Denver Botanic Gardens announced today it has hired Sarada Krishnan as Director of Horticulture and Roberta Tolan as Director of Education and Interpretation. Krishnan will be responsible for directing the design and maintenance of the horticulture gardens and collections, and Tolan will develop and implement the education and interpretation programs at Denver Botanic Gardens. Both directors will ensure that all programs and objectives are aligned with the Gardens' mission of connecting people with plants.

"Both Sarada and Roberta have a remarkable record of accomplishments in Colorado's horticulture industry," said Harold R. Logan, chairman of Denver Botanic Gardens' board of trustees. "Their experience will provide an excellent foundation for new and exciting opportunities at the Gardens, and their vast knowledge will ensure effective leadership for staff and volunteers."

Krishnan has 18 years of extensive experience in conservation and horticulture programs. She joins the Gardens after six years at the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, Colo., where she was the Director of Horticulture and Conservation. At the Butterfly Pavilion, she supervised the horticulture department and developed numerous conservation, community outreach and educational programs, all with a focus on connecting people with plants and wildlife. Prior to the Butterfly Pavilion, Krishnan worked at Tagawa Greenhouses Inc. in Brighton, Colo., where she served as a Plant Tissue Culture Consultant and as a Production Planner. At Tagawa, she designed plant tissue culture experiments and developed educational programming. She also coordinated research on perennial seed germination and planned crop programs and scheduling at Tagawa as a Research Associate of Colorado State University's Department of Bio Agricultural Sciences. Krishnan also served as Research Director at Colorado Cuttings in Lafayette, Colo., where she started a new tissue culture lab and was responsible for coordinating research on a number of ornamental crops.

Krishnan has a bachelor's degree in horticulture from TamilNaduAgriculturalUniversity in Coimbatore, India, and a master's degree in horticulture from ColoradoStateUniversity. Krishnan is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in conservation biology at the University of Colorado. She was the recipient of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's 2006 Diversity Advancement Award, and she represented the Association of Zoological Horticulture at the North American Botanic Garden Strategy for Plant Conservation implementation meeting in 2005.

Tolan joins the Gardens after seven years as the Horticulture Extension Educator at Colorado State University Cooperative Extension in LarimerCounty, where she led the effort to build the County's master gardener and home horticulture programs. She also initiated many new horticulture and education programs including a youth gardening program, a volunteer Tree Team and an educational series for local gardeners. Prior to CSU, Tolan worked in the Forestry and Parks division of the Town of Windsor, where she developed the town's first Park Master Plan and coordinated the building of the Poudre River Trail. Additionally, Tolan was a graduate teaching assistant at ColoradoStateUniversity's Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, where she conducted research on the growth and water requirements of newly transplanted trees grown under different production methods.

Tolan has a bachelor's degree in marketing from the University of Illinois, an M.B.A. from GeorgiaStateUniversity and a master's degree in landscape horticulture from ColoradoStateUniversity. She is also a certified arborist with the International Society of Arboriculture, and she serves on the board of directors for both the International Society of Arboriculture/Rocky Mountain Chapter and the Loveland Youth Gardeners.

Krishnan will begin her position on June 1 and Tolan will begin on June 8.