2026 Grant Program Advisory Committee

Shelley Belling

Newport Beach, CA

Belling, long active in Garden Conservancy activities in Southern California and elsewhere, was elected to our board of directors in 2014. She has been a member of the Garden Conservancy’s Society of Fellows since 2007, participating in several garden-study tours with the Fellows, and is also a member of the Conservancy’s West Coast Council. Shelley has served on many boards and committees of schools (most recently, the Yale Parent Fund), sailing organizations, decorative arts organizations, and local philanthropies.

Carlyn Ferrari

Kent, WA

Ferrari is an Associate Professor of English at Seattle University. Her first book, Do Not Separate Her from Her Garden: Anne Spencer's Ecopoetics (University of Virginia Press, 2022) is a study of poet and civil rights activist Anne Spencer's environmental ethos. In her research, she explores how Black women theorize the natural world and considers the intersections between Black feminist thought and literary ecocriticism. She is currently working on a project about Black women's gardens and gardening practices. She hails from the San Francisco Bay Area and holds a Ph.D. in Afro-American Studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Missy Fisher

Dallas, TX

Fisher is a partner of MJD Ventures, a Florida-based real estate holding company. She is a member of the Kennedy Center's National Committee for the Performing Arts, a sustaining member of the Junior League of Dallas (formerly she was underwriting chair and a member of the Nominating Committee), and she has served on the board of Community Partners of Dallas. Fisher is a graduate of Southern Methodist University and is the mother of two sons, William and Jack. She is married to Richard Fisher, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. They reside in Dallas and have homes in Vail, CO, and Jupiter Island, FL. The Fishers are members of the Dallas Country Club, Chevy Chase Club, and Eagle Springs Golf Club.

Kona A. Gray, FASLA, PLA

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Kona (Principal, EDSA) is a firm leader with 29 years of experience in more than 30 countries, whose global design and management sense has positively shaped the outcomes of many environments. His portfolio includes large-scale planning and detailed site design, with emphasis on communities, parks, hospitality, and urban and campus environments that solve meaningful issues. Currently, he serves as ASLA Representative to the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board and recently served as ASLA Vice President for Professional Practice. He is a Past President of the Landscape Architecture Foundation and an active member of the Urban Land Institute. Kona earned a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Georgia.

Evangelos Kotsioris

New York, NY

Kotsioris is the Director of the Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment and a Curator in the Department of Architecture & Design at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. His curatorial work has focused on making visible architecture’s ecological and societal dimensions across diverse contexts. At MoMA, he has recently organized the exhibitions The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower (2025–26), Down to Earth (2025–), Body Constructs (2024–), and Architecture Now: New York, New Publics (2023). He has spearheaded major acquisitions that have made visible architectural responses to climate precarity, Indigenous knowledge systems, and historically overlooked practices within the Museum’s collection. Kotsioris has taught architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, Barnard College, Princeton University, the Cooper Union, and Harvard University. He is the author of Kisho Kurokawa: Nakagin Capsule Tower (MoMA, 2025) and co-editor of Radical Pedagogies (MIT Press, 2022).

Ngoc Minh Ngo

Brooklyn, NY

Ngo is a celebrated photographer and the author of Bringing Nature Home, In Bloom, and Eden Revisited. Ngo’s images have been published in the World of Interiors, T Magazine, Architectural Digest, Cabana, and House & Garden UK. She is the recipient of the New York Botanical Garden Larry Lederman Landscape Photography Fellowship and the Land Place Spirit Award from Longhouse Reserve. In 2025, her book, Roses in the Garden, was published by Rizzoli, and she was the featured lecturer for the Garden Conservancy’s 2025 National Speaking Tour.

Charles Royce

Riverside, CT

Royce is a Senior Advisor at Royce Investment Partners after retiring from positions as President and CEO of the firm, which he founded in 1972. He received his bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1961 and a master's degree in business administration from Columbia in 1963. Chuck is a fellow emeritus of the Brown Corporation, served three terms as a trustee, has held many leadership positions, and continues to serve on the University's Investment Committee.

While not a gardener himself, Chuck has a keen appreciation for the great houses and gardens of the world. He dates his relationship with the Garden Conservancy to his close friendship with Tom and Daisy Wenzel. It was through Tom that Chuck met the Garden Conservancy founders, Frank Cabot and Tom Armstrong. Chuck and his wife, Deborah, a longtime trustee of the Garden Conservancy, have enjoyed many Fellows trips over the years, most especially the trip to Les Quatres Vents and the Cabot Property in Quebec.

Chuck serves on the boards of the Bruce Museum, The Frick Collection, the United Theatre in Westerly, RI, the Compass Rose Society, Berkeley Divinity School, and the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach.

Shobha Vanchiswar

Chappaqua, NY

Vanchiswar is an award-winning garden designer, artist, writer, and molecular biologist whose work blends scientific understanding with an artistic approach to landscape design. She is known for creating ecologically sustainable gardens that provide year-round beauty through thoughtful use of texture, structure, and seasonal interest. Her own garden has received widespread recognition and has been featured in Garden Design and Westchester Magazine.

In addition to her design practice, Vanchiswar is an accomplished watercolor artist and educator. Through her website, SeedsofDesign.com, she writes about horticulture, naturalistic landscapes, and sustainable gardening. She has opened her private garden through the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program for more than 15 years and continues to lecture, exhibit her artwork, and promote climate-resilient gardening. A dedicated community volunteer, Vanchiswar has served with the Friends of the Chappaqua Library, the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and the Clinton Foundation’s HIV treatment fundraising initiatives in India, reflecting her lifelong commitment to service, education, and environmental stewardship.

Edwina von Gal

East Hampton, NY

A leading voice in sustainable gardening and landscape design, von Gal founded the Perfect Earth Project in 2013 to promote ecological, toxic-free landcare for the health of people, their pets, and the planet. As principal of her eponymous landscape design firm, Edwina created landscapes with a focus on simplicity, sustainability, and beauty for private and public clients around the world. Her work has been published widely, including in The New York Times, Vogue, and Architectural Digest. She is the author of the award-winning book, Fresh Cuts. In 2024, she was named one of the top 50 Creatives in America by Wallpaper magazine. She has served on boards and committees for a number of

horticultural organizations and currently serves on the board of What Is Missing, Maya Lin’s multifaceted media artwork about the loss of biodiversity, and Longue Vue’s National Council. She is a member of the Native Plant Trust’s Council. Her awards include the LongHouse Visionary Award from LongHouse Reserve, the New York School of Interior Design’s Green Design Award, the Isamu Noguchi Award, and Guild Hall's Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for the Visual Arts.

Alan Zeigler

Birmingham, AL

Alan recently retired from a distinguished career in public finance and tax-exempt securities law. He is content to be an armchair gardener and avid reader of garden books, how-to-garden books, and new and antique books on botanical illustrations. A Birmingham native, Alan resides in a charming Cotswold-like stone cottage built in 1930 and designed by the Philadelphia-born architect David Oliver Whilldin. His connection to the well-known Birmingham Botanical Gardens is that the stone of which his home is made was taken from a now-defunct quarry that is the present site of the Gardens' Fern Glade. His small garden includes hellebores, trillium, and native phlox as well as a few hardy herbs and whatever bulbs the squirrels will allow. Active with the Garden Conservancy, he has been a Fellow since 2018, frequently participating in Fellows Tours. In May 2024, Zeigler hosted a brunch for board members and special guests during Birmingham Garden Weekend, demonstrating his commitment to fostering the local gardening community.