What does the American Dream mean to you?.

I have come to truly appreciate the desert and all it has to offer and I hope others see Desert Botanical Garden as a resource in coming to this appreciation as well. I consider myself fortunate to be part of the Living Collections Team which is responsible for the information in our database and making it available for everyone to use. became employed here in 2012 as part of a grant to produce and install 2,500 new plant identification labels and in 2013 took the position of the second plant registrar utilizing my organizational skills from banking and the plant identification skills from producing plant labels. I enrolled in the Desert Landscape School at Desert Botanical Garden and started volunteering in 2010 putting to practice what I had learned. In 2010, I moved to Arizona from Chicago, Illinois which required learning a new ecosystem … the desert. My background is in Ecological Restoration, restoring wetland, woodland and prairie ecosystems. After a 14 year career in the banking industry, I decided to return to school and obtained a degree in Horticulture, with a focus on Natural Areas Management. I have always had a passion for the environment and the great outdoors. This includes identifying, inventorying, mapping and accessioning the plants in the Garden, as well as those back in the greenhouse area.

I work with the other plant registrar, under the guidance of the Curator of Living Collections, in maintaining the Garden’s plant records for our Living Collection.

Kindl