Ashby Leavell

Ashby Leavell hails from Charlottesville, Virginia. While pursuing a French major and a landscape architecture minor at the University of Virginia, Ashby served as the undergraduate representative on UVA’s Landscape and Arboretum Committee. Over the years ,Ashby worked in botanic gardens as a horticulturalist, educator and researcher at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, Kew Gardens in London, Tresco Abbey Gardens in Cornwall, UK and completed a master’s fellowship in botanic garden management with Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania and the University of Delaware. Next, for several years, Ashby honed fundraising skills in major gifts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art while advocating for Philadelphia urban parks. After working in Parks and Recreation with the City of Golden, Ashby is now pursuing a PhD in environmental studies and design at CU Boulder. Her research interests include horticulture, urban park development, green gentrification and gardens and wellbeing.