Carmia Feldman has held the position of Assistant Director at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden since 2006, and previously served as the Education Director, starting in 2001. She has helped develop and implement the UC Davis GATEways Project. In addition, she has helped develop and grow the Learning by Leading™ program that cultivates educational leadership in university students through real-world projects and programs. Carmia has led leadership training programs for both staff and students, focusing on a strengths-based model of leadership and management. She earned a master’s degree in plant ecology and a PhD in science education from UC Davis. She was honored in 2013 as Nonprofit Leader of the Year by the California Institute for Biodiversity.
Mary Burke
Mary Burke is the Director of Conservation and Environmental Leadership at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. After finishing graduate school at UC Davis, Mary went on to work as a botanist for the Nature Conservancy, the National Park Service, and the US Forest Service. She returned to UC Davis to serve as Curator and, later, Director of Collections and Planning at the Arboretum for over 25 years, winning an international prize for her work developing new technologies for managing plant collections at zoos and botanical gardens. She works with campus leadership on major campus initiatives, such as Learning by Leading™, and is the coauthor of a chapter on leadership, management, and innovation in the textbook Public Garden Management.