Ashley Beckwith is the founder and CEO of Foray Bioscience, where she and her team leverage plant cell culture to createpredictable access to the plants and plant products the world needs, by growing them from the cell up.

Ashley’s path into the world of plants has been a curious one. She holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and hasbeen innovating at the intersection of biology, materials, and manufacturing for over a decade. Her award-winning Ph.D. research led to the first demonstration of lab-grown “wood”, combining principles of tissue engineering and plant culture to grow structured plant materials in the lab.

Now, Ashley leads Foray’s team of plant biologists, process engineers, software developers, and machine learningexperts to make plant cell and tissue culture predictable and accessible for applications from micropropagation to fabricated seed production. 

Orsolya (Orsi) Lazar is an urban forester, an ISA Certified Arborist and a Pennsylvania (PA) Certified Horticulturalist in Sustainable Landscapes. Her unconventional path to forestry began with a Master’s Degree in Ecology and a Master’s Degree in Molecular and Cell Biology. She has over 20 years of experience in landscape design and management, project management, and education.

Orsi became the first Community Tree Specialist at Pennsylvania DCNR’s Urban and Community Forestry Program. She helps shape this growing program to better serve communities by building trust, identifying opportunities, and finding creative solutions to challenges. 

She works with municipalities and non-profits toincrease tree benefits, manage costs and risks, and creates green spaces that suit people’s needs.

She is a member of the Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association and is in the group that is working on updating the PA Certified Horticulturist study manual.

Orsi has taught gardening and tree care for diverse audiences, including workforce developmentprograms.  Many local parks have benefited from her technical assistance and plant donations.

She created a tree inventory and installed hundreds ofbotanical signs at Merion Botanical Park as a pro bono contribution to her own community. Her “Responsible Gardening” Facebook group helps local gardenersconnect and share sustainable, evidence-based practices.

When not in the garden or a park, she enjoys teaching tricks to her border collie or is on the dance floor practicing ballroom and Latin dancing.

Jonathan Mullard is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, a Founder Member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology andEnvironmental Management, and a Chartered Town and Country Planner.  He had combined a passion for the naturalenvironment with a career in conservation and spatial planning.

 In the early 1980s, Jonathan worked alongside Max Nicholson, the pioneer ornithologist and environmentalist, on developing an urban woodland strategy for London. This involved setting up a project in Crystal Palace to save a fragment of the Great North Wood. Later, Jonathan cameacross the Capon Tree, one of the few remaining trees from the Jed Forest in the Scottish Borders. Along with his experience of growing up in Shropshire and researching the lost Forest of Morfe, it started an interest in lost forests and their remains.

 Jonathan is the author of Forgotten Forests: Twelve Thousand Years of British and Irish Woodlands and three books on Wales published in the Collins New Naturalist series: Gower,Brecon Beacons, and Pembrokeshire.

When you ask Basil Camu what he thinks about himself, he'lltell you he is incredibly lucky. He has family he loves dearly, friends and colleagues who inspire him, and every day he gets to care for trees, soil, and flowers. He pursues his purpose and passions as the co-founder of Leaf & Limb, a tree care company in Raleigh, NC, and Project Pando, a non-profit that aims to connect people to trees. He is a Treecologist, ISA Board Certified Master Arborist, Duke graduate, Wizard of Things, and author of the book From Wasteland toWonder – Easy Ways We Can Help Heal Earth in the Sub/Urban Landscape. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Seattle Times, Forbes, Gardenista, The Joe Gardener Show, The Plant a Trillion Trees Podcast, A Way toGarden with Margaret Roach, and a number of other publications and podcasts.

When Basil is not having fun at work, he likes to pull invasive plants from his pocket forests, contemplate on his front porch, and go hiking with his family.

Rick Hartlieb and his wife and business partner, Jen, are the proud first-generation farmers behind Castanea Farms in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Their journey is rooted in both passion and persistence, beginning more than 25 years ago when they first met through the Conrad Weiser Area School District’s FFA program.

Rick’s early love for forestry led him to Penn State University, where he earned an Associate of Science in Forest Technology from the Mont Alto campus before completing his Bachelor of Science in Forestry at University Park. His career path soon intertwined with chestnuts—starting in 2005 as a volunteer with the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation.

By 2008, Rick was serving his community as a Service Forester with the DCNR Bureau of Forestry, managing forest resources across Berks, Lancaster, and Chester Counties. His leadership continued to grow, and from 2014–2024 he served as Assistant Manager for Resource Stewardship in the William Penn Forest District before stepping into the role of District Manager in 2024.

In 2017, Rick and Jen discovered the property that would define their future: a farmstead dotted with 100-year-old chestnut trees. Inspired by its legacy, they named it Castanea Farms—a tribute to the genus of the chestnut itself. Today, chestnuts remain at the heart of their farming operation, a living testament to both heritage and hard work.

Natalie Carmolli manages Public Relations for Spring Meadow Nursery and Proven Winners® ColorChoice® shrubs. She grew up in the floral industry and holds a bachelor’s degree in theatrical arts, along with a Certificate of Mastery in tree and shrub identification from Longwood Gardens. An avid gardener and dynamic communicator, Natalie is passionate about sharing her love of gardening with shrubs, whether online, traveling across the country, or in her own backyard.

Mary Tipping has held the position of Curator and Plant Recorder at the Scott Arboretum & Gardens at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, since 2015, after working as the Horticulturist at the Henry Schmieder Arboretum of Delaware Valley University in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.  In her current position, she is responsiblefor curating, recording, mapping, and labeling a vast array of plant collections, which encompass over 11,500 woody plants and thousands of herbaceous plants. 

She is an ISA Certified Arborist® and the PhiladelphiaFlower Show Nomenclature Chairman.  Her plant passions include oaks, beeches, Stewartia, conifers, witch-hazels, deciduous azaleas, and ferns, just to name a few.

Ethan Kauffman is the first director of Stoneleigh: anatural garden, where he has led the transition from a private estate to a public garden over the last 8 years.

He developed his love of the natural world by exploring the Susquehanna River Hills in Southeastern Pennsylvania. He cultivated his horticultural perspective over two decades of gardening in the Deep South, including as director of Moore Farms Botanical Garden, where he also led the transition from a private pleasure garden to a public botanical garden.  Drawing on influences from both regions, he enjoys creating a garden experience at Stoneleigh that inspires others togarden for beauty, biodiversity, and the health of our planet.   

Trinity Pierce is the Chicago Region Trees Initiative senior stewardship manager at The Morton Arboretum. She collaborates with community organizations and members toincrease awareness and foster action through plantings and ongoing care in order to grow a more diverse, more abundant, and more equitably distributed urban forest. A Certified Arborist, she holds a Master of LandscapeArchitecture from the University of Michigan with a background in history, ecological restoration, and urban green space reconciliation.

Katherine Mills, General Manager for Munstead Wood, is anexperienced heritage professional with 14 years in the National Trust. Having run some of the charity’s most significant and popular properties, including Nymans, West Sussex, and Polesden Lacey, Surrey, UK; Katherine was responsible for the final purchase and acquisition of Munstead Wood in April 2023. 

Since acquiring the property, Katherine has recruited a team of individuals to care for the house and garden, as well as develop plans for restoring Gertrude Jekyll’s home, providing future access, and securing its long-term future.