Forum 2024 Speakers
Ben Bergmann
City Horticulturist, City of Durham
Ben Bergmann is the Horticulturist for the City of Durham, a position he has held for four years. Before coming to Durham, Ben’s jobs ranged from being a Professor of Forestry at NC State University, teaching agroecology in the tropics, starting and running a sustainable farm, and conducting applied research with specialty cut flowers. The common theme for these endeavors is his passion for plants. As City Horticulturist, Ben considers his mission statement to be “Increasing the aesthetic appeal, sustainability, and environmental benefits of Durham’s horticultural plantings”.
tom earnhardt
Conservationist/Attorney/Producer/Writer
Tom Earnhardt is an attorney, writer, photographer and naturalist. He has served on a number of North Carolina conservation boards over the past four decades, including The Nature Conservancy (NC), Friends Board of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Audubon North Carolina, and the North Carolina Botanical Garden Foundation
Between 2003 and 2020 Tom criss-crossed North Carolina researching, writing and producing over 90 episodes of the PBS North Carolina natural science television series, Exploring North Carolina. In 2013 Earnhardt completed a book of essays on the natural history of North Carolina for the University of North Carolina Press titled, “Crossroads of the Natural World (reprinted in paperback, 2022).”
Simon Gregg
Kris Bass Engineering
Simon Gregg completed a Bachelor’s degree in the Biosystem Engineering and a Minor in Sustainability from Auburn University in 2015 and a Master’s of Science in Agricultural and Biological Engineering and a Minor in Soil Sciences from North Carolina State University under the guidance of Dr. Bill Hunt in 2019. Simon’s research projects at NC State included monitoring and analysis of various stormwater control measures in the Mountains and a Regenerative Stormwater Conveyance (RSC) in the Piedmont of North Carolina to assess water quality treatment performance. Simon completed a literature review of previous RSC projects in North Carolina and proposed design guidance base on his work. Simon is now a licensed Professional Engineering with five years of experience working on urban stormwater retrofits, stream and wetland restorations, dam removals, and coastal resilience projects.
Debbie Hamrick
Director, Specialty Crops, North Carolina Farm Bureau
Debbie Hamrick establishes and maintains working relationships with internal and external agricultural stakeholders and leadership to advance NC Farm Bureau policy positions. Debbie currently is a member of the North Carolina Fresh Produce Safety Task Force, the NC Choices Board of Advisors, the NC Local Food Council, the Center for Environmental Farming Systems Board of Advisors and is a founding member of the NC Pollinator Conservation Alliance and the North Carolina chapter of the Farmer Veteran Coalition. She is a past member of the NC Rural Center Board, the NC Sea Grant Advisory Board.
Much of her early career was in trade publishing with Ball Horticultural Co. within the international floriculture industry where she founded FloraCulture International magazine, now known as FCI. Under her leadership as Editorial Director, Ball Publishing grew its flagship magazine title GrowerTalks, launched FCI and GreenProfit magazines, expanded its conference and trade show footprint and established a floricultural book publishing presence to complement the well-known Ball Redbook. Debbie is a graduate of NC State University and resides in Raleigh.
Emily mccoy
Principal, Design Works
Associate Professor of the Practice, NC State University
Emily McCoy, FASLA, SITES AP, is an Associate Professor of Practice at North Carolina State University and Principal at Design Workshop, an internationally renowned design firm specializing in landscape architecture, urban planning and strategic services with eight studios in the U.S. and projects spanning the globe. Emily leads Design Workshop’s Raleigh Studio and serves on Design Workshop’s Board of Directors. As a landscape architect, educator and ecologist, Emily approaches every project as an opportunity to celebrate the intersection of natural and cultural narratives of place and people through design and innovative technologies. Throughout her career Emily has remained passionate about her service to the community. In addition to serving as the Vice President of Research for the Landscape Architecture Foundation and their Board of Directors, Emily serves on NC A&T University’s Landscape Architecture Advisory Board, NCSU’s LAEP Advisory Board, and the Board of Trustees for the Design Workshop Foundation.
Meg Molloy
Carrboro Stormwater Collaborative Community Engagement Volunteer
Meg Molloy is the community engagement volunteer for the Carrboro Stormwater Collaborative. She engaged HOAs, residents, municipal partners, university, community nonprofits and school partners to come together to remedy erosion and runoff. She helped plan and promote educational workshops for HOAs, residents and high school students, and coordinated planting workdays to plant 1300 native plants in the regenerative stormwater conveyance footprint.
Preston Montague
Founder, Preston Montague Studio
Preston Montague is a landscape architect and artist working to strengthen relationships between people and the natural world. His eponymous studio focuses on creating a flow between the arts, horticulture, and landscape architecture in the pursuit of building places that have meaning and ecological depth. When not in the studio, Preston enjoys teaching landscape architecture at North Carolina A&T University and hiking the wilder places. www.prestonmontague.com
Debbie Shoffner
Town of Carrboro Public Works Stormwater Administrator
Debbie Shoffner received a Master of Arts in Applied Geography from UNC-Greensboro in 2005. She has worked in municipal stormwater for 18 years, both with the City of Greensboro and the Town of Carrboro. Most of her stormwater experience revolves around NPDES MS4 permit requirements, including the implementation of IDDE and post-construction programs and water quality monitoring. In addition, she assists the Town of Carrboro Stormwater Division with grant acquisitions and administration.
Justin Robinson
Earthseed Collective, Extra Terrestrial Projects, Country Gentleman Cooks
Robinson grew up in Gastonia, North Carolina. He played with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, thereby working to preserve traditional forms of music, to introduce new generations to musical legends like Joe Thompson, and to remind audiences that the fiddle was, historically, an African American instrument.
In addition to preserving African American musical traditions, Robinson is known for his work as a culinary historian and ethnobotanist. He explores the ways that plants, foods, and knowledge of the African Diaspora shaped and influenced Southern culture at large.
Robinson is also committed to helping African Americans rekindle their ties to the land. He is a founding member of the Earthseed Land Cooperative, a collective in northern Durham “made up of farmers, entrepreneurs, professionals, and teachers who are currently engaged in creating alternative models for sustainability, equity, and cooperation within communities of color.”
Justin Robinson holds a BA in Linguistics from UNC-Chapel Hill and an MS in Forestry and Environmental Science from NC State University. He currently works as botanist studying and preserving the rare plants of North Carolina and carries on the ethnobotany work of his grandfather, J.G. Johnson.
Tour Leaders
Annabel Renwick
Curator of the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants, Duke Gardens
Annabel Renwick became the curator of the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants in 2018 and had been the horticulturalist in the Blomquist from 2012. Annabel is from Durham, England, and received her PhD from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth researching grassland communities. She went on to work as a plant research scientist at several universities, including Oxford University, the University of Bristol and University of Bayreuth in Germany, as well as in industry in Britain and France. Prior to coming to North Carolina Annabel turned to her passion for gardening and trained as a garden designer at ‘The English Garden School’ Chelsea, London. The intersection of grassland communities, design of landscapes and ecological research culminated in the design, development and management of Sarah P Duke Garden’s rendition of the Blomquist Garden’s Piedmont Prairie. Latterly she has been using design and ecological approaches to landscapes such as pocket prairies and gardens for wildlife.
Steering Committee
Basil Camu
Wizard of Things, Leaf & Limb
Basil loves trees. And soil, wildflowers, insects, bats, fungi - basically everything to do with terrestrial ecosystems. He is fully committed to caring for this beautiful planet. He is a Treecologist, ISA Board Certified Master Arborist, Duke graduate, and Wizard of Things at Leaf & Limb. Though trees are his passion and profession, he also loves tending to the native flowers in his garden, growing Piedmont Prairies, and propagating plants from seed. Some of Basil's favorite pastimes are hanging out with his wife and sons, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, powerlifting, hiking, and sprinting. His next favorite things in life are reading, garlic, traveling adventures, blazing hot peppers, pickles, and anything from Lucettegrace in downtown Raleigh, in approximately that order.
Barbara driscoll
Co-chair, New Hope Audubon Bird-Friendly Habitat Committee
Barbara Driscoll is past President of the New Hope Audubon Society and Eno River Association. She helped create and is the Co-Chair for New Hope Audubon’s Bird-Friendly Habitat Committee which promotes creating bird-friendly habitats. She retired in 2013 after being a Physical Scientist for 27 years with the Environmental Protection Agency. Barbara is an avid outdoor enthusiast who enjoys watching birds, butterflies, plants and animals around the world. Her hobbies include photography, walking her three hounds and removing invasive plants.
Michael Dupree
Owner, Feather Village Farms & Services
Michael Dupree earned a MS in Botany in 1986 from La Tech University and has almost four decades of experience in the landscape and nursery industry. He currently owns Feather Village Farms & Services a North Carolina Certified Nursery that grows native edible and useful plants. He is the CEO & Chair of Urban Sustainability Solutions Inc., a 501c3 organization that is an Environmental Education Work Force Development organization.
David Hoffman
COO, Hoffman Nursery
Hoffman Nursery is a wholesale nursery specializing in ornamental and native grass liners for the horticultural trade. David is a graduate of NC State University with a BS in Horticultural Science. Soon after graduating in 2012, David spent two years working at a perennial and grass nursery in Germany primarily serving a variety of customers across 26 countries. In 2015 he returned to Hoffman Nursery, where he applied experience with European automation and quality control techniques across the nursery. He has been involved in a variety of operations roles to help streamline and create product consistency through their processes and ultimately for their customers. Over time, he became the Chief Operating Officer with primary responsibilities including oversees long range strategic planning and managing sales and operations.
Daniel Stern
Director of Horticulture, NC Botanical Garden
As director of horticulture at the North Carolina Botanical Garden (NCBG), Daniel Stern oversees the development, maintenance, plant records and labeling for over 15 acres of cultivated gardens between the NCBG’s main site and the Coker Arboretum. Dan also oversees the Garden’s “Conservation through Propagation” activities including seed collection, cleaning and storage; the operation of our greenhouse and nursery facilities; and NCBG’s plant sales.
Dan worked at NCBG in various roles from 1996-2008 while pursuing a BA in Biology of UNC-CH. Upon completion of that degree, Dan began studies in the Longwood Graduate Program at the University of Delaware where he received the 2009 Louise Roselle Fellowship in Public Horticulture and completed a MS in Public Horticulture in 2010. From 2011-17 Dan worked for the American Public Gardens Association managing their Plant Protection Program which engages public gardens in the early detection of serious pests and diseases, and develops materials to educate the public about the importance of plants and forest health and the negative impact of invasive species. Dan returned to NCBG as the director of horticulture in 2017.