Best Botanical Garden (2020)

Preethi Harbuck is passionate about inspiring...  Read More

Preethi Harbuck is passionate about inspiring curiosity and connection through family travel on her blog, Local Passport Family, and Instagram. Mother of five young children, she’s traveled to 62 countries (43 with kids) and 49 states. She loves providing tips, tricks and itineraries to encourage other families to explore near and far, and loves writing about family travel and parenting. 

Kyle McCarthy is the co-founder and editor of...  Read More

Kyle McCarthy is the co-founder and editor of Family Travel Forum, the trusted resource for family vacation planners since 1996. FTF’s award-winning publications: MyFamilyTravels.com, America’s Most Popular Family Vacations and The Family Vacationist e-newsletter provide destination reviews, tips and seasonal roundups for all aspects of travel. Ms. McCarthy, author of a dozen Frommer’s guidebooks, also contributes to US News, CNN and other publications. She can be found on most social networks @familytravelforum.

Abby Meyer is Executive Director of the U.S....  Read More

Abby Meyer is Executive Director of the U.S. office of Botanic Gardens Conservation International, based at The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in Los Angeles. Abby works to develop tools and information to support botanic garden plant conservation programs and collections. Abby received a Bachelor’s of Science degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and went on to complete a Master’s in Public Horticulture Administration through the Longwood Graduate Program at the University of Delaware and Longwood Gardens. Prior to her work with BGCI, she was a Putnam Research Fellow at The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University where she developed new approaches for assessing the conservation value of living plant collections. Now in Los Angeles, Abby enjoys hiking and gardening with her husband Evan and their 3-year old daughter Violet.

Nicky Omohundro is the founder and editor of Read More

Nicky Omohundro is the founder and editor of LittleFamilyAdventure.com, the popular family travel & lifestyle website that inspires families to leave no child left inside. Since 2013 LFA has been providing inspiration to get families outdoors, eat well, and travel everywhere from their own backyard to around the world. Always up for a family adventure, she has traveled to 37 states and 6 countries to zip-line through a Costa Rican rainforest, see Finland’s Northern Lights, and go camping throughout the US. Nicky is the co-founder of Tourism WorX a travel consultancy group. Connect with her Twitter and Instagram.

The owner and content creator of Family Vacations...  Read More

The owner and content creator of Family Vacations U.S is somewhat of a compulsive researcher when it comes to family vacations. Allison has 2 boys ages 10 and 12 whose antics keep her very busy, and being married to a firefighter adds a whole other element to the chaos! You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 

Rob Taylor is the author of The Road Trip Survival...  Read More

Rob Taylor is the author of The Road Trip Survival Guide (being released May 25, 2021) and the founder of 2TravelDads, the original LGBT Family Travel blog. Focusing on ecotourism and education, 2TravelDads inspires LGBT families (and traditional families also) to go beyond their usual getaways and use travel to learn about and be part of a bigger world. 2TravelDads blazes the way for other two-dad and two-mom families to travel to previously overlooked destinations or places we as gay people would normally avoid. We share the struggles we've faced and the surprising gems and welcomes we've had along the way. Traveling as a family is one thing, traveling as an LGBT family is completely something else.

Joann Vieira is the statewide Director of...  Read More

Joann Vieira is the statewide Director of Horticulture for The Trustees. Founded in 1891, The Trustees is the nation’s first and the state of Massachusetts’s largest conservation and preservation organization. Among the 118 properties protected by the Trustees there are significant and treasured historic landscapes and gardens, including 11 public gardens. Since 2016 the Trustees have been working to preserve, restore and reinvigorate these public gardens - assessing and cataloging collections and bringing the gardens to life for their more than 140,000 members, and visitors to the gardens. Joann brings many years of experience in public horticulture to The Trustees public gardens initiative, including serving as the founding Director of Horticulture for Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Ma, a position she held for nearly 30 years, and where she was instrumental in shaping the gardens, landscape and plant collections. Joann has served as the President of the Horticultural Club of Boston; is a past board member of the Ecological Landscape Association; has served on the Awards Committee of the American Public Garden Association; was the staff lead for the Cary Award Committee; and served on many of the Worcester County Horticultural Society committees. She is the recipient of the Worcester County Horticultural Society and Massachusetts Horticultural Society Silver Medals, The Thomas Roland Medal of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and the 2018 recipient of the Beacon Award of the Massachusetts Association of Landscape Professionals. She is a frequent lecturer on a variety of horticultural topics throughout the region; and contributes to horticultural publications, including Fine Gardening Magazine, regionally and nationally.