Staff

Pronouns: he/him Sean’s objective is to popularize the unlimited joys of the plant world through education, outreach, example, and contagious enthusiasm. Currently, his focus has been on the introduction of new and appropriate plants to Western North America, and specifically, the popularization of under-used and unknown plants for summer-dry climates. Sean served as the Director of Collections at the Hoyt Arboretum and a Horticulturist at the University of California Berkeley Botanical Garden strengthening existing collections, designing new collections, and drawing larger audiences to the gardens. Sean is the owner of Cistus Design Nursery, a small firm specializing in public and private garden design, planning, public space planting design, nursery consultation, and the collection and introduction of new and appropriate plants. With over ten thousand taxa on site, Cistus furthers a nearly two-decade-long commitment to testing plant performance in the Portland area and providing interesting and unusual, climate-appropriate plants for the Pacific Northwest, the West, and beyond. Through extensive speaking and plant-collecting throughout the world, Sean continues to exchange his knowledge with diverse communities. shogan@portlandbg.org

Pronouns: they/them

Dan fell in love with plants when they were 11 years old at a summer camp in Northern Connecticut, but it wasn’t until they moved to Portland to study English at Reed College that it became an obsession. At Reed, Dan honed their writing skills as they looked towards a future in marketing and advertising as a copywriter.

In a hand-built greenhouse in their backyard, Dan amassed one of the largest collections of Passionflowers in the United States and served as a trade hub for the vulnerable Amazonian plants. Unfortunately, two no-cause evictions crippled their collection and their ability to properly care for their rare plants. This inspired them to start the PBG project with a dream to finally build and display the US National Collection of Passiflora at a safe botanical institution.

At heart, Dan is a writer and content strategist who’s been working with words and brands for over seven years now; when it comes to creative marketing and all of its facets, they’re your person. But after two years of working for Chinook Book, they opened a different door as they merged their dream of creating Portland’s premier botanical garden with Sean’s to establish one, cohesive project.

dpogust@portlandbg.org

Pronouns: He/Him

Matt Taylor is a strategic consultant and nonprofit leader with over 30 years of experience in outdoor education, recreation, and conservation. Matt leads innovative efforts and organizations that balance economic and social uses with landscape scale conservation. He is currently serving as Project Director of the Portland Botanical Gardens. He also manages a private consulting practice, the Context Group, that serves land owners and managers around knotty and large-scale land-use plans. Prior to that, he served as Executive Director of the Westwind Stewardship Group and the Adventure Sports Center International. Matt is a two-time Olympian and five-time national champion in whitewater slalom canoeing.

Pronouns: she/her

Nicole is a graphic designer and the Digital Design Lead for MEK Design. In her free time, she enjoys designing for restaurants, food carts, and other small businesses. She loves seeing the potential of great businesses and organizations come to fruition when paired with effective design.

Growing up with a multicultural background has influenced all aspects of Nicole’s personality, particularly her love for plants, and interest in culture and the arts. From her family’s rice paddies in the Philippines to the wild ferns of the Pacific Northwest, she constantly finds herself surrounded by agriculture and nature. Lately, she’s turned her serial hobbyist’s focus into cultivating a growing collection of houseplants with her husband, Peter.

Pronouns: she/her

Barrie Cohen is the owner and founder of BC Public Relations. She created her boutique public relations firm on three principles: creativity, customization, and collaboration. After years of working for agencies in Philadelphia, Barrie saw the overwhelming need for a more attentive public relations firm dedicated to supporting and strengthening a client’s business goals. Unlike larger firms, Barrie has the ability to work one-on-one with clients to not only provide unprecedented, personalized services, but also to create a comfortable and trusting working relationship.

Always keeping the clients’ best interest in mind, Barrie utilizes her long-standing media relationships, innovative marketing strategies, and professional writing skills to successfully promote and position clients in a variety of industries across the country—and internationally. Her passion for positive publicity and storytelling has created countless opportunities for her clients including features in Cosmopolitan, Muscle & Fitness Magazine, Huffington Post, and more.

Pronouns: he/him

Michael Hyde is a K-12 educator who specializes in Maker Education, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) integration, and project-based learning. His progressive philosophy and teaching style encourages creative confidence and curiosity. While many educators talk about “empowering students and giving them a voice,” he believes that students are already empowered and they already have a voice. It’s the work of the educator to provide students with opportunities to wield their power and voice so that they can create any futures they imagine.

Michael believes that a joyful and inclusive education is a right for all and is committed to dismantling the barriers that deliberately and systematically exclude BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, neurodiverse, and disabled communities from accessing that right. He believes there are infinite ways of knowing, learning, and living; each must be honored and each deserves space in the classroom and beyond.

In addition to teaching K-12 students, Michael hosted observational opportunities in his makerspace classroom for inquiring educators and school administrators. Michael has designed and delivered professional development workshops for teachers, school administrators, school districts, and nonprofits interested in developing innovative and accessible Maker Education and project-based learning programs.

Michael enjoys birding; biking; dog agility training; kayaking; paddle-boarding; obsessing over his houseplants; playing the piano; gardening; growing far too many tomato starts than he could ever plant himself; and volunteering for the Produce for People program at his community garden, where he cleans and organizes the shared tool shed with alarming frequency. Mostly, he’s just a very curious person who collects hobbies as a hobby.

Pronouns: she/her

For over 20 years, Tiffany has acted as the PR specialist for the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts, which has allowed her to hone her abilities in project design, scheduled press timelines, securing media sponsors, and building promotions in the Portland community with all major media outlets.

Tiffany has a people-centric personality and love of nature. Before working with Lake Oswego, she was employed at the Hoyt Arboretum as the Volunteer Coordinator and Store Buyer managing budgets for store merchandise and retail displays while training volunteers and building a communication program to empower value in volunteers and assisting in annual event fundraisers.

In her free time, Tiffany enjoys making and admiring art, traveling with her husband and two kids, reading books with her girlfriends, and volunteering for Lift Urban Portland. She is active in her local school community by being a part of the PTA board and an artist-in-residence for their Art Literacy Program.

tschuster@portlandbg.org

Pronouns: she/her

Natalie is an artist and writer based in Portland, Oregon. As a collector of words and pressed petals, she’s always been fascinated and inspired by the natural world and has a deep love for the flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest. A poet and essayist at heart, much of her work is informed by growing up in Houston, Texas in a bilingual Mexican-American family. She is currently working on a collection of essays exploring the identity politics and cultural borderlands of her upbringing. Aside from botanical illustrations, she also creates hand-bound journals, poetry zines, and botanical collages. When not writing or creating art, she enjoys being near bodies of water. For more information, visit her website.

Pronouns: he/him

Ty Seely is from Hillsboro, Oregon. He attended Oregon State University where he got his bachelor’s in horticulture and is now pursuing his master’s degree in plant breeding and genetics in North Carolina. A plant fanatic at his core, he’s passionate about species especially. After obtaining his master’s, he hopes to either pursue plant breeding, or research at a botanical garden. Some of his favorite species from the Pacific Northwest are: Lilium occidentale, Darlingtonia californica, Penstemon rupicola, and Dodecatheon poeticum.