Dr. Emily Coffey is the Vice President of Conservation & Research at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. She received her PhD in Long-Term Ecology from the University of Oxford, UK and is currently adjunct faculty at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Her research has included vegetation transitions and paleoecology of the Galápagos Islands, ecological assessments and restoration of rare plant communities, ex situ gap analysis of high priority plant taxa, and the role of botanic gardens in conservation. Dr. Coffey’s work focuses on developing local, regional, and global partnerships to conserve rare plants and communities.

Abby Meyer works to increase botanic gardens’ capacity for ex situ conservation collections management at Botanic Gardens Conservation International-US. She received her Master of Science in public horticulture from the University of Delaware’s Longwood Garden graduate program and was a research fellow at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University. Meyer worked to develop BGCI’s PlantSearch database and newly released PlantSearch Pedigree module, and continues to facilitate the development of tools and information to support botanic garden plant conservation collections. 

Amy Byrne is the Coordinator for the Global Conservation Consortium for Oak (GCCO), a trained facilitator with the IUCN Conservation Planning Specialist Group, and a member of the Global Tree Conservation Program at The Morton Arboretum, where she manages the Center for Species Survival: Trees. In the GCCO, Byrne stewards a global network of arboreta and botanic gardens to develop collaborative conservation action plans for rare and imperiled Quercus species. She received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. 

Jean Linsky is the Coordinator for the Global Conservation Consortium for Magnolia (GCCM) at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Linsky received her master’s degree in Conservation Science from Imperial College of London, UK. Her research includes assessments of conservation status of Asian tree species and ex situ gap analyses of Magnolia and exceptional species. In the GCCM, Linsky coordinates a collaborative network of botanic gardens and conservationists stewarding the conservation of global Magnolia species. 

Dr. Colin Khoury is the Senior Director of Science and Conservation at the San Diego Botanic Garden. Dr. Khoury has a Master of Science in plant genetic resource conservation from the University of Birmingham, UK and a PhD in production ecology and resource conservation Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Dr. Khoury’s research on genetic diversity in crop wild relatives advanced the development of gap analysis methodology for ex situ conservation and an open-source gap analysis software package for conservation repositories. 

Dan Carver is a spatial scientist and member of the Geospatial Centroid at Colorado State University. Carver obtained his Master of Science in Applied Geography and Geospatial science from the University of Colorado, Denver. His research has included the application of spatial modeling and open-source software to support the conservation of crop wild relatives. Carver has co-authored numerous publications with Dr. Colin Khoury on methodologies for conducting gap analysis of crop wild relatives. 

Dr. Vanessa Handley is the Lead / Coordinator for the Global Conservation Consortium for Cycads at Montgomery Botanical Center and the Director of Conservation Science at The Red List Project. Dr. Handley also serves on the IUCN SSC Cycad Specialist and Seed Specialist Groups and is a Fellow at the California Academy of Sciences. 

Dr. Sean Hoban is a Tree Conservation Biologist and leader of the Hoban Conservation Lab at The Morton Arboretum. Dr. Hoban received his PhD in Biology from the University of Notre Dame and is currently affiliate faculty at The Field Museum, the University of Chicago, and the College of Charleston. His research has included identifying genetically unique tree populations, using ecogeographic measures to understand genetic diversity, and optimal sampling solutions for tree seed collection. Dr. Hoban’s research provides practical guidance for botanic gardens, arboreta, and seed banks on using genetic data to inform ex situ conservation practices. 

Dr. Lauren Eserman is a Genetics Research Scientist and leader of the Conservation Genetics Lab at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. She received her PhD in Plant Biology from the University of Georgia. Dr. Eserman’s research includes the phylogenomics of the sweet potato and crop wild relatives, and genetic analyses of rare and imperiled species of the Southeastern US.