About our Speaker:​

Botanist Karen Clary, who specializes in plant conservation, education and taxonomy, has worked on  plant conservation in Texas for 25 years. Before retiring as Director of the Plant Conservation Program at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in 2017, she oversaw the Center’s native plant conservation program aimed at preserving common and rare Texas plant species in the Wildflower Center seed bank for future use, managing aggressive, invasive plants and stewarding rare and endangered Texas plant species.

Karen has a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Texas A&M University and a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of New Mexico. She also holds a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied speciation patterns, taxonomy and biogeography of yucca plants. While in New Mexico (1978-1988), she co-founded the Castetter Laboratory for Ethnobotanical Studies, a research lab devoted to the study of prehistoric subsistence and the origins of agriculture in the Southwestern United States.