Kathryn L. Kennedy, Ph.D., President and Executive Director

Kathryn L. Kennedy, Ph.D., President and
Executive Director

Dr. Kathryn Kennedy joined the Center for Plant Conservation as its president and executive director in September of 2000. The Center coordinates and assists the development of hands-on plant-conservation programs in a national network of 36 Participating Institutions. Kathryn coordinates the Center’s
work from the national office in St. Louis, ensuring scientific excellence and program development for the organization and
its institutions.

Dr. Kennedy earned her doctorate in systematics and evolution from the University of Texas at Austin and her Master of Science in plant ecology from New Mexico State University. Prior to coming to CPC, she spent 20 years working in plant conservation in Texas. She was the recovery botanist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Austin for nearly 10 years, she worked for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in rare-plant recovery planning and rare-plant monitoring, and she was one of the first employees at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Dr. Kennedy has served as the chairman of the
Non-Governmental Organization Committee of the Plant Conservation Alliance and the conservation chairman of the Botanical Society of America, and is a member of the IUCN Plant Conservation Committee.

Dr. Kennedy has been the winner of the Plant Conservation Alliance Achievement Award, the Texas Rare Plant Working Group Texas Plant Conservation Award, the Texas Native Plant Society’s Nancy Benedict Memorial Award and, most recently, the Garden Club of America's (GCA) Frances K. Hutchinson Medal, one of GCA's highest awards for conservation.