2006 Educational Conference - Award Winners

For award descriptions, see the Awards page.

Helen de Conway Little Medal of Honor

Joyce Brobst

This award will be presented to HSA past president Joyce Brobst, for her strong support of The Society and its goals. Joyce’s insight, wisdom and leadership ability were key to her successful term as president. Most importantly, she never hesitates to educate. Not only does she teach college level environmental science, biology and botany courses, but she regularly lectures on her favorite herb, pelargoniums. Joyce’s most recent endeavor was a presentation on “Witness Trees” of the Civil War, complete with her own pictures.

Nancy Putnam Howard Award for Horticultural Excellence

Jane Haynes

Jane is the epitome of this award, with her knowledge and lifelong love of herbs and her ability to inspire thousands of gardeners in the Southwest. Jane teaches classes, leads tours, writes articles as well as herb fact sheets, consults, mentors and serves as a political advocate for plants. She has been heavily involved with designing, planting, and maintaining seven gardens throughout Arizona, as well as working with the Western Reserve Herb Society’s garden in Cleveland, Ohio, when she lived there. Jane has been a constant source of guidance, leadership and friendship to the Arizona Herb Association. Jane’s favorite herbal plants are those used in making dyes.

Joanna McQuail Reed Award for the Artistic Use of Herbs

Susan Belsinger

This award recognizes Susan’s artistic abilities as expressed through her herbal culinary creations, lectures, programs, workshops, and editorial and pictorial contributions. Audiences are captivated by her artistic use of herb flavors, scents, colors, and textures in her creations. Susan Belsinger, a nationally recognized culinary educator and her lively and upbeat programs are a delight to attend. She is a true artist in the kitchen.

Certificates of Achievement

Sandy de Holl

Sandy de Holl has been a very active member of the Philadelphia Unit since 1981, as well as a past membership delegate for the Mid-Atlantic District. We especially want to recognize her tireless work for the National Herb Garden. She was chairperson of the National Herb Garden Committee from 1999 through 2005, celebrating both the 20th and 25th anniversaries of the garden. As part of the 25th anniversary, Sandy initiated, organized, and implemented the successful “25 for 25” campaign drive which raised over $25,000.00 for the National Herb Garden endowment.

Gertrude Burdsall

Gertrude Burdsall’s life has been entwined with herbs for more than 70 years. In 1957, she was a founding member of the Herb Associates of Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, MA. This group was formed to make herb products to sell to support the gardens, and Gertrude continues to meet with them every Tuesday, May through October. In 2001, the Garden Club of America gave her an award as “....an enthusiastic, hard worker and a tireless contributor, valued for her expertise in horticulture and herbs”. She has been instrumental in organizing herb symposiums, fairs, luncheons and herb lectures which have been televised to reach a larger audience.

Lola Cleavinger

Lola Cleavinger has a curiosity and interest in herbs that she shares with everyone, particularly children. At the Topeka Rescue Mission after school tutoring program, Lola teaches gardening, geography and science, all involving plants and nature, to disadvantaged, transient children. She recently gave several presentations highlighting Meriweather Lewis’s mother Lucy, who collected, grew and used medicinal herb plants. Lola regularly contributes articles on the herb of the year to The Topeka Capitol Journal.

Certificate of Appreciation

Betty Cleghorn  

Betty Cleghorn is being recognized for her contributions to many public gardens throughout Connecticut. She designed and continues to oversee the herb garden that was built at Elizabeth Park, the oldest public rose garden in the United States, in Hartford, Connecticut. She designed the herb garden at the Lyme Public Library, and has worked there and at the Florence Griswold Museum garden. For 12 years, Betty has also worked at the York Correctional Institute Herb Garden in Niantic, Connecticut, instructing prisoners on the care of the garden.

Corine Levien

Since becoming a member of the Pioneer Unit in 1997, Corine Levien has devoted her efforts to the unit’s annual Herbal Forum: promoting, organizing, and scheduling workshops all year, and creating herbal products to sell. She sets up, stocks, runs the gift shop, takes down the shop, and stores any remaining products. The money raised at the Forum helps support the Pioneer Unit and a university level botany scholarship for Texas residents.

Jane Dunn

At 91 years young, Jane Dunn has made her mark in the herbal world with edible plant foraging. She is most famous for her “Weed Walks” in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Jane, a nurse by profession and an herbalist by avocation, assisted in the horticultural therapy program at a local adult day care center, instantly becoming a role model for those in the program