Leah Diehl
Leah Diehl, RLA, HTM, is Director of Therapeutic Horticulture at Wilmot Botanical Gardens and Lecturer in Environmental Horticulture at the University of Florida (UF). She is a licensed landscape architect, a master gardener, and a professionally registered horticultural therapist. She manages and teaches an undergraduate certificate program in horticultural therapy at UF, oversees research projects, and runs therapeutic horticulture programming for diverse populations, where she coordinates clients, volunteers, and students. Leah began her work in horticultural therapy in Chicago in 1993, where she started up a therapeutic and pre-vocational program for individuals with physical and developmental disabilities at Misericordia Home.
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Lesley Fleming
Lesley Fleming, MA, HTR, is known nationally & internationally for practicing, writing and consulting on horticultural therapy. Her leadership roles have included initiating the Nova Scotia Horticulture for Health Network, President of (former) Florida Chapter American Horticultural Therapy Association, board member and editor in chief of AHTA magazine, reviewer for the Journal of Therapeutic Horticulture and editor in chief of Digging In and Cultivate epublications. Her ebook Therapeutic Horticulture A Practitioner’s Perspective was published in 2016. She currently leads the advisory group of the Florida Horticulture for Health Network.
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Susan Morgan
Susan Morgan is a horticulturist and garden-based educator located in the foothills near Denver, Colorado. She has delivered virtual and in-person social, therapeutic, and vocational horticulture programming and consulting at public gardens and in private practice in Texas, Tennessee, and Illinois. Susan earned her M.S. degree in public horticulture from the University of Tennessee, horticultural therapy certificate from the Horticultural Therapy Institute with Colorado State University, and international diploma in botanic garden education from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Find Susan at thehorticulturallink.com / eatbreathegarden.com.
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Morgan Whitaker Smith
Morgan Whitaker Smith is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who works in community mental health and private practice to help individuals find healing and wholeness. She has experience in treating trauma and various mental health challenges from a variety of therapeutic modalities. She has a particular interest in the emerging field of ecotherapy, including the use of horticulture and other people plant interactions in the therapeutic relationship.
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Bree Stark
Bree Stark lives in Walton County, Florida and currently works on an independent study research project to earn the horticultural therapy certification through the University of Florida's online program. Bree earned a BS in Agricultural Education and Communication through UF in 2012, completed the master gardener program and participated in volunteer opportunities from 2013-2015, and voraciously consumed writings on ecology, botany, psychology, environmental ethics, indigenous history and rights movements, food justice, permaculture and planetary reciprocity. Bree plans to create several horticultural for health ventures in the Northwest Panhandle of Florida, with special emphasis on clients with substance use disorder as well as those struggling through our collective grief over worldwide ecological collapse and climate disasters.
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Jessica Sullivan
Jessica Sullivan has worked for the University of Florida IFAS Extension in Osceola County since 2001, teaching horticulture and agriculture topics, with a current focus in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. She has a B.S. in Horticultural Therapy from Kansas State University and a M.S. in Entomology from the University of Florida.
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Daniela "Donna" Perez Lugones
Daniela 'Donna' Perez Lugones is a graduate student at the University of Florida, where she is earning her M.S. in Environmental Horticulture and Certificate in Horticultural Therapy. She has over 12 years of experience in the education field, including 4 years as an environmental science and gardening middle school teacher. Her master’s project combines her love for horticulture, food justice, and outreach through a citizen science experiment aimed at studying self-efficacy and satisfaction in home gardeners. She hopes to deepen her knowledge and passion for sustainable urban gardening and horticultural therapy for the purposes of developing local food security initiatives and creating restorative spaces for both people and the environment.
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Siang Yu Tham
Siang Yu Tham, MA, is an instructor in the Environmental Horticulture department at the University of Florida and program manager & research scholar at Wilmot Botanical Gardens. She received her Certificate in Horticultural Therapy from the University of Florida and is also a Certified Permaculture Designer. In 2019 she founded By Wind and Wave, a company in Singapore which conducts nature-based programs including guided walks and therapeutic horticulture programs. Siang is the editor of Cultivate, an epublication by FLHHN.
Sarah Sterling
Sarah Sterling is a Licensed Social Worker whose professional career has focused on adolescent mental health and well-being. As Associate Director of College Counseling and Coordinator of Educational Horticulture at The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, PA, she uses her training in horticultural therapy to identify innovative ways to connect students with the natural world, while teaching collaborative skills and self-regulation techniques that can be adapted to a variety of post-secondary settings. Sarah’s work emphasizes the benefits of school-based horticulture and the need to make gardening programs more accessible to students of all ages through the use of non-traditional activities and environments such as grave-gardening. Sarah is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and its Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and received her Certificate in Horticultural Therapy from the University of Florida.
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Weishunhua "Evey" Zhang
Weishunhua (Evey) Zhang is a second year MLA student at University of Florida pursuing a major in landscape architecture, providing her an opportunity to study therapeutic landscapes with connections to nature that can give back to the community through the healing process. Initially studying industrial design, her interest in health and design led to her current academic path, which continues to involve her love of art and design. She has been a member of the FLHHN advisory committee since 2021.
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