Dan Pogust

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.