Rose H. Harvey

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo nominated Rose Harvey to serve as Commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation in January 2011. Previously, Commissioner Harvey held multiple leadership positions with The Trust for Public Land, from community organizer, to Regional Director of the Mid-Atlantic Region, to National Director of Urban Programs. Under her leadership, TPL’s Mid- Atlantic Region, with community partners, established over $1 billion of new rural, regional and urban parks—300 of which are urban gardens and playgrounds in underserved neighborhoods. Upon leaving TPL, Commissioner Harvey served as a senior fellow at the Jonathan Rose Companies, and a McCluskey Fellow and Lecturer at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Outside of New York, she still serves on the Board of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Yale Leadership Advisory Council.

The Garden Club of America

Founded in 1913, The Garden Club of America is a national nonprofit with 201 clubs and nearly 18,000 club members around the country. From its earliest days, the GCA has been dedicated to promoting the knowledge and love of gardening and to restoring, improving, and protecting the environment. Volunteers engage locally and nationally in gardening; horticulture and the creative arts; conservation and environmental advocacy; education and leadership; and civic improvement and restoration. Anne “Dede” Neal Petri is the 42nd president of the GCA, elected in 2017.

Building on a century of conservation efforts, the GCA’s most recent priorities have been a national Restoration Initiative for public gardens and landscapes devastated by natural disasters; the Healthy Yard Pledge; legislation to promote the hiring of botanists and use of native plants; a new position paper on Oceans; the promotion of native birds and native plants; and growth of the Partners for Plants program to assist local and federal parks in removing invasives and fostering native plants. The GCA has also spoken out publicly on an array of issues in keeping with its position papers, including opposing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, supporting the Land and Water Conservation Fund and Scenic Byways, and opposing the use of neonicotinoids.