Staff

As Director of Science and Conservation for the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Nina oversees the strategic development of science and conservation at the Juliet Rice Wichman Botanical Research Center (BRC) at NTBG’s headquarters on Kauaʻi. Nina came to NTBG in 2019 from a position as Professor and Curator of vascular plants and Director of Science at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, where she continues to be adjunct professor. She is also affiliated with the EECB graduate specialization at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Following her PhD from the University of Copenhagen, Nina held research fellowships at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in the UK and the University of Minnesota. Nina’s research is interdisciplinary and centered on the evolution and conservation of plant diversity and the relationship between people and plants.

Contact: nronsted@ntbg.org
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Twitter: @ninaronsted

As Executive Assistant Katie supports the Director, oversees the Botanical Research Center, serves as a point of contact for internal and external stakeholders, visitors and students, and manages higher level and ad hoc projects and accounting. Katie joined NTBG in 2022 bringing 12 years of experience as Executive Assistant to the Head of Island School.

Contact: kmagoun@ntbg.org

Dr. David Lorence occupies the B. Evans Chair of Botany and came to the National Tropical Botanical Garden in 1987. Research specialties are systematic studies of tropical plants, floristics, and invasive plant species. His systematic research focuses on Pacific and neotropical members of the large and diverse Rubiaceae family, which includes coffee, quinine, and gardenias. He also studies Pacific island pteridophytes and the Monimiaceae family of the Malagasy region. David leads NTBG’s publication of regional Pacific Floras, including publication of the Flora of Marquesas Islands in 2020 and Flora of Samoa in 2022. He currently leads the work for a Flora of Micronesia.

Contact: dlorence@ntbg.org
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Tim is Curator of the Herbarium (PTBG) at the National Tropical Botanical Garden. He has been working at NTBG since 1981. In addition to managing the herbarium he has also participated in fieldwork in Hawaiʻi, Samoa, Tonga, Niue, the Cook Islands, Kosrae, Pohnpei, Palau, Australia, New Caledonia, and Ecuador, and currently has a particular interest in contributing to understudied bryophytes.

Contact: tflynn@ntbg.org

As Conservation Biologist of the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Seana’s primary role is to lead in the development of the organization’s activities to implement the Hawaiʻi Strategy for Plant Conservation. She earned a Master’s degree in Botany from the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa and is currently pursuing a PhD degree from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, focused on science-based conservation management of threatened Hawaiian plants. Her applied research interests include plant breeding systems, pollination ecology, and population genetics.

Contact: swalsh@ntbg.org
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Twitter: @Walsh_Seana

Ken’s research focuses on the study and conservation of Pacific Island floras. His essential responsibilities include organizing and conducting botanical field surveys with a specialty in accessing rough terrain habitats. Other aspects of his research include: mapping the distribution and abundance of rare Pacific island plants (phytogeography); collecting herbarium specimens for scientific study, collecting seeds, spores, and cuttings for conservation, and DNA material for genetic sequencing; publishing conservation status data and new species descriptions; and contributing to conservation biology research and educational outreach through national and international scientific collaboration.

Contact: kwood@ntbg.org
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As Seed Bank and Laboratory Manager at the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Dustin specialize in ex situ seed conservation biology with an emphasis on seed and pollen storage behavior, seed longevity and aging kinetics, seed borne pathogen abatement, and seed dormancy and dormancy alleviation of native Hawaiian plant species of conservation importance. His research aims to understand how seeds respond to desiccation and subfreezing temperatures, identifying regeneration intervals, and determining optimal seed propagation techniques. Dustin holds and MSc in Plant Biology and Conservation from Arizona State University and is currently pursuing a PhD degree at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, focused on changing the seed banking paradigm using Hawaiian lobeliads as a model system.

Contact: dwolkis@ntbg.org
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Ben has an MSc degree in GIS (Global Information System mapping) from Penn State University from 2017. At NTBG he is responsible for management of organization-wide phytogeography data and GIS modeling, contributing data to NTBGs research and conservation work, as well as to over 250 NTBG led IUCN Red List assessments. Ben has also implemented an innovative drone program helping NTBG survey hard to access terrain. His research work with using drones in biodiversity exploration is internationally recognized and he has been locating several threatened plant species of conservation importance.

Contact: bnyberg@ntbg.org
Twitter: @BenBotanical

Based at the International Center for Tropical Botany at the Kampong (ICTB), a collaboration between the Institute of Environment at Florida International University and the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Elliot conducts synergistic research to support the conservation and sustainable use of tropical flora and ecosystems. Elliot holds a PhD focused on the systematics and pollination biology of Artocarpus from Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden from 2017. Before joining the ICTB and NTBG in October 2020, he has worked as a tropical plant systematist, primarily in Southeast Asia, and he is equally at home in the field as with phylogenomic analyses.

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