floor staff, special events, marketing, and decidedly boring things like payroll and bills.