Department ofBotany

Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield

Staff - Other Associates - Interns and Volunteers

Staff

Program Director Vicki Funk is a Senior Scientist and Curator in the Smithsonian's Department of Botany; she has been director of the BDG program since 1988. She is a specialist on the Compositae (Sunflower family), focusing particularly on the evolution and biogeography of plants of South American highlands. Here she is standing by Kaieteur Falls. You may view her Curriculum Vitae here. Follow this link for other Funky Stuff!

A totally soaked Vicki Funk at Kaieteur, photo Karen Richardson

Assistant Director Carol Kelloff oversees money matters, interactions with the Centre for the Study of Biological Diversity in Guyana, plant sorting and distribution operations, and travel arrangements for Smithsonian researchers and collaborators. Her research focuses on the plants of Kaieteur National Park in Guyana, and on ferns in Guyana and the Eastern United States. Here she is collecting aquatic flowering plants in the family Podostemaceae, just above the brink of Kaieteur Falls.

Carol Kelloff collects a member of Podostemaceae near the edge of Kaieteur Falls, photo Greg McKee

Sara Alexander is the Data Manager and Webmaster for BDG. She received her BS from the College of William and Mary in biology, and is currently working towards a Master's in Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University.

Eduardo Garcia Milagros is a biologist from Almacelles (Spain). He is a part-time contractor working with the BDG specimen database, focusing on verifying the locality information of the collections and checking and updating latitude and longitude coordinates to be uploaded in Google Earth.

John Dodge, a retired electrical engineer turned botanist, has been helping the BDG process collections since 2004. He works primarily in the BDG sorting center at the Museum Support Center.

Other Associates

Marilyn Hansel - 1995-2007
Marilyn completed the bulk of the work of databasing (and barcoding) specimens from the herbarium and BDG expeditions, and also digitized photographic collections and converted collector field notebook information into database form. Before working for the BDG Program, Marilyn was a volunteer with the Botany Department.

Tom Hollowell was Data Manager for the program; he kept the databases for the Checklist of the Plants of the Guiana Shield and for the botanical collections made by BDG's plant collectors since 1986. These data are always being updated with new identifications from specialists and new plant distribution information. He also performs research on ecology and conservation of mangroves in Northwestern Guyana. Currently he works in the Museum's Informatics Branch. Here he is (with Chris Chin) having just climbed to the cloud forest on Mt. Waukauyeng in far-western Guyana. Here is his C.V.
Matt Sewell - 2005 Matt was a part-time contractor for the BDG who worked at sorting plants for our exchange program and also handled identification of problem specimens. He spent several months organizing the Herbarium at the Centre for the Study of Biological Diversity (BRG) at the University of Guyana. He earned an MS in Botany at Miami Univeristy of Ohio, and is currently working at the New York Botanial Garden as a laboratory manager for the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics Studies.
Debbie Brandan - 2006 Debbie was a part-time contractor for the BDG who helped with data entry, plant filing, and plant sorting for our exchange program. She also worked part time for the Division of Birds. Debbie earned a BA in Biology from George Mason University, and is currently working in bank management.
Aleks Radosavljevic - 2005, 2006 Aleks was a part-time contractor who barcoded specimens, entered data, and filed plants for the BDG program, as well as editing a checklist of freshwater fish of the Guiana Shield. During the summers of 2005 and 2006 he assisted with geo-botanical research in the Shenandoah National Park. He received his BS from Marymount University in biology and is currently persuing a Master's Degree at City College in New York.
H. David Clarke has been a plant collector and research associate with the BDG since 1995. He is now a faculty member of the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and collaborates regularly with the BDG Program. Here David is crossing Kumarow Creek in Western Guyana, about 40 miles north of Mt. Roraima.
Karen Redden has worked with the BDG program since 1999. She has conducted numerous collecting expeditions in Guyana, French Guiana and Venezuela. She recently completed her Ph.D. at George Washington University studying the systematics of the Caesalpinioideae (Fabaceae). In addition to sorting and identifying plants for the BDG, Karen has spent time in Guyana organizing the Herbarium at the Centre for the Study of Biological Diversity. She is shown here in Imbaimadai, Guyana with our friends and long-time field specialists Romeo Williams and Claudius Perry.
Susan Grose is a long-time associate of the BDG. She recently completed her Ph.D. in Systematics and fruit evolution in Bignoniaceae at the Unviersity of Washington. Here she is pressing plants with David Clarke during a break on a collecting trip along a foot trail near Paramakatoi Guyana.
Lynn Gillespie was a collector with the BDG program from 1989-1991. She is now a research scientist with the Canadian Museum of Nature. Her interests include the flora of the Canadian Arctic, systematics and evolution of spurges (Euphorbiaceae) and bluegrasses (Poa and relatives), and molecular systematics. Here she is collecting in the Canadian Arctic.
Larry Skog is an emeritus senior curator of Smithsonian's Department of Botany. He was the second director of the BDG Program, and served for many years as the Smithsonian's representative to the Flora of Guianas Consortium. Dr. Skog is a specialist in the Gesneriaceae (African Violet family).

Interns and Volunteers

Andrea Barnes - 2005 Brown University Databasing of US National Herbarium data for the Venezuelan Guayana (Amazonas, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro) and assisting with preparation of graphics for the Checklist of the Plants of Kaieteur National Park.
Stephanie Stuber - 2005 College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY) Databasing of US National Herbarium data for the Venezuelan Guayana (Amazonas, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro), georeferencing of Venezuelan specimen data, plant identification, and filing of plant specimens.
Katie Younts - 2005 Oberlin College Databasing of US National Herbarium data for the Venezuelan Guayana (Amazonas, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro), georeferencing of Venezuelan specimen data, and preliminary GIS analysis.
Molly Grove - 2004 Oberlin College Capture of US National Herbarium data for the Compositae of the Venezuelan Guayana (Amazonas, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro) and preliminary Geographic analysis. Molly also helped part-time at the ARC for the Research Training Program.
Nathan Hodges - 2004 Portland State University Capture of US National Herbarium data for the Compositae of the Venezuelan Guayana and preliminary Geographic analysis. It took both Molly and Nathan to get the Compositae job done, as it is one of the largest plant families of the Guiana Shield.
Rosita Tsai - 2004 Thomas S. Wootton High School, Rockville, MD Capture of US National Herbarium data for Lycopodiaceae, Schizaeaceae, Adiantaceae, and Rhizophoraceae of the Venezuelan Guayana (She was prolific!) and filing of many families of plant specimens into the National Herbarium. Rosita will now be going to school at the University of Maryland, College Park.

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Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Department ofBotany

Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield

Personnel

Staff

Other Associates

Interns and Volunteers