Executive Bios

Director and Ceo, NTBG
As Director and Ceo of NTBG since 2005, Wichman brings a renewed focus to NTBG’s conservation and horticulture efforts, concentrating on the threatened and endangered native Hawaiian plants, and the significant impact their loss would have on native Hawaiian culture.

For over 30 years, Wichman has brought his passion and dedication to the Garden and all of its programs. Graduating from its Horticultural Internship program, Wichman spent his early career developing Limahuli Garden. During this time, he obtained a Special Subzone designation in the Conservation District for the entire Limahuli Valley, restored ancient taro terraces, developed a collection of rare and endangered native Hawaiian plants and opened the garden to educational tours. He also oversaw the addition of the 989-acre Limahuli Preserve to the Garden. Under Wichman’s direction, the American Horticultural Society named Limahuli the Best Natural Botanical Garden in the United States.

Dedicated to protecting endangered native botanicals and preserving native Hawaiian culture through research and educational programs, Wichman has been able to fund extensive native habitat restoration work in the Limahuli Preserve through numerous grants. These conservation efforts continue today. In addition to his work in conservation and education, he has led efforts to perpetuate and preserve native Hawaiian culture. Recently he spearheaded a four-year Indigenous Communities Mapping Initiative Project at Limahuli, researching and documenting traditional cultural knowledge and land use relationships as well as perpetuating traditional practices within the native community.

Prior to serving as the organization’s Acting Director for nearly one and half years, Wichman served as Director of NTBG’s Limahuli Garden on Kaua‘i from 1994 to 2004 and also as Director of NTBG's Kahanu Garden on Maui from 1997 through early 2002.

Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, NTBG
Since 2004, Janet Mayfield has assumed the dual role as COO and CFO for NTBG. Originally joining the organization as controller from 1997 through 1999 and then as CFO in 2003, Mayfield, an enthusiastic conservationist and educator, brings extensive knowledge and experience to NTBG. In addition to overseeing all financial aspects of the institution, Mayfield oversees human resources and volunteer services, information technology, the publications, headquarters offices and visitors services for the South Shore gardens.

Mayfield has been a certified public accountant for more than 20 years. With a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a wide range of experience in management and finance for non-profit organizations, Mayfield continues to serve on the boards and advisory committees of other non-profits in the community. She has also been an instructor and lecturer at the local campus of the University of Hawai‘i.

Director of Science, NTBG
As senior research botanist for the organization, David Lorence, Ph.D. occupies the B. Evans Chair of Botany specializing in systematic studies of tropical plants, floristics, and invasive plant species. His systematic research focuses on Pacific and neotropical members of the large and diverse Rubiaceae family, which includes coffee, quinine, and gardenias. He also studies the Monimiaceae family of the Malagasy region and tropical America. In addition to his botanical research, Dr. Lorence directs the NTBG headquarters research library and herbarium, curates NTBG’s collections of Rubiaceae and of Zingiberales and serves on the board of the Heliconia Society International. He also acts as editor of Allertonia, NTBG’s series of occasional papers.

Dr. Lorence’s floristic research includes a multi-institutional collaboration on a "Vascular Flora of the Marquesas Islands," partial treatment of the Rubiaceae for "Flora Mesoamericana," and participation in a project to develop an annotated checklist of the plants of Pohnpei and Kosrae. His research on invasive species is specialized and includes restoration efforts targeting Hawaiian dryland forest and exotic species invasion in Mauritius’ wet forest communities. He has also carried out extensive fieldwork in Hawai‘i, Samoa, the Marquesas, Micronesia, New Caledonia, Mexico, and the Malagasy region.

Director of Education, NTBG
Dr. Namulau‘ulu Tavana directs and develops specialized educational programs at NTBG headquarters and its gardens in Hawai‘i and Florida. With diverse courses for biology college professors, K-12 science teachers, graduate tropical ethnobotany students, college and university horticulture majors, as well as environmental journalists, physicians and a variety of other healthcare professionals, Dr. Tavana’s course curricula captures a national and international audience. He also oversees NTBG’s numerous local Kaua‘i programs, public lecture series, K-12 school programs and university work-study programs.

Honored by the American Education Research Association (AERA) in 1995, Dr. Tavana received the most outstanding doctoral studies award. His research, entitled "Cultural Values and Education," analyzed indigenous peoples’ attitudinal and perspective conflicts generated by early European colonialism and technological proliferation. His profound research and award-winning article based on that study was published in the International Journal of Education Reform.

Director of the Breadfruit Institute, NTBG
An authority on the conservation and use of breadfruit, Diane Ragone, Ph.D., M.S. in Horticulture, has conducted horticultural and ethnobotanical studies on this important Pacific staple crop for over 20 years in nearly 50 tropical islands from the Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia. As a result, the world’s largest collection of breadfruit with its premier collection of over 120 varieties of breadfruit can now be found at NTBG’s Kahanu Garden in H_na, Maui. This collection is comprised of 264 trees and 201 accessions from 18 Pacific Island groups, including Indonesia, the Philippines and the Seychelles. The Breadfruit Institute was established in 2002 to promote the study and use of breadfruit for food, reforestation and sustainable agriculture.

Dr. Ragone oversees all breadfruit research projects, including describing and documenting the NTBG’s breadfruit collection; studying the nutritional and fruit quality of elite cultivars; studying the molecular makeup to understand taxonomic relationships, origin and distribution of breadfruit in the Pacific; developing in vitro methods to mass propagate breadfruit; studying the traditional uses of breadfruit; and determining the conservation status of breadfruit cultivars in Polynesia and Micronesia.

Director of Conservation/Director of Living Collections and Horticulture, NTBG
Joining NTBG in 2004 as director of conservation, Dr. David A. Burney brought with him an extensive background on endangered species, paleoenvironmental studies and causes of extinction as well as over 30 years of experience in conservation having worked for numerous organizations including the Wildlife Conservation Society, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, BBC Natural History Unit, National Museums of Kenya, United Nations Development Program, USDA, US Fish & Wildlife Service, and other organizations.

Dr. Burney is an associate scientist of the Louis Calder Conservation and Ecology Center and the Université d’Antananarivo (Madagascar), and an instructor in the Education Department of The New York Botanical Garden. Receiving his M.Sc. in conservation biology from the University of Nairobi (Kenya) and a Ph.D. in Zoology with a minor in Botany from Duke University, Dr. Burney has also authored over 100 scientific articles and monographs, many pertaining to the processes of extinction and environmental change. In addition, he is a research affiliate of the University of Hawai‘i, Université d’Antananarivo (Madagascar), University of Nairobi, and New York Botanical Garden. His research has been featured on National Geographic Television, Discovery Channel, Hawai‘i Public Television, NOVA, and National Public Radio.

Assistant Director, McBryde Garden and Allerton Garden, NTBG
Scott Sloan, assistant director of NTBG’s McBryde Garden and Allerton Garden, oversees the care and maintenance of the Gardens’ living collections and infrastructure, including the South Shore Visitors Center Garden and NTBG’s administration and research complex. Making horticulture his life’s work, Sloan’s botanical roots go deep with his family farm to running his own landscaping business. He graduated from NTBG’s Horticultural Internship Program while pursuing a horticultural degree in the University of California system in the late 1980s. This experience led to the development and institution of a special internship at Kahanu Garden in 1989. With a love for the Gardens, Sloan held various horticultural positions at the McBryde Garden until being promoted to assistant director in 1994. He is currently affiliated with the Landscape Industry Council of Hawai‘i and the Steering Committee of the Kaua‘i Landscape Industry Council.

Director, The Kampong, NTBG
David Lee assumed directorship of The Kampong in August 2007. Lee obtained M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Botany at Rutgers University, specializing in biochemical systematics. After a post-doctoral fellowship, he worked at the University of Malaya for a number of years. While in Malaysia he discovered the research questions in the functional ecology of tropical forest plants that occupied him for the next 35 years.

Most recently Lee has served as chairperson of the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida International University, where he has worked for 26 years. He helped establish a strong program in tropical botany at the university, serving as the founding chairperson of the Department of Environmental Studies. He currently continues as a professor at FIU.

Lee has conducted fieldwork throughout the tropics and in the Everglades, and has authored some 75 peer-reviewed articles and 7 books.

Director, Kahanu Garden, NTBG
Kamaui Aiona joined the NTBG as director of Kahanu Garden on Maui in January 2002. A trained ethnobotanist and a native Hawaiian, Aiona is fluent in the Hawaiian language and is dedicated to the preservation of native habitat and Hawaiian culture. He graduated with honors from the University of Hawai‘i, receiving two bachelor’s degrees in Natural Sciences and in Hawaiian Studies, a minor in Biology, and a Master’s in Hawaiian ethnobotany. His studies include the Hawaiian cultural uses of limu (marine algae) and land plants.

Director, Limahuli Garden and Preserve, NTBG
Kawika Winter joined the NTBG in 2005 as director of Limahuli Garden and Preserve. Born and raised in the ahupua‘a of Wai‘alae, Kona, O‘ahu, he grew up in the islands with the mountains and the ocean as his playground, which inspired him to study botany and pursue a career in conservation. With a bachelor’s and master’s degree in botany from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Winter is currently working on the completion of his Ph.D., which focuses on the reciprocal influences that cultures and plants have on each other’s evolutionary paths.

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