One of the highest honors among the public garden academic community is being named a Chanticleer Scholar. This accolade was recently bestowed upon by Whitney Costner, a member of the Bok Tower Gardens team.
The Chanticleer Scholarship in Professional Development promotes creativity and leadership by providing professional development opportunities for public garden staff. Established in 2008, the Scholarship has supported 63 public garden professionals from gardens of all types and sizes. It has two core components, academic study to improve leadership skills and support of travel to meet with leaders to build on that academic experience. Each Scholar has the opportunity to visit other gardens, including Chanticleer, a 47-acre pleasure garden in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Whitney Costner is a Conservation Biologist with the Rare Plant Conversation Program and will complete a graduate certificate program in Ecological Restoration at the University of Florida. She shared some of her research on the recent blog The Anatomy of a Burn 41 Days Later. Whitney has also contributed her research on the possible connection between Ziziphus fruit and gopher tortoises in The Garden Path magazine.
Congratulations Whitney and we look forward to you sharing more of your research.
Learn more about the Chanticleer Scholar Program