Ms. Davidson is an experienced extension agent with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry and providing outreach and education to Coloradans. Her horticulture skills focus on native plants, water conservation, pollinator habitat, and design. She is skilled in AutoCAD, Microsoft Word, Environmental Awareness, Adobe Photoshop, and Submittals. Ms. Davidson is a strong research professional with a BS degree in Horticulture from Colorado State University and an MLA degree in Landscape Architecture from University of Arizona.

Dr. Gornish received her MS and PhD degrees from Florida State University in 2013. She then completed two years as a post doc at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Gornish’s work largely focuses on vegetation management in arid systems with a focus on ecological restoration, weed management and soil management. She has published over 80 articles, given hundreds of talks and was recently selected as an ESA Early Career Fellow. In addition to vegetation management, Dr. Gornish is passionate about STEM inclusion and is also the director of GALS (Girls on outdoor Adventure for Leadership and Science). GALS focuses on providing science learning and leadership opportunities to traditionally underserved female high school students through backcountry programming.

Dr. McCoshum has designed urban, suburban, and rural conservation projects across the United States. His research expertise includes monarch ecology, milkweeds, and native bee communities, and he has more than 15 years of experience working in the arid Southwest. Dr. McCoshum has extensive experience rearing monarchs in laboratory settings, growing milkweeds, and creating vegetation management plants, and urban conservation designs. In addition to his research and professional work, he is the author of Inviting Pollinators and Other Wildlife into Your Garden, which dives into the processes of creating robust, aesthetically pleasing, wildlife habitats.

Ms. Valachovic is passionate about finding solutions to challenging problems bringing her skills in forestry, natural resources and sociological research, design and mitigation of the built environment for wildfire resilience, as well as her years rooted in County government and community engagement. She is a member of the California Governor’s Wildfire Forest Resilience Task Force and other California state fire policy workgroups. Ms. Valachovic is the co-lead of the Northern California region of the California Fire Science Consortium and is a founding member of the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council. She has co-authored papers on fire behavior in California forests and the intersection of fire performance in home and landscape design. She is active in California policy development and has been a technical resource for bioenergy, forest management, home hardening, and improvements to defensible space legislation. She will share her experience from post-fire assessments that have helped craft her vision for adaptation.