Advisory Boards

The Garden’s Campus Advisory Group and Board of Visitors are invaluable resources that assist the Botanical Garden in serving the diverse needs and perspectives across UCLA and the wider Los Angeles community. Composed of staff and faculty from many different departments as well as major community stakeholders, these committees provide input and feedback on our collections, programs, and plans for the future.

2023-2024 Campus Advisory Group

Anthony Baniaga [ex oficio]

Herbarium CuratorUCLA Mathias Botanical Garden 

JB Baum

Student – Geography / Environmental Studies, Conservation Biology

Amanda Beisch [ex oficio]

Manager of Garden Outreach and Education – UCLA Mathias Botanical Garden

Thomas Gillespie

Professor – Geography / Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Nurit Katz

Chief Sustainability Officer, UCLA

Allison Keeney [ex oficio]

Assistant Director – UCLA Mathias Botanical Garden

Andy Kleinhesselink

Managing Director – Sage Hill at UCLA

Nathan Kraft

Professor – Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Stephanie Landregan

Program Director – UCLA Extension Landscape Architecture and Horticulture programs

Irene Liao

Postdoctoral Scholar – Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology

Cully Nordby

Associate Director – Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Elsa Ordway

Assistant Professor – Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Co-Director – Congo Basin Institute & Center for Tropical Research

Deb Pires

Instructional Consultant and Academic Administrator – Center for Education Innovation in Life Sciences

Ary Sanchez-Amaya

M.Sc. Student – Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Jeff Share

Lecturer – UCLA School of Education & Information Studies

Janice Shintaku [ex oficio]

Director of Development – UCLA College Life Sciences

Victoria Sork [Chair]

Director, UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden and Herbarium

Distinguished Professor – Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Shannon Speed

Director, American Indian Studies Center

Paula Gunn Allen Chair and Professor – American Indian Studies / Gender Studies / Anthropology

Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Native American and Indigenous Affairs

Felipe Zapata

Assistant Professor – Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Noa Pinter-Wollman

Professor – Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

2023-2024 Board of Visitors

Martin H. Blank

Linda Duttenhaver

Kathryn Welch Howe

Morton La Kretz

Melvin D. Lindsey

Kaili Peng

Nancy R. Riordan

Irene Romero

Maurice M. Salter

Victoria Sork [ex oficio]

Maureen E. Stockton

Drew J. Zager [Chair]

Elena B. Zager

The UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands). As a promoter of nature at a California land grant institution, we pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.



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