Faculty & Staff
Chris Grampp
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Department Chair
Teaches: Landscape Design
Chris is a licensed landscape architect in California (#2499). He has taught design and construction at the Merritt College Department of Landscape Horticulture since 1986, and has over 25 years experience in residential and public landscape design. Chris has a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, and has also taught at the University of California Berkeley, UC Extension, and Diablo Valley College. His articles have appeared in Landscape Magazine and The Meanings Of Gardens (MIT Press), and his book the “From Yard to Garden: The Domestication of America’s Home Grounds” was published by the Center For American Places and the University of Chicago Press in 2008.
Tom Branca
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Teaches: Introduction to Horticulture
Special Projects in Horticulture
Urban Community Gardening
My educational pursuits began after serving four years in the navy during the Vietnam War. Upon being discharged I attended Laney College where after 3 years I earned an AS degree in computer science/data processing. During my last semester there I was introduced to the wonderful world of plants so I continued my education at Cal State Hayward in the Biology Dept. Another year and then I transferred to UC Berkeley where I received my BS in Botany. Into the world as a grower at a local wholesale nursery soon sent me back to school to continue graduate studies in horticulture at UC Davis. I graduated UC Davis in June of 1980 and was hired by the Landscape Horticulture Dept. at Merritt College.
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Lawrence Lee
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Full Time Instructor
Teaches: Nursery Management, Introduction to Horticulture, Plant Terminology Plant ID, Garden Maintenance
I started gardening when I was 7 years old and everyone thought it was just a phase, but I have never stopped growing plants and creating gardens! My love of plants led me to a degree in Botany at UC Berkeley, classes in Horticulture at UC Davis and then a Masters in the Longwood Graduate Program at the University of Delaware. Horticulture has been a wonderful profession which has included working for several botanical gardens, nurseries, starting my own rare plant business, and doing garden consulting. From plant exploring in China & South Africa and working at the U.S. National Arboretum and the U.C.
Botanical Garden I have come to appreciate the awesome diversity of plants. I have also worked at Berkeley Horticultural Nursery, grown and sold rare plants at the San Francisco Flower Show and lectured widely on plants and gardens. Most recently, I’ve had the pleasure of helping others create gardens, greenhouses & conservatories and to practice sustainable horticulture. Most of all I love growing plants and talking about them. And, now, as a new faculty member in the Landscape Horticulture Department, I get to talk about plants and gardens all day! My specialties are succulents, sub-tropicals, beautiful, strange and wonderful herbaceous plants, and greenhouse/nursery management, but I have also grow bonsai, rock garden plants, orchids, rare fruits and vegetables, and love to prune just about anything. I am excited to become part of the Merritt Horticulture Community and look forward teaching and talking about plants and gardens with everyone.
Part-time Instructors
Michael Alliger
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Teaches: Introduction to Aesthetic Pruning
The Art of Pruning Deciduous Trees & Shrubs
Finding the Essence of a Tree
Pruning Flowering Trees and Shrubs
Pruning Maples
The Art of the Focal Point Tree
Pruning for the Big Picture
Pruning Conifers
Pruning Japanese Gardens
The Art of Tree & Shrub Reduction
Aesthetic Pruning as a Career
Suzanne Arca
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Teaches: Plant ID and Planting Design
SUZANNE ARCA, B. A. Landscape Architecture, is a Horticulturist, Landscape Designer, and contractor with 30 years experience in the field. She is owner and principal of Suzanne Arca Design, a Bay Area Landscape Design/Build firm. She is also a teacher in the Landscape Architecture Department at U.C. Berkeley extension.
Jayvan Arsdale
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Daiku Dojo
Teaches: Woodworking and Joinery in the Garden
Susan Ashley
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Teaches: Nursery Management
Plant Propagation
Advanced Plant Propagation
I am a part time instructor teaching LH24 Plant Propagation and LH52 Advanced Propagation. I began at Merritt as a Horticulture Student in 1979, and basically never left. For 16 years I grew the plants for the Department Plant Sales; several years ago I made the shift to teaching. LH 24 is a popular class. Almost everyone enjoys growing plants. I certainly do.
Nik Bertulis
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Teaches: Regenerative design
Dams to Greywater
Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Nik earned a degree in Ecological Design from Colorado College in 1998. He has worked for a wide range of professionals in the ecological arena including, The Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, Buster Simpson, Living Structures, and Earth Corps. In 1999 he co-founded Monsoon Arsenal, an award winning design/build collective that worked in Natural Building and environmental art in S. Carolina, Texas and New Mexico. Nik’s current obsession is with integrated water systems and ecological sanitation. He also teaches Natural Building and freelances as an Ecological Designer when he’s not digging in his garden or riding his bike.
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Ed Brennan
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Teaches: Soil Management & Plant Nutrition and related classes. Ed a soil scientist and received his degrees from Colorado State University (B.S. in Soil and Water Conservation and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Soil Chemistry). His past research has included studies in iron and phosphorus plant nutrition, heavy metal chemistry in soils, and carbon cycling in tropical forest ecosystems (Guatemala) for which he received a Fulbright Scholarship. Currently, he instructs Soil Management, Plant Nutrition, Management of Bay Area Gardens, and Horticultural Hydroponics at Merritt College. In addition he is an adjunct instructor in chemistry at Las Positas College in Livermore. Ed spends part of the year at his home in Peten, Guatemala.
Bill Castellon
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Teaches: Rocks in the Landscape
Introduction to Bonsai
Pruning Pines
Pruning Container Trees and Shrubs
Joycelyn Cohen
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Teaches: Arboriculture
Although I have pursued a variety of careers my underlying interests have not changed as an ecologist, an artist and a passionate advocate for trees. In the 1970’s I participated in the ”back to the earth” movement and combined a publishing endeavor with subsistence living on a 10-acre farm in Indiana. I restored the farmland to native habitat and worked for many years to balance land restoration with having an organic garden, a raspberry business and the publishing business.
After receiving graduate and undergraduate degrees in the arts and several careers later, I began classes in horticulture at City College of San Francisco, which led me to a gardener position for the National Park Service; at last I perceived my true calling, taking care of trees in an urban landscape. I started classes at Merritt College including the Aesthetic Pruning series. I also received the Garden Design Certificate at UC Berkeley and became a Certified Arborist. I apprenticed with Dennis Makishima, a renowned aesthetic pruner who guided me on a journey integrating my art, craft, aboriculture and urban forestry expertise and skills.
Besides teaching Arboriculture, my own business, Poetree Landscapes & Arboriculture combines tree care and preservation with aesthetic pruning, garden design and landscape restoration. I serve on the Urban Forest Council for the City of San Francisco, an advisory board to the Mayor and Board of Supervisors, and a Board member on the San Francisco Tree Council, which works to protect and preserve trees on public and private property.
Peter Churgel
Pete’s website
Email
Teaches: The Art of the Wisteria
LH-026 Pruning
Gardening was always a passion and grew to include bonsai and Japanese gardens. While a Master Gardener I enjoyed passing on my knowledge helping others solve their gardening problems. Finding out about the Aesthetic Pruning program, I went to check it out, and was thoroughly hooked! I took all the Aesthetic Pruning classes, then helped Michael Alliger train his ’hands-on’ group and assisted the LH 26 Pruning class.
Encouraged to get involved at the school and teach, I developed a class about a subject I loved and ‘The Art of the Wisteria’ was born. I eventually took over the LH 26 Pruning Class from Michael. I am a Certified Arborist, I’ve earned the Aesthetic Pruning Award and I’m active in the Merritt College Pruning Club. I enjoy taking hikes and bike rides with my wife.
Marisha Farnsworth
Marisha Farnsworth teaches ecological building at Merritt College in her home town, Oakland, CA where she works with students to design and build small structures made of earth, straw, bamboo and recycled materials. In addition to co-founding The Natural Builders, a contracting company based in the East Bay, Marisha has conducted research and design and has traveled to work on projects for organizations including Builders Without Borders, Architecture for Humanity, and Kleiwerks International. She is currently co-directing, Urban Biofilter, a bourgeoning non-profit that designs, implements and advocates for green infrastructure in environmentally degraded urban communities.
Mary Fisher
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Mary Fisher Garden Design
Teaches: Landscape Design
Mary has been co-teaching the Landscape Design class (LH18/22 A & B) with Chris Grampp for four years, and teaching Planting Design (LH29) for two years. While working as a graphic designer, Mary began studying horticulture in the early 1990s at Foothill College and then continued at Merritt, eventually getting three certificates in Landscape Horticulture and Design. She is a Certified Landscape Designer with the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) and currently serves on the APLD East Bay board of directors. Mary has over ten years of experience in landscape design, installation and maintenance with her business Mary Fisher Garden Design (www.maryfishergardendesign.com).
Sharon Gibson
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Teaches: Plant Terminology and CAD
Horticulture is my third and hopefully final career. Starting as a librarian, I worked for many years as a computer systems analyst, but felt increasingly disconnected from what is true and real. For me, gardening is literally a grounding experience that can transform our lives, and I wanted to share that experience with others. This desire took me to the certificate program in Landscape Architecture at UC Berkeley Extension, and then here to Merritt for much-needed horticulture classes. And while assisting Chris Grampp with the CAD class, I discovered a love for teaching! So now my time is divided between teaching responsibilities, a small landscape design business, and plenty of volunteer work. I’m very honored to be associated with the Landscape Horticulture Department, and the people who inhabit this bit of time-space, because there is a kind and gentle spirit here found few other places. I hope you will consider joining our community!
Pete Gumas
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Teaches: Turf Grass Management
Bob Hornback
Teaches: Plant Materials: Ornamental Grasses and Designing with Ornamental Grasses
Dr. Glenn Keator
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Teaches: Plant ID
Plant Terminology
Designing with Natives
Taxonomy
Glenn is a free-lance botanist, teacher, and writer. Besides teaching part-time at Merritt College, he teaches at Strybing Arboretum, Regional Parks Botanic Garden (Tilden), and California Academy of Science. Courses at Merritt include Mediterranean and advanced natives, and conifers i.d. courses, and a new course this fall on designing gardens for natives. His primary interest is California natives, their identification and garden uses. Glenn’s books include Plants of the East Bay Parks , In Full View: Three Ways of Seeing California Plants , and the The Life of an Oak: an Intimate Portrait. A new book from UC Press, Trees of the San Francisco Bay Region, is due out next year.
Ken Litchfield
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Teaches:
Mushroom Cultivation
Growing And Using Healthful Herbs
Beneficial Beasts in the Garden and Landscape
Ken Litchfield is a naturalist with a professional background working and teaching in science, writing, technical illustration, computer graphics, photography, and human health and fitness. He consults, instructs, and trains at various organizations and institutions and lives and works on a farm. In the Landscape Horticulture Department at Merritt Community College Ken teaches Mushroom Cultivation, Beneficial Beasts in the Garden and Landscape, and Growing and Using Healthful Herbs, each with beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels, A, B, and C. These classes are electives toward the Landhort Permaculture Certificate.
Ken prefers teaching the ecological relationships of the three macro kingdoms of Plants, Animals, and Fungi with the celestial kingdom for sunlight, rain, and gravity and the mineral kingdom for minerals, compost, and the microfloralfaunalfungal organisms that ferment nutritional amalgams to feed the whole system that is manipulated by the human gardenfarmanager symbionts so no poisonous pesticides are ever needed because everything is diversified and shared in the pursuit of happiness, health, and wealth rather than monocultured and commoditied for immediate gratification.
David McGinnis
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Teaches: Construction, Irrigation, Site Operations
I started my contracting business in 1976 doing maintenance gardening. My goal as a landscape contractor was to learn how to do everything that comprised the business of building a garden: design, all the different trades necessary for the work, and the interaction with the client. I teach Landscape Construction, Irrigation, Irrigation Troubleshooting, and Horticultural Equipment. I can tell you about the contractor’s exam, how to cook lunch on the job, how to work in the dark, and much much more.
Jane Miller
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Teaches: Plant ID
Jane is a horticulturist and partner in the Landscape Architecture firm of 2M Associates in Berkeley that has been in business since 1981, specializing in garden design and park, open space and recreational trail planning. She teaches various plant identification classes at Merritt and has been doing so since the late 1980s. She also teaches plant identification /planting design classes at UC Berkeley Extension. She has taught classes in the Landscape Architecture Department at UC Berkeley, San Francisco Botanical Gardens at Strybing Arboretum, Foothill College, and co-taught planting design at UC Davis for 10 years. Her work has been published in Garden Design, Sunset Magazine, and Better Homes and Gardens. And Jane really, really likes plants!
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Clytia Montllor Curley
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Teaches: Insects
Clytia Montllor Curley received her PhD from UC Berkeley (Entomology, 1985); she was a research entomologist at the university and in industry for almost 20 years. Her research interests focused on many aspects of insect-plant interactions. She has also been teaching part-time since 1994, and in 2006 retired from a UC Berkeley research position in order to continue teaching at Merritt and Laney Colleges, UC Extension, and Cal State East Bay.
Yuki Nara
Teaches: The Art of the Laceleaf Maple
Ann Northrup
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Ann’s Website
Teaches: Plant Diseases
Richard Orlando
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Teaches: Weeds, History of Gardens
Sandy Purcell
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Teaches: Integrated Pest Management
Sandy Purcell teaches a short course on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for ornamental landscapes. He is an emeritus professor of entomology at UC Berkeley, where he taught general entomology and pest management and did research on insects in relation to plant disease. He is a co-author of the entomology textbook, “Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity” (Oxford University Press).
Ellyn Shea
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Teaches: Arborist, Exam Study
Ellyn Shea has over 10 years experience in horticulture and arboriculture and has been an ISA Certified Arborist for over 7 years. She developed the Tree Care Program at Friends of the Urban Forest in San Francisco and continues to teach arboriculture to citizens and professionals. She taught an ISA Arborist Exam Study Series at Merritt in the summer of 2009. Current projects include a variety of surveys, reports and management plans for Tree Management Experts in San Francisco, and two instructional videos about pruning available at www.powerlearning21.com in the home and garden section. Visit her blog at www.treelearning.blogspot.com.
Christopher Shein
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Wild Heart Gardens
Teaches: Permaculture
Christopher Shein has been a Permaculture designer and gardener in the East Bay since 1993, starting many gardens for schools, homeless centers, backyards, and community gardens. He’s been teaching at Merritt’s LH Dept. (look for Permaculture Design, LH 028) for 7 years. He’s now self-employed with Wildheart Gardens (see www.wildheartgardens.com) with some current projects in Oakland including a homeless senior edible and native garden and a Native American women’s drug recovery edible and native garden. A question I am often asked is, what is Ecological Gardening and why should I care? Our planet is in ecological crisis with global warming and resources running out. What are you going to do when the era of cheap oil is over? Can your garden withstand next year’s big drought? What if there was an earthquake and there was no food from the grocery store? See some positive, eco-friendly gardening you can do to help your family, friends and community.
Patricia St. John
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Patricia St. John loves plants! Almost as much as she loves teaching about them at Merritt College. She started out working in a nursery in Los Altos and quickly realized she didn’t know very much. So she enrolled at Foothill College and earned her AS degree in environmental horticulture. During her college days she became assistant manager of an organic garden supply store and education center. She then started St. John Landscapes and has been designing gardens for the past 14 years . She has completed around 350 garden designs on both sides of the San Francisco Bay and has had several of her gardens featured on garden tours, including a Bay Friendly Garden Tour and an APLD garden tour. Two of her gardens have received international design awards, one garden has been featured in the new Sunset Backyard Garden Guide, and another garden was featured in San Francisco Chronicle and Nov., 2010 issue of Sunset Magazine. Patricia is a California Certified Nursery Professional and a Certified Professional Landscape Designer. In 2010 she served as President of the (international) Association of Professional Landscape Designers. Patricia lives in Berkeley with Martin, her nurseryman husband.
Stewart Winchester
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Teaches: Plant ID, Plant Terminology, Taxonomy, Natural Landscape Interpretation
Laura Forlin
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Teaches: Introduction to Horticulture, Arboriculture
Laura has a background in public health, began taking classes at Merritt College in 2001. She went through the landscape design series and the aesthetic pruning series, opening her own business in landscape design and maintenance in 2004. She went back to school again, in 2008, at UC Davis and received her MS degree in Horticulture and Agronomy in 2010, with an emphasis on plant physiology and arboriculture. She is currently a doctoral student at UC Davis in the Horticulture and Agronomy Graduate Group. Her current research has application in urban forestry. Laura has taught both taxonomy (plant ID) labs and arboriculture labs at UC Davis for the past 2 years, and teaches both Introduction to Horticulture and Arboriculture at Merritt College. She continues to run her business on a part-time basis. Laura is a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) and International Society of Arboriculture (ISA).
Kenneth Grey
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Teaches: Cycles of Land Use
Susan E. Miller
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Teaches: Sketch-Up; Advanced Design
Kay Wolff
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Teaches: Floral Design
Kay is a Certified Floral Designer (CFD), a California Certified Florist (CCF), a member of the American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD), and a certified teacher (Hokei) of the Sogetsu school of Ikebana. She received a certificate in Retail Floristry from San Francisco City College and has been an active designer in the floral community for over 20 years. Kay continues to celebrate her love of flowers and design in her business, Making Arrangements Floral Design, in Berkeley. See her most recent designs on her business page on facebook or at makingarrangements.com.
Chris Ingram
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Teaches: Aesthetic Pruning (Fee Based)
Staff
Molly Sealund
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Science Technician
510-436-2491
I began my career in Horticulture in 1987 at SFCC, and moved mid year to Oakland and completed the Merritt College Landscape Horticulture Nursery Management Program.
I have enjoyed learning from some great instructors here at the 7.5 acre garden.
I am now a full time Science Technician for the Grounds maintenance, Greenhouses operations, Lath house and Nursery maintenance here at the college.
Some of my favorite classes are Weeds, Insects, and Urban Community Gardening. I enjoy working with students and creating learning opportunities for those seeking a hands on experience.
I have been involved in many plant sales and enjoy the community that we cultivate here at the top of the hill.
Anders Vidstrand
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Science Technician
I grew up with plants; my father’s vegetable garden at every house we rented, the wild plants of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts where I lived and visiting botanical gardens around Arizona and California. I earned a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies at UC Berkeley focusing on environmental design and vernacular design, writing my thesis on education. In the Summers I took woodworking and welding aat Laney College and longed to use my hands and my mind together. I worked the last few years at UCB as the lab technician for the architecture wood and metal shop at College of Environmental Design, and for their facilities remodel. Around this time I began rekindling my interest in plants; worked as a substitute teacher and a farm tour guide and started a garden from scratch at Barrel Springs Ranch in the Mojave Desert. I have engulfed myself in plants and gardening ever since. I worked as a Fire Lookout for the Forest Service in Arizona and then as caretaker for the Peralta Hacienda in Oakland.
I moved back to Oakland to study at the Merritt College Landscape Horticulture Department. Within a year I went from being a student, to working as a summer intern, to being hired as part time science technician. My interests here are in Permaculture and organic gardening and urban agriculture and rare fruit growing. I align myself with the growing urban agriculture and food justice movement and want to further Merritt College’s involvement with that movement. I spend the hours of my job maintaining the grounds and facilities, supporting labs, and growing as many plants as possible. I spend my free time as a propagation volunteer and maintaining my 1/2+ acre urban homestead with my roommates in East Oakland.
Janet Zepel
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Landscape Horticulture Administrative Assistant
Since 2004 I have enjoyed being a part of the educational process here at the Landscape Horticulture program, both as a student and an employee. As a result of what I have learned here, I now have a part-time business as a landscape designer, have gained valuable experience working in retail nurseries, and have a vegetable & fruit garden in my backyard that provides food for our table every day of the year.
I like helping students connect with the resources we offer, and working with the faculty to enhance the learning experience. This department is great place to work, study, and spend time with some terrific people who know and love plants and gardens.