Engaging. Fast-paced. Far-reaching. Inspiring. Impactful. A day in the life of our Longwood Fellows is that, and much more. Throughout their unique garden leader-development program, our Fellows learn through interfacing with nonprofit leaders on challenges facing public horticulture, producing a cohort project that contributes to the leadership conversation occurring in public gardens, immersing in different Longwood Gardens departments, and much more. With such varied and vast elements of their program, no two days are the same for our Fellows, especially now as they prepare for their upcoming two-month individualized field placements at gardens throughout the world, including Gardens by the Bay (Singapore); Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Richmond, England) Kew Gardens; Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh (Scotland); The Morton Arboretum (Lisle, Illinois); and The Alnwick Garden (Alnwick, England). Here, each of our five Fellows in the 2024–2025 cohort shares a standout day experienced thus far during their program journey—and what makes our Fellows Program so inspiring.
E. Yvette Weaver: Cohort Project Excitement
On a day that stood out for me during the Fellows Program, our cohort found ourselves excited to finalize our topic for our cohort project, marking a significant milestone in our journey together. Collaboration has been at the heart of our discussions, enabling us to cultivate a strong foundation for what we will present at the American Public Gardens Association’s 2025 conference in Denver, Colorado. Recognizing that this is our capstone project, we aimed to select a topic that resonates with each of us and offers valuable insights to the public gardens community. We also wanted to be sure that we engage our audience in meaningful discussions while providing valuable insights within public gardens.
Our cohort project journey began with a poster session at the 2024 APGA conference in Boston, Massachusetts, where we gathered input from participants on pressing topics within the field of public gardens. Throughout our first months in the fellowship, storytelling emerged as a theme during many of our conversations. We wrestled with ways to focus on the theme of storytelling as our topic, while addressing the concerns that were discussed during the poster session.
However, after attending the Sustainable Leadership in the ESG Era workshop at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, we realized it was essential to refine our focus. We decided to shift from exploring how to craft compelling narratives to examining social sustainability within public gardens. Storytelling became our medium, and social sustainability (a concept that focuses on people and communities’ wellbeing and quality of life for present and future generations) our focus.
In addition to delivering engaging content at the conference, we aim to incorporate innovative formats such as workshops and podcasts into our project. Through collaborative input and thorough research, we've honed in on social sustainability—the people part of public gardens. Before we move forward, we celebrate this milestone of finalizing our topic. Next, we move on with anticipation in developing a workshop and conducting podcast interviews centered around our compelling cohort topic!
From left: Indianapolis Museum of Art Director of Horticulture Chad Franer; Fellows Clare Shearman and E. Yvette Weaver; The Ruth Lilly Director of the Garden and Fairbanks Park Jonathan Wright; Fellows Vânia Pereria, Anastasia Sallen, and Laurel Dunning at Newfields. Photo provided by Vânia Pereria. THE LUME Indianapolis is created by Grande Experiences. Artwork: Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory (detail), 1931.The Museum of Modern Art, Given anonymously, 162.1934 © 2025 Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Vânia Pereira: Learning from Different Sources
As part of the Fellows Program, we participate in a series of enriching executive education courses in various cities, all designed to equip us with the latest knowledge and research in key leadership areas relevant to nonprofit management. One of them took place at Indiana University in Indianapolis, a two-day program focused on nonprofit executive leadership, specifically on program evaluation for mission impact.
Throughout the course, we explored critical topics such as program evaluation accountability, evaluation techniques, and performance management strategies for effective and efficient programming. The course structure included presentations by the instructor, discussions among participants, and small-group work on logic models for performance measurement. We applied these models to real-life examples of challenges faced by attendees, which were then shared and discussed with the entire class. This hands-on approach not only helped us understand theoretical concepts but also allowed us to relate these concepts to real-world situations, collaborate on problem-solving, and share insights with our peers. The class was comprised of staff members from a wide range of nonprofit sectors, including alumni institutions, recovery centers, and university museums, to name a few. This diversity of attendees was invaluable, as it offered different perspectives on common challenges, provided new insights, and introduced us to a variety of tools that we can apply in our own work, as well as increasing our network.
During our time in Indiana, we visited Newfields, the Indianapolis Museum of Art. We enjoyed a fantastic tour with Director of the Gardens at Newfields Jonathan Wright, who is also a Longwood Professional Horticulture Program alumnus, and Director of Horticulture Chad Franer, while learning more about the organization’s connection with local communities and artists. The following evening, we were invited to attend their spectacular Harvest Nights, an incredible fall pumpkin display and must-see attraction in the area.
An essential part of our professional growth, these trainings and opportunities have been invaluable in enhancing our leadership skills and broadening our understanding of nonprofit management.
Laurel Dunning: An Immersion that Resonates
As Fellows, we enjoy many opportunities to learn firsthand from public horticulture leaders. One such opportunity is departmental immersion, which allows us to take a deep dive into one of Longwood’s departments and learn from staff. This experience unfolds in two phases: first, connecting with individual staff members and teams across various departments and second, working on a focused project that helps us as Fellows build our skills while contributing to the department’s strategic goals.
My interest in trees and arboreal care was behind my choice to work with the arborist team within Longwood’s Horticulture department for my immersion. I’ve collaborated with a variety of staff along the way. Among those is Longwood Associate Director of Collections Tony Aiello, who is spearheading work on a climate change assessment for Longwood’s tree species. This initiative aims to model changes and conditions for Longwood’s trees through the year 2100. While exploring this initiative with him, Tony has shared with me several climate change modeling tools, each unique in their geographic and species-specific analyses. Understanding how these tools function and learning to use them is the first step in applying them effectively. Longwood Vice President of Horticulture Chris Cole, who also serves as my Fellows Program mentor, has been instrumental in this dilemma facing botanical gardens today. His insights and resources have been invaluable as I navigate this complex subject.
Another key collaborator with whom I’ve worked is Longwood’s Associate Director of Grounds Tyler Altenburger, who offers nearly two decades of arborist experience. Recently, I had the opportunity to shadow Tyler as he assessed a heritage elm following recent wind damage. Witnessing the triage and decision-making process for this tree highlighted the delicate, and necessary, balance between safety, stewardship, and the preservation of aging arboreal treasures.
This immersion resonates deeply with me and my previous role at Hearst Castle in California, where I often faced similar challenges of managing beautiful, mature trees under stress from climate change, diseases, and pests. It reaffirms my commitment to learning and applying the best practices in arboriculture, ensuring the safety of guests, honoring these remarkable living beings, and engaging in strategic succession planning for our changing climate.
Clare Shearman: A Rewarding Day of Master Planning
As part of our core curriculum, Fellows study core leadership theories and concepts and focus on topics relevant to public horticulture leaders; one such topic is master site planning. On this particular day, we welcomed to Holly Hill (our Longwood residence and classroom space) our tutors for the day, Matt Nicolette from Clemson University and Tary Arterburn from Studio Outside Landscape Architecture | Urban Design.
Over breakfast we began with a casual yet informative introduction and learned about the agenda for the day ahead.
No sooner had we finished our last sip of coffee than we were off to begin our master planning session. The focus of the day was getting to know the landscape, and we were introduced to an area meadow behind the scenes at Longwood Gardens. This is where Matt and Tary have been focusing their theory work, and we were eager to dive in.
Our journey began with a walking tour of the landscape, led by Longwood Research Specialist Kristie Lane Anderson, who helped guided us, providing an overview of the site and its history. We soaked up the sights, sounds, and stories and asked lots of questions. It was a great opportunity to engage with the outdoors.
The Fellows cohort looks at a map of the landscape with Matt Nicolette (left) and Tary Arterburn (right). Photo provided by Clare Shearman.
After our tour, we returned to Holly Hill to settle into the classroom and begin our deeper dive into master planning principles. Tary and Matt led us through key concepts, unpacking the importance of understanding a site’s mission, vision, and goals as foundational components of any successful site plan.
We stopped for a bite to eat. If you think you can’t learn and eat at the same time, think again!
Then in teams we worked on our theoretical project for the meadow we had just toured. Our first task? Writing a mission statement. Once that was in place, we used the plans provided to sketch out a high-level design of the space. This included mapping out the flow of people, vehicles, and even the behind-the-scenes operations that keep a landscape running smoothly, working with the landscape in mind and incorporating some of the areas we had noted from our site tour.
It was a hands-on and an engaging experience that left us inspired and eager to apply the principles we’d learned in our own future projects. The day was not quite over as that evening, Tary and Matt, who were visiting for a few days, joined us for a dinner and we continued our discussions over the meal.
Anastasia Sallen: An Engaging Garden Experience
As we first walked up to GoggleWorks, we noticed signs for hot glass, ceramics, and metalsmithing, and thought, “Is this a garden?”
As part of the Longwood Fellows Program, we have had the opportunity to visit organizations throughout the region and get an inside peek at how their teams work together to realize their missions. Located in Reading, Pennsylvania, GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is a community arts organization on a mission to “transform lives through unique interactions with art.”
On our arrival, we were greeted by Garden Manager Tiana Zabala and Development Director Rachael Romig, who shared the history of GoggleWorks with us. The campus was formerly a factory where Thomas A. Willson & Co. manufactured optical glass lenses and safety goggles. In 2005 the campus was reimagined as GoggleWorks, which currently houses galleries, art studios, a theater, and gardens.
After a long drive we were eager to stretch our legs, so we headed outside to the gardens. They are grown in partnership with neighboring Lauer’s Park Elementary School. With growing space dedicated to native plant habitats and vegetable gardens, the gardens act as outdoor classrooms for students, teachers, and local community members to learn about a variety of topics including horticulture, nutrition, and sustainability. One of our favorite gardens on the tour was the community container garden. A mix of edible and ornamental plants spill out of large containers, inviting residents to harvest local fruits, vegetables, and herbs. We discussed the importance of building community resilience through developing local food systems and the intersections between art and horticulture.
Next on our tour were the theater, galleries, and indoor studios where staff offer classes in ceramics, hot glass, warm glass, metalsmithing, photography, digital media, printmaking, textiles, woodworking, drawing, and painting. The hallways were filled with art in every color and texture. We paused at a community art project, grabbing crayons to make our own creative mark on a papier-mâché pumpkin. We couldn’t help but laugh about how such a simple act brought us so much delight. We were experiencing the magic of the making process!
Fellow Clare Shearman adds her creative mark on a papier-mâché pumpkin during a salon visit at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts. Photo by Anastasia Sallen.
As we explored the campus and gardens, we discussed the importance of partnership and community-driven process. Tiana shared that she is part of an urban agriculture cohort, an effort to connect community organizations that are working independently to think about what the city needs as whole and how they can work together to achieve those goals. Bringing skills and resources together, they are able to maximize community benefit. Community input is central to the work at GoggleWorks—from developing new classes to designing their new Art Park. We explored the importance of process, discussing the ways in which how you do something is just as important as the outcome.
Our time with Tiana and Rachael at GoggleWorks left us feeling a sense of joy and connection. As we drove back to Longwood Gardens, we shared the ways in which we felt motivated to bring further creativity to our work.
