Tracey Byrne is a photographer and blogger with a passion for the all the small creatures that inhabit her Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary, large organic garden, and pollinator parkway. Tracey has tallied more than 30 years as an educator and she is a Seattle-based advocate for environmental stewardship, place-based education, and outdoor play: www.beepeeking.com

Dave Hunter has been raising mason bees for 20 years. What was once a backyard hobby is now Crown Bees, a leading native bee pollination company engaged in developing and marketing solitary bees and bee-safe products. In addition to developing and testing, Dave is an active participant and advisor to scientific researchers focused on wild bee identification and developing pollination management practices and ethics.

Jill McKenna Reed is a poet, writing instructor, and beekeeper in Portland, Oregon. She co-owner of Bee Thinking, a beekeeping supplier specializing in foundationless hives. When she is not writing or teaching, she can be found catching swarms or help new beekeepers around the Portland area. Jill earned her MFA in creative Writing/Poetry, at Portland State University.

Tori Johnson is a landscape architect with an interest in the varied bioregions of the West. She is a lover of plants, projects, and foraging plant material for kitchen table arrangements. In 2011, speculating on West Oakland’s sandy soils and kind summers, Tori started growing cut flowers on an empty lot. When the opportunity to partner with Game Theory Academy came about, Tori directed the site development and programming of the new WOW Farm Flower project.

Sue Goetz is a garden designer, writer, and speaker. Through her business, Creative Gardener, she works with clients to personalize their outdoor spaces—from garden coaching to full landscape design. A self-proclaimed plant nerd, as most plant-driven garden designers are, Sue has a special passion for herbs. 
She is the author of The Herb Lover’s Spa Book, recently published by St. Lynn’s Press. www.thecreativegardener.com

Dan Corum, aka Dr. Doo, manages the Woodland Park Zoo Compost program, delivers engaging environmental and natural gardening presentations, is a Master Gardener and a keen observer and photographer of the natural world. Passionate about gardening since she was 12, garden designer, writer and instructor Kate Reedy, worked for over 10 years in the nursery industry and taught high school horticulture. Kate and Dan collaborate in life and the garden in Seattle.

Patty Cassidy, MA, is a life-long gardener and registered horticultural therapist who works with elders who live with dementia. She is the president of the Friends of the Portland Memory Garden (www.portlandmemorygarden.org) and serves on the national board of the American Horticultural Therapy Association. Her award-winning book, The Illustrated Practical Guide to Gardening for Seniors, (Anness Press, 2011) has been translated into French and German. www.pattycassidy.com.

Lee Buttala is an Emmy Award-winning producer of Martha Stewart Living. He has written for The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, New York, and Garden Design, was the preservation program manager for the Garden Conservancy and studied landscape design at Kyoto University of Art and Design, 
the English Gardening School at the Chelsea Physic Garden, and the New York Botanical Garden. His latest book is The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving.

Nancy Schramm is a nursery child who grew up to become the third and current owner of Carman’s Nursery. She is active in Western Horticultural Society and has helped produce the Hot Plant Picks exhibit at the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show for the past six years. Nancy writes a monthly plant column for Out & About Magazine and is a self-confessed plant nerd, something she blames on her dad, Ed Carman. www.carmansnursery.com