Nan McCarry has been fascinated with plant domestication and plant genetic resources since learning about them during graduate work in geography at the University of Texas. For her master’s thesis she conducted research on traditional home gardens in Ciudad Vieja, Guatemala. She was a stay-at-home mom for quite some time and devoted herself to volunteering and to environmental education, while continuing to take coursework in botany, genetics, complex systems, and other science topics.
For six years she facilitated Landscape for Life classes around Loudoun County, Virginia. Currently she enjoys working at Watermark Woods Native Plants in Hamilton, Va. At home in Lucketts, Va. she and her husband work on on converting three acres to a native food forest. Nan works on various projects with crop wild relatives and plant genetic resources, which you can read about on this website. Her love of conservation and agriculture was fostered by growing up on a local farm.
Plants & People 