Faculty

Dr. Lucas Mertehikian (Director of the Humanities Institute, NYBG) was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Plant Humanities at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. His academic research lies at the intersection of the environmental humanities and botanical collections. He co-edited two forthcoming volumes: Unpredictable Architectures: The Politics of Gardening in Latin America (Brill, 2025) and The Boom of Natural History in Latin American Culture (University of Florida Press). He received his Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University.

Dr. Eric W. Sanderson (Vice President for Urban Conservation, NYBG) is a landscape ecologist focusing mainly on New York City. His approach combines deep and cross-disciplinary investigations of the historical ecology of the city with cutting-edge technology in visualization, geospatial analysis, and cloud computing. Before joining NYBG, he worked at the Wildlife Conservation Society. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Manahatta: A Natural History of New York City and the creator of the online Welikia project (welikia.org), as well as notable publications, including Terra Nova: The New World After Oil, Cars, and Suburbs and Prospects for Resilience: Insights from New York City’s Jamaica Bay. Consistent across Dr. Sanderson’s work is his drive to examine how nature can improve urban life and address global and local challenges. He received his Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California, Davis.

Rhonda Evans, J.D./MLIS (Director of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library) joined NYBG from the New York Public Library, where she served as the Assistant Chief Librarian at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, contributing to the curation of library exhibitions and programming, including Boundless: 10 Years of Seeding Black Comic Futures, Traveling While Black: A Century of Pleasure & Pain & Pilgrimage, and In Conversation with Colson Whitehead, Between the Lines: Harlem Shuffle. She is active within the Library profession and has written for multiple publications, including Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, and the anthology The Black Librarian in America Reflections, Resistance, and Reawakening. She recently worked with Lincoln Center on the Legacies of San Juan Hill Project, exploring the history of the displaced Black and Brown community of San Juan Hill, New York, before the development of Lincoln Center. Rhonda was the Chair of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Intellectual Freedom Round Table and an ALA presidential appointee to the Intellectual Freedom Committee. She has also taught in the MLIS program at Pratt Institute.

Todd Forrest (Arthur Ross Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections at The New York Botanical Garden) oversees all aspects of the management and development of the Garden’s landmark 250-acre site, its glasshouses, and indoor and outdoor exhibitions, including the 50-acre Thain Family Forest. Before joining the New York Botanical Garden, Forrest worked at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. A graduate of Wesleyan University, he has a Master of Forest Science degree from Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Dr. Matthew Pace (Assistant Curator, William & Lynda Steere Herbarium, NYBG) manages the Steere Herbarium’s collections to reflect advances in systematic plant understanding, facilitate the use of the Herbarium, and support digitization and curatorial efforts. His research interests focus on the Orchidaceae family, incorporating field, molecular, and herbarium approaches to understand speciation and biodiversity, test patterns of apparent hybridization, clarify biogeographic history, and identify the conservation needs of New World Orchidaceae. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Lucinda Royte (Urban Conservation Researcher, NYBG) received her B.A. from Bennington College, concentrating in environmental history. Fascinated by the role of past ecologies in mitigating the risk associated with climate change, Lucinda uses geospatial tools and historical documents to inform urban design and planning. She is a research assistant for Eric Sanderson, working on the urban conservation team and supporting his forthcoming book, The Welikia Atlas and Gazetteer.

Dr. Emily Sessa (Director, William & Lynda Steere Herbarium, NYBG) received her B.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University and Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She was a professor of Plant Systematics at the University of Florida before joining NYBG. Her research interests and expertise are in plant ecology and evolution, specifically the relationships and natural history of ferns and lycophytes.

Stephen Sinon (William B. O’Connor Curator of Special Collections, Research and Archives, LuEsther T. Mertz Library, NYBG) has worked at the Mertz Library for twenty-five years and has incredible understanding and institutional knowledge of the Archives. Mr. Sinon received his Master’s in Library Science from Columbia University and a specialized certificate from Rare Book School at the University of Virginia. He also studied British garden history at the University of Oxford.

Sheryll Durrant (Food and Agriculture Coordinator, New Roots Program) is an urban farmer, educator, and food justice advocate. She has been the Resident Garden Manager at Kelly Street Garden since 2016 and is also the Food and Agriculture Coordinator for New Roots Community Farm, managed by the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Her work has included developing community-based urban agriculture projects and providing expertise and technical assistance for gardens within supportive housing developments. She currently serves as Board President for Just Food. Sheryll has led workshops and spoken on issues related to urban agriculture and food justice for many key organizations and was part of the 2019-2020 HEAL School of Political Leadership cohort.

Ian Fowler (Curator and Geospatial Librarian, Map Division at The New York Public Library) is responsible for the care and development of the cartographic collections as well as using new geospatial technologies and applications for education and the use of the New York Public Library map collections in geographic information systems. Before joining NYPL, Fowler was the director of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education at the University of Southern Maine and has previously worked at the Geography and Map Division at the Library of Congress. He has a B.A. in Education with a minor in Geography from Ohio State University and an MSLIS from Dominican University outside Chicago.

Dr. Klaus H. Jacob (Emeritus Research Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University) is a geophysicist and a rebuilder. He is a renowned earthquake, disaster, and climate expert. Jacob served on the Mayor’s New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC, 2008-2019), the NY State’s ClimAID project, and the post-Sandy, HUD-sponsored Rebuild by Design (RBD) research advisory group. TIME Magazine named him one of 50 “people who mattered in 2012” for forecasting the consequences of a Sandy-like storm in New York City a year before SANDY hit. He developed a climate change adaptation model plan for the NY MTA, specifically for the NYC-Transit subway system.

Audrey Jenkins (Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy and Urban Policy, The New School) studies the circulation, preservation, and evolution of ecological knowledge, practices, ideas, meanings, and materials in ethnically and culturally diverse communities and networks, tracing connections between immigrant experiences and social-ecological relationships. She earned her master’s of public health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in 2017 and spent three years working at the NYC Department of Homeless Services medical office. Her experiences as a city worker and community member, particularly in uptown Manhattan, have grounded her work in justice, collaborative approaches, and pathways for equitable, healthful futures.

Evan T. Pritchard (Director, Center for Algonquin Culture and Professor of Native American History, Marist College), a descendant of the Mi’kmaq people, has taught Native American Studies at Pace University, Vassar College, and Marist College. He is the author of Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York and Henry Hudson and the Algonquins of New York, among other books. He has given “Native New Yorker” walking tours of lower Manhattan for the Smithsonian Institute, The Open Center, South Street Seaport, and other institutions.

Dr. Ashanti Shih (Assistant Professor of History, Vassar College) is a 20th-century Pacific and American West historian. Her research and teaching spans Asian American history, Native Pacific and Indigenous studies, the U.S. empire, environmental history, and the history of colonial science. Her first book project, tentatively titled “Invasive Ecologies: Science, Preservation, and Settler Colonialism in Twentieth-Century Hawai‘i,” uses the case of the U.S. National Park system in Hawai‘i to explore issues of species belonging, natural and cultural preservation, and Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) and Asian settler engagements with American science. She completed her B.A. in History and Art Practice at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her Ph.D. in History from Yale University. Shih held a predoctoral Mellon Fellowship at the New York Botanical Garden’s Humanities Institute.