Desert Botanical Garden Appoints 2018-2019 Board of Trustees

May 24, 2018

PHOENIX – Desert Botanical Garden appointed 14 members to its 2018-2019 Board of Trustees. The Board is comprised of 51 member-elected community leaders dedicated to the Garden’s mission to advance excellence in education, exhibition and conservation of desert plants of the world.

Among the appointments to the Board of Trustees, Shelley Cohn will serve as the Board of Trustees President for her second consecutive term. Cohn first joined the Garden’s board in 2015, and she has served on various nonprofit boards since she retired in 2005 as the executive director of Arizona Commission on the Arts.

“Desert Botanical Garden is thrilled to welcome new board members who have demonstrated their commitment to the Garden by serving on committees and being engaged in our new strategic planning process,” says Cohn. “We are fortunate to have board members dedicated to our mission who are also eager to engage and contribute in many ways to the future of the Garden.”

The following new appointments will serve a three-year term:

KATE BAKER, CPA, retired from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona as its Treasurer in 2015. She was appointed to Desert Botanical Garden’s Board of Trustees in 2007 and served as Trustee President from 2011 to 2013. She was elected again to the Board of Trustees in 2015, serving currently as a co-chair for the Garden’s Strategic Planning Committee.

SCOTT BURDICK is Wiseman & Gale’s managing partner. He began his career in New York, working for Saks Fifth Avenue’s corporate headquarters in treasury and finance. Additionally, he has served on many local nonprofit boards, most recently serving for four years as chair of the Dinner on the Desert Auction Committee.

BARTON FABER is a partner in Atrium Capital. He is chairman of the Garden’s Operations Support Committee, serves on the Nominating Committee and has been an integral part of many Garden projects, including the Arizona Community Foundation Canal Water Project, the Phase One Horticulture Center project, Solar Panel Project in partnership with APS and First Solar and chairing the Fund the Farm 2018 fundraiser.

AMY FLOOD is a senior vice president in the Real Estate Department at JP Morgan Chase. Her service has included participation in various Garden activities such as co-chair for Dinner on the Desert, Chairman of the Patrons Circle, Donor Recognition and Personnel Committees, as well as serving as a general member of various other committees.

LORI HIGUERA is the assistant general counsel for Freeport-McMoRan, a natural resource company. She also supervised all aspects of employment and labor law for clients in a wide range of industries. She is the Secretary/Treasurer of the Board of Governors for the State Bar of Arizona. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and on the Valley of the Sun United Way’s Children and Youth Advisory Council.

HARRIET IVEY retired in 2014 after serving for 15 years as the founding president and CEO of the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Ivey has spent her entire career working in or on behalf of the nonprofit sector, including 28 years as a foundation executive. She is the current chair of the Governance Nominating Committee and is a member of the Executive and Strategic Planning Committees.

TAHNIA MCKEEVER is currently serving on the Social Sustainability Taskforce, in support of the Garden’s 2018 – 2023 Strategic Plan. She was a key member of the Myrna H. Berger Children & Family Garden Master Planning Team and also serves on the Patrons Circle Committee. She has served on the Dinner on the Desert Committee for over a decade, has served as co-chair for the Sam & Betty Kitchell Heritage Garden Opening Celebration, co-chair of the Spring Garden Tour and co-chair of the Patron Circle Luminaria Party. She previously completed a term as a Garden Trustee. She currently serves as a Barrow Women’s Board Member and past chair of Florence Crittenton.

DANIEL G. PEREZ is the founder and CEO of Subrosa Investigations. Since moving to Arizona in 2000, he has served as a member of the Arizona Small Business Administration and the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce (GPCC) where he served as a board member of the Hispanic Business Leadership Council and Small Business Leadership Council. He is also the former President of the Phoenix Citizen’s Police Academy Alumni Association and now focuses his efforts on Upward for Children and Families, a nonprofit providing therapies and education to severely disabled children.

RICK ROBINSON is the Regional Manager of Investment and Fiduciary Services for the Southwest Region of Wells Fargo Private Bank. His professional affiliations include the Phoenix CFA® Society and the Rotary Club of Scottsdale. Since 2015, he has been president of Desert Botanical Garden’s Foundation, which oversees the Garden’s endowment fund.

GINGER SPENCER is the director for the city of Phoenix Public Works department. Ginger serves on the Garden’s Social Sustainability Task Force. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Arizona State University and a Master of Science in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

KATHLEEN TADDIE recently retired after 12 years as president of Kathleen A. Taddie Consulting. Kathleen and her husband Steve co-chaired Dinner on the Desert 2018. She served as a board member for the National Kidney Foundation of AZ, Charter 100, Florence Crittenton, Turnaround Management Association, Community Health Charities and the Arizona Quality Alliance.

BRUCE WEBER is founder and president/CEO at Weber Group, with more than 18 years of experience working with for-profit and nonprofits. He specializes in strengthening their governing boards by applying good governance principles, strategic planning, board recruitment and capacity building through organizational lifecycle analysis. Bruce has completed two three-year terms as a Garden trustee and is completing his first three-year term in his second tenure as trustee.

JAMEY WETMORE is an associate professor in the School for the Future of Innovation at Arizona State University. Jamey became a member of the Garden the week he decided to move to the Phoenix area. He has served on the Art Advisory and Research, Collections and Horticulture Committees of the Garden since 2016.

For a complete list of the Garden’s 2018-2019 Board of Trustees, visit dbg.org/board-of-trustees/.

About Desert Botanical Garden
Desert Botanical Garden features 50,000 plants from across the world. The Garden allows visitors to experience the beauty of the desert like never before. For nearly 80 years, the Garden’s commitment to the community is to advance excellence in education, research, exhibition and conservation of desert plants of the world with emphasis on the Southwestern United States.

 

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