Meet our team
Aireona Bonnie Raschke, Ph.D.
Central Arizona Conservation Alliance (CAZCA) Program Director
Email: araschke@dbg.org
Phone: 480.481.8167
Facilitate multidisciplinary collaboration among CAZCA partners to protect and restore natural spaces in the Maricopa County region, community engagement in conservation, nature-based tourism, and natural resource management and policy
Andrew Salywon, PH.D.
Herbarium Curator and Research Botanist
Email: asalywon@dbg.org
Phone: 480.481.8107
Botanical inventories, endemic, rare and endangered plants of Arizona and the Sonoran Desert, molecular ecology, new crop development for arid-lands, and plant systematics using both traditional and molecular data
Annia Quiroz, M.A.
Central Arizona Conservation Alliance (CAZCA) Engagement Coordinator
Email: aquiroz@dbg.org
Phone: 480.481.8187
Empower and mobilize CAZCA partners, community members and decision-makers to protect, restore and steward Sonoran Desert parks, preserves, natural areas and open space in the Maricopa County region
Beth Brand
Librarian
Schilling Library
Email: bbrand@dbg.org
Phone: 480.481.8133
Collections care and conservation, archiving and preservation of the Garden’s history
Dan F. Koepke, M.S.
Research Technician
Email: dkoepke@dbg.org
Phone: 480.941.1225
Plant-water relations, plant hydraulic systems, morphological and physiological investigation, histology and riparian restoration
Jael M. Wolf, MESM
Programme Officer - IUCN Cactus and Succulent Plant Specialist Group
Email: jwolf@dbg.org
Phone: 805.455.7593
Community based natural resource management, urban wildlife conservation, citizen science, translating science to the public, community outreach and education, cross-organizational collaboration
Joe Mcauliffe, PH.D.
Director Emeritus & Senior Research Scientist
Email: jmcauliffe@dbg.org
Phone: 480.481.8105
Soil-vegetation relationships in arid and semi-arid environments, ecology and conservation of semi-arid grasslands, development of long-lived clonal shrubs
Joni Ward, M.S.
Plant Registrar
Email: jward@dbg.org
Phone: 480.481.2078
Databasing and accessioning the Garden’s Living Collection, Flora of Arizona and the Southwest
Kevin R. Hultine, Ph.D.
Plant Physiologist/Ecophysiologist
Email: khultine@dbg.org
Phone: 480.481.8195
Plant-water and nutrient relations of arid and semi-arid regions; desert riparian plant ecology and conservation; population dynamics of desert shrubs, trees and cactus species.
Kimberlie Mccue, PH.D.
Director Research, Conservation and Collections
Email: kmccue@dbg.org
Phone: 480.481.8137
Population ecology and genetics of rare plants, in situ and ex situ seed bank dynamics, invasive species, conservation science outreach and education
Kristen Kindl
Living Collections Coordinator/CPS Project Manager
Email: kkindl@dbg.org
Phone: 480.481.2078
Databasing and accessioning the Garden’s Living Collections; production and placement of plant identification labels
Raul Puente-Martinez, M.S.
Curator Of Living Collections, Research Botanist
Email: rpuente@dbg.org
Phone: 480.481.8110
Systematics of Opuntieae (Cactaceae), hybridization of prickly pears, floristics, use of native and low-water-use plants in landscaping
Sarah Hunkins, B.S.
Herbarium Collections Manager
Email: shunkins@dbg.org
Phone: 480.418.8152
Curation, conservation and processing of the collections
Shannon D. Fehlberg, Ph.D.
Dorrance Family Foundation Conservation Biologist
Email: sfehlberg@dbg.org
Phone: 480.481.8143
Evolution, distribution and population genetics of rare plants; determinants of genetic and species diversity; biogeography; polyploidy
Steven A. Blackwell, B.S.
Conservation Collections Manager
Email: sblackwell@dbg.org
Phone: 480.481.8175
Developing propagation techniques and protocols for rare plants, seed germination and viability studies of rare plants, habitat restoration and species reintroduction
Veronica Nixon, M.A., GISP
GIS Manager
Email: vnixon@dbg.org
Phone: 480.423.7010
Collection, organization, and dissemination of spatial data; maintenance of the Garden’s GIS
Wendy C. Hodgson, M.S
Herbarium Curator Emerita
Senior Research Botanist
Email: whodgson@dbg.org
Phone: 480.481.8108
Floristics of Southwestern United States, particularly Grand Canyon region, Cactaceae and Agavaceae systematics, ethnobotany of Sonoran Desert, invasive species, systematics of rare Southwestern plants
