Q: How long have you worked at Rice?
A: I started in May of 2025.
Q: What is your favorite part about working for the university?
A: I like the fact that, in my position, no two days are ever the same. I, along with my great team, get to make Rice’s campus a beautiful place for students, staff and faculty to work. Also, the fact that the entire campus has been designated as the Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum provides a unique opportunity to have some interesting and uncommon plants on campus. I am working on plans for that with Cassidy Johnson, director of the LRLA, now. The upcoming years should be very exciting.
Q: What do you want people to know about living in Houston?
A: Houston is such an amazingly diverse city. There are so many awesome things to do around the city, from amazing places to eat and visit to catching a pro sports game. Houston has a little of everything for everyone.
Q: Would you share a bit about your background and career journey?
A: I have a bachelor’s degree in agriculture with a specialization in ornamental horticulture as well as a greenhouse management certification and my International Society of Arboriculture certification. I have worked as a landscape and irrigation installer and the manager of the landscape crew at a golf course listed in the top 100 in the United States early in my career to places such as Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, where I was the senior superintendent of horticulture, and the Houston Botanic Garden, where I was the associate director of conservation and natural areas. In recent years I have also become involved in several conservation initiatives with rare and endangered oaks, magnolias and other species.
Q: What do you do in your downtime?
A: I grew up on a farm in western Kentucky, so I have always been a huge nature enthusiast. My wife, Shannon, and I enjoy visiting our national parks and hiking on our vacations. I am also a nature photographer on the side. I enjoy taking all sorts of photos of the natural world and sharing them on my website or on my social media channels.
Q: What’s the most exciting time of year for you as it relates to Rice?
A: Probably spring and fall because, being a horticulturist by profession, that’s when the most exciting things are happening with plants. From spring-blooming trees and azaleas in the spring to changing leaf colors and cooler temperatures in the fall, that’s what it’s all about for me.
Q: What advice would you give to new employees?
A: Meet as many people as you can — and you will meet a lot — over the course of your first few weeks here, but don’t let it overwhelm you. You may feel like you are drinking from the firehose for a while, but it will get better. For me, it took about four months before I felt like I was starting to get my feet under me and began seeing how everything worked together to accomplish the big picture. Along the way, however, the culture of support and caring that exists here at Rice served me well as my co-workers were always quick to point me in the right direction or lend a helping hand.
Q: What’s the one thing that makes Rice special to you?
A: The rich history of Rice is so interesting and something I need to read up more on. So many interesting things have happened here and famous people have attended here. It is an honor to me to be a part of that continuing history and to try to leave my little mark by making the landscape more diverse and sustainable than I found it when I started. We need to think outside the box of live oaks and Asian jasmine.
Q: What’s your favorite memory from your time with Rice?
A: Well, since I’ve only been here a little over one year, I don’t have much to draw from, but probably just how helpful most everyone here at Rice is. People are generally quick to help or lend a friendly ear if one needs advice, and I very much appreciated that when I first started.
Q: Describe Rice in four words or less.
A: Historic, challenging, dynamic and fun.
Q: What else have we not talked about yet that merits discussion?
A: In my role as director of grounds and landscape design, I feel I have a unique opportunity to mirror the diversity of our city, student body, faculty and staff in the diversity of our landscape. Nature, as we have known it, is constantly under attack, be it by habitat destruction through development, climate change, invasive species or unfriendly governmental policy changes that seek short-term economic gain over nature’s and our health and well-being. This is very short-sighted thinking, and I hope that through my work here on campus and the Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum we can create a very diverse plant palette that strengthens the resilience of our landscape through its diversity. This is something I want to see Rice be a leader in, and I’m happy to try to lead that charge.