2010 Conference Speakers

Speakers are listed in alphabetical order by last name. Click the name to display the speaker's biograpical information.

Dr. David Bloniarz
Robert A. Cantoreggi
Edward Casey
Dr. Sharon M. Douglas
Eric “T” Fleisher
Toby Hemenway
Paul Iorio
Frank Koll
Christine Markham
Tara Mitchell
Bruce Morton
Marybeth Murphy
Kathryn Prybylski
Dominic Rinaldi
Amanda Sloan
Dr. Kimberly A. Stoner
Eric Toensmeier
Kate Venturini
Dr. Robert Wick

Dr. David Bloniarz is an Urban Forester with an extensive background in urban forest management and landscape design. Dr. Bloniarz holds a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture and a Doctorate in Urban Forestry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Presently Dr. Bloniarz is Project Director of the USDA Forest Service Urban Natural Resources Institute, located at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His work focuses on the transfer of information, new technologies, innovative programming, and research related to urban forests. Dr. Bloniarz is a Massachusetts Certified Arborist and a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Robert A. Cantoreggi is the Director of Public Works for the town of Franklin, MA. As DPW director, Mr. Cantoreggi has implemented sustainable technologies for the town’s storm water management, including tree-centric storm water drains, major waterline improvements, and natural vegetative retention systems. He has actively educated the community about the environmental benefits of storm water management using rain gardens, rain barrels, and other water conservation practices; has coordinated storm water events and pond and lake cleanups, and created the Stream Team with local youth organizations and schools.

Edward Casey has been the Springfield City Forester for the past 18 years and has 33 years experience in the field of Arboriculture. He is a Massachusetts Certified Arborist, ISA Certified Arborist, and Past President of Massachusetts Tree Wardens & Foresters. Mr. Casey is a lifelong Springfield resident.

Dr. Sharon M. Douglas is a plant pathologist and head of the Department of Plant Pathology & Ecology of The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. During her 27-year career at the Station, one of her primary responsibilities has been the diagnosis of plant health problems for commercial growers, plant professionals, and homeowners. She also co-directs the Molecular Plant Diagnostics Laboratory, which develops rapid, sensitive methods to detect new or re-emerging plant pathogens. Dr. Douglas is active with outreach programs through authorship of numerous fact sheets, disease management guides for arborists, and presentations for grower and professional organizations, horticultural clubs, special interest groups, and students.

Eric “T” Fleisher is the director of horticulture at Battery Park City Parks Conservancy (BPCPC) in lower Manhattan. A national leader in the field of sustainable horticulture, Mr. Fleisher has brought this 37-acre oasis of parkland on the Hudson River to the forefront as the only public garden space in New York City to be maintained completely organically. His methods are based on the development of balanced soil ecology, with an emphasis on composting, water conservation, and the use of nontoxic means of pest and disease control. A frequent lecturer on sustainable practices, Mr. Fleisher also serves as a consultant to Harvard University, the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway Conservancy in Boston, and Bowdoin College, among other organizations. A 2008 Loeb Fellow at Harvard University, Mr. Fleisher is continuing to develop protocols to help landscapes recover from the 20th century’s chemical interventions.

Toby Hemenway is the author of the first major North American book on permaculture, Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, and an adjunct professor at Portland State University. He is also Scholar in Residence at Pacific University. After obtaining a degree in biology from Tufts University, Mr. Hemenway worked for many years as a researcher in genetics and immunology, first in academic laboratories including Harvard and the University of Washington in Seattle, and then at Immunex, a major medical biotech company. At about the time he was growing dissatisfied with the direction biotechnology was taking, he discovered permaculture, a design approach based on ecological principles that creates sustainable landscapes, homes, and workplaces. A career change followed, and Mr. Hemenway and his wife spent ten years creating a rural permaculture site in southern Oregon. He was associate editor of Permaculture Activist, a journal of ecological design and sustainable culture, from 1999 to 2004. His current project is developing urban sustainability resources in Portland, Oregon, where he now lives. He teaches permaculture and consults and lectures on ecological design throughout the country. His writing has appeared in magazines such as Whole Earth Review, Natural Home, and Kitchen Gardener.

Paul Iorio is an environmental engineer and educator. Over the past 15 years he has completed several hundred assessments of environmentally impaired properties and provided remedial response actions. These activities included soil and groundwater testing and contaminant delineation, as well as remedial system design incorporating principles of biological (bioremediation) and plant (phytoremediation) to achieve “cleanup” goals. Prior to this time, Mr. Iorio was an independent landscape contractor and greenhouse grower/operator.

Frank Koll established GreenScapes Lawn & Garden Services Inc after several decades in high technology sales and sales management. His goal was to help the environmental and conservation efforts in water and pesticide free landscaping services, and he now focuses on organic land care and water conservation. He recognizes that water is a valuable resource and believes water management professionals should ensure watering systems are efficient and leveraging smart watering technologies. As an EPA WaterSense Partner (based on certifications as a Landscape Irrigation Auditor and Irrigation System Installation and Maintenance Professional), Mr. Koll’s focus is on providing clients with detailed recommendations on efficiencies and /or retrofits to systems for achieving savings in cost and resources, whether through system analysis or audits, installation of low flow irrigation or rainwater systems, storm water management, or all of the above. As a NOFA accredited organic land care professional, Mr. Koll also promotes the delivery of alternatives to traditional approaches for turf management using organic materials (fertilizers and nutrients), compost teas, and drought tolerant / low maintenance groundcovers to reduce water use in the landscape.

Christine Markham is the National Director for the Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) Eradication Program with USDA, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ). She is based out of the Eastern Regional office for APHIS in Raleigh, NC. As National Director, Ms. Markham is responsible for the ALB Eradication Programs within the United States inclusive of New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.

Tara Mitchell is a landscape architect with Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Her responsibilities include design, design review, and construction services for landscape restoration on transportation projects, including upland restoration as well as wetland and stream bank mitigation. As part of her work, she is involved in developing strategies for management of invasive species from design through long-term maintenance.

Bruce Morton is director of environmental studies programs at Goodwin College, East Hartford, CT.

Marybeth Murphy is a Senior Landscape Architect with BSC Group. She has over 25 years of experience in the areas of landscape architecture, urban design, and planning. She has extensive experience in park planning, streetscape, transportation and institutional design, public participation, construction documentation, construction administration, and project management and implementation. Ms. Murphy is a Registered Landscape Architect in Massachusetts and a LEED Accredited Professional. She has been involved in implementation of low impact development and sustainable design principles on projects of various sizes and types from suburban parks to urban streetscapes.

Kathryn Prybylski is Project Manager at Groundwork Lawrence (GWL), a non-profit organization which leads and supports a variety of partnership-driven efforts that bring together the public, private, and non-profit sectors to solve complex environmental problems and sustain a long-term vision for neighborhood change and renewal. In this capacity, she is responsible for coordination with contractors and professionals involved in a variety of landscape and infrastructure improvements throughout the City of Lawrence, including the 1.5 mile Riverwalk, Spicket River Greenway, and the new Manchester Street Park. She is overseeing GWL’s expanding role in supporting low-impact development (LID) practices in the city and the City of Lawrence Open Space Plan update. Ms. Prybylski most recently worked as a Project Engineer for Environmental Partners Group in Quincy, MA designing infrastructure improvements for public and private entities on the South Shore and Cape Cod. Previously she served for four years as a Civil Engineer for the Town of Ithaca, where she oversaw enforcement of erosion control practices at construction sites within the Town as well as site design for public works improvements. Ms. Prybylski holds a B.S. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering with an Environmental Engineering Concentration from Cornell University.

Dominic Rinaldi is a project manager and senior civil engineer with BSC Group’s site design group where he is responsible for managing and designing multi-disciplinary land development projects in both the public and private sectors. He has an extensive background in storm water management with a focus on low impact development and sustainable storm water design. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Massachusetts, a LEED Accredited Professional, and a member of the U.S. Green Building Council Massachusetts Membership Forum’s Advocacy Committee. Mr. Rinaldi was awarded the Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section (BSCES) Technical Group Award for his part in the presentation “Case Studies on Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Projects – Sustainable Sites”.

Amanda Sloan is a landscape designer specializing in planting design, sustainable techniques, and residential landscapes with Gates, Leighton and Associates Landscape Architects (GLA). An environmentalist, she is a board member of the Community Design Resource Center of Boston and the Sharon, Massachusetts Planning Board. Formerly with Julie Moir Messervy and Associates Landscape Design Consultants, she has 15 years of experience in the practice of landscape design. Gates, Leighton and Associates Landscape Architects, established in 1985, is the largest landscape architectural firm in Rhode Island. The firm also has offices in Boothbay, Maine, and Cairo, Egypt. GLA’s expertise encompasses design for public and institutional landscapes such as parks, libraries, schools, museums, and places of worship; residential properties large and small with an emphasis on coastal gardens; and commercial landscapes. GLA’s senior staff includes a LEED Accredited Professional, and the firm is a member of the US Green Building Council.

Dr. Kimberly A. Stoner has been the vegetable entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven since 1987. She has conducted research on plant resistance to insects, cultural methods of insect management, and biological control. Her current research focuses on measuring pesticides in pollen and nectar and determining effects on pollinators. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut from 1990 to the present, and she serves on the committee governing the NOFA Organic Land Care Program in Connecticut and Massachusetts. In 2001, Dr. Stoner won the Person of the Year award at the seven-state regional Summer Conference of NOFA, and in 2002, she won a Green Circle award from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. In 2009, she was honored as the Outstanding Partner in Natural Resource Conservation in New Haven County by the Southwest Conservation District. From 1986 to 1987, she held a Science, Engineering and Diplomacy Fellowship at the U.S. Agency for International Development. She earned her Ph.D. in entomology from Cornell University in 1987, and her B.S. in zoology from Duke University in 1979.

Eric Toensmeier is the award-winning author of Perennial Vegetables and co-author of Edible Forest Gardens. An expert on the useful perennial crops of the world, he has taught about permaculture and perennial food production systems in multiple languages and countries. His urban homestead is a model of how to apply permaculture to a small space with poor soils. Mr. Toensmeier also ran the Tierra de Oportunidades urban farm project for Nuestras Raices in Holyoke, MA.

Kate Venturini manages the Coastal Landscapes Program at the Mallon Outreach Center at the University of Rhode Island (URI). The Coastal Landscapes Program is a partnership between the RI Coastal Resources Management Council and URI aimed at educating green industry professionals and homeowners working and living in coastal areas about coastal issues including landscape site assessment, invasive plant management, storm water management, habitat restoration, and landscaping with native plants. Ms. Venturini is currently writing a Native Plant Design Manual for Greenwich Bay to be published in the Spring of 2010. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture from URI in 2006, and is currently working on earning her Master’s degree in Marine Affairs from URI.

Dr. Robert Wick is currently a Professor in the Department of Plant Soil and Insect Sciences at University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has worked in extension and diagnostic plant pathology for 30 years, primarily with vegetables, ornamentals, and turf grasses. Dr. Wick has taught courses in Turf grass Pathology, Biological Control, and Nematology, and currently teaches Plant Pathology, Diagnostic Plant Pathology, Mycology, and Forest Pathology.