Rebecca McMackin
Rebecca McMackin is an ecologically obsessed horticulturist and garden designer. She writes, lectures, and teaches on ecological landscape management and pollination ecology, as well as designs the rare public garden. She is Lead Horticulturist for the American Horticultural Society and produces the monthly newsletter and podcast, Grow Like Wild! She believes gardening and public horticulture have big roles to play in creating a better world.
Rebecca spent a decade as Director of Horticulture of Brooklyn Bridge Park, where she managed 85 acres of diverse parkland organically. Their research into cultivating urban biodiversity and ethical management strategies has influenced thousands of people and entire urban parks systems to adopt similar approaches. Prior to moving to the woods of New England, Rebecca was Arboretum Curator at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx as well as an Associate with the Harvard Divinity School’s Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative.
She has been published by and featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Gardens Illustrated, on NPR and PBS. Her garden for the Brooklyn Museum recently won the PPA’s Award of Excellence and her TED Talk has been viewed over a million times. She holds MScs from Columbia University and University of Victoria in landscape design and biology and was a 2022 Loeb Fellows at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.