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.
2025-2026 Campus Advisory Group
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
Thomas Gillespie
Professor – Geography / Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Nurit Katz
Chief Sustainability Officer, UCLA
Andy Kleinhesselink
Managing Director – Sage Hill at UCLA
Nathan Kraft
Professor – Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Cully Nordby
Associate Director – Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Tim Taylor
Professor – Ethnomusicology
Elsa Ordway
Assistant Professor – Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Co-Director – Congo Basin Institute & Center for Tropical Research
Travis Longcore
Senior Associate Director and Adjunct Professor – Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Co-Chair, Environmental Science and Engineering (D.Env.) Program
Deb Pires
Instructional Consultant and Academic Administrator – Center for Education Innovation in Life Sciences
Jeff Share
Lecturer – UCLA School of Education & Information Studies
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
Siobhan Braybrook
Associate Professor – Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Ananda Marin
Vice Chair of Graduate Education and Associate Professor – Education
Theresa Ambo
Associate Professor – American Indian Studies / Education
Berenice Badillo
Student
Damian Ojeda
Student
