Lucinda McDade joined Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (dba California Botanic Garden, CalBG) in 2006 as the Judith B. Friend Director of Research and chair of the Botany Department at Claremont Graduate University. Since 2012, she has also served as the Garden’s Executive Director. She also serves as the Chair of the Botany Department at Claremont Graduate University (CGU) which collaborates with CalBG to offer a graduate program in the plant sciences.
McDade’s research focuses on the large and charismatic plant family Acanthaceae, on the role of hybridization in plant evolutionary history and phylogeny reconstruction, and on plant reproductive biology. She has conducted extensive field work including throughout the Americas, South Africa, Namibia and Madagascar. She has also worked extensively in herbaria in western Europe and elsewhere. McDade’s work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, Andrew Mellon Foundation, Fletcher Jones Foundation, and more. She has conducted numerous NSF-funded research projects, including curation and preservation of plant collections, understanding constraints on floral evolution, comparative biology in a phylogenetic age, and harnessing the power of herbaria to understand the changing flora of California. McDade has been an invited speaker at many venues including universities and professional conferences.
Before joining CalBG and CGU, McDade was professor and herbarium curator at the University of Arizona from 1992 to 2000, then served as associate curator and chair of botany at the Academy of Natural Sciences until 2006. McDade’s appointments and honors include recipient of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Award from the American Horticultural Society; Merit Award honoree, Botanical Society of America (2013); recipient of the Asa Gray award, American Society of Plant Taxonomists (2019); president, American Society of Plant Taxonomists (2003–2004); Melinda F. Denton Memorial Lecturer, University of Washington (1998); president, Association for Tropical Biology (1995); and membership in Sigma Xi (1980). She served two terms, ending in 2022, as treasurer of the Botanical Society of America (BSA), the largest professional society of plant scientists in the United States. McDade serves on the Board of Trustees of the Center for Plant Conservation and has been a member of the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board.
The August 23 webinar at 7 pm Eastern is hosted by the American Horticultural Society and Holly Shimizu, former executive director of the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. and an AHS board member, who will lead a lively and engaging conversation with speakers that will tap into their knowledge and experience. The interactive program format will allow audience members to ask questions of the guests.
Registration is free. RSVP is required. Visit www.ahsgardening.org to sign up.
