Native Plant Materials Program Manager
[email protected]

Kara is the Native Plant Materials Program Manager for IAE’s Southwest Office. She oversees restoration projects in Arizona and the work of the Southwest Seed Partnership, including leading seed collection crews, recruiting and supporting native seed producers, expanding regional capacity for seed cleaning and storage and supporting the effort to develop seed certification programs for pre-varietal germplasm. She grew up in Arizona and her passion for native plant materials development started in 2015 when a volunteer floristic inventory project evolved into a master’s thesis that included identifying changes in plant community composition post-fire in the Arizona Uplands of the Sonoran Desert. She graduated from Arizona State University with an M.S. in Plant Biology and Conservation in 2018.

In her free time, she loves embroidering, reading, spending time with her family and friends, and doing the botanical saunter (a.k.a. hiking, but at a much slower pace).