CGC 2023 Forum
Panelist Biographies
Todd Forrest is the New York Botanical Garden Arthur Ross Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections. He leads the team of managers, horticulturists, and curators who steward the Garden’s plant collections, gardens, and glasshouses and develop its celebrated horticulture exhibitions. An advocate for historic trees and forests in urban landscapes and public gardens, Forrest contributed essays to TheMagnificent Trees of The New York Botanical Garden, The Trees of North America: Michaux and Redoute’s American Masterpiece, and Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time. He began at The New York Botanical Garden in 1998 as a research assistant in the Institute of Economic Botany, joined Horticulture in 1999 as curator of Woody Plants, and became head of Horticulture in 2004. Previously, Forrest worked at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and in plant nurseries in Maine and Oregon. He received a B.A. in Philosophy from Wesleyan University and a Master of Forest Science from Yale University’s School of the Environment.
Dr. Jo Handelsman is the director for the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a Vilas Research Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology. She previously served as the Associate Director for Science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Obama administration. She has been editor-in-chief of the academic journal DNA and Cell Biology. Dr. Handelsman’s research seeks to understand how soil microorganisms cooperate with and antagonize each other. Handelsman’s lab discovered several new antibiotics in the course of studying the role of small molecules as signals in soil microbial communities. She is founder of Tiny Earth, a global consortium of college instructors and students dedicated to discovering new antibiotics from soil bacteria. Among other works, Handelsman is the author of A World Without Soil, a book that presents the soil erosion crisis for a general audience. She received a PhD in molecular biology from The University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Dr. Rattan Lal is Distinguished Professor of Soil Science and a Founder and Director of the Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He has researched soil forfive decades on five continents. His work focuses on regenerative agriculture through which soil can help resolve global issues such as climate change, food security, and water quality. He is past president of the International Union of Soil Sciences and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Iceland and The Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi. He was awarded the 2019 Japan Prize for sustainable soil management for global food security and mitigation of climate change and is the winner of the 2020 prestigious World Food prize for improving the quality, quantity, and availability of food in the world. He was Inter -American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture Chair of Soil Science and Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development Issues, San Jose, Costa Rica. He was educated at Punjab Agricultural University, received an M.S. from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute and a Ph.D. in soil science from Ohio State University.
Dale Strickler is an agronomist for Green Cover Seed, the nation’s leading cover-crop specific seed company in Bladen, Nebraska, and a leader in the soil health movement. He grew up on a diversified farm near Colony Kansas, then attended Kansas State University, obtaining BS and MS degrees in Agronomy. He taught agronomy at Cloud County Community College for 15 years before entering private industry. He was an agronomist for Land O’Lakes, Star Seed, and Valent USA prior to working with Green Cover Seed. Strickler is the author of the books The Drought Resilient Farm, Managing Pasture, and The Complete Guide to Restoring Your Soil. Strickler operated his own ranch in north central Kansas before recently relocating near his ancestral family farm.