NEIGHBORnwork
Kirsten Conrad
Arling�on Ex�ension Agent By Jackie DiBartolomeo Kirsten Conrad is the Agriculture Natural Resources Extension Agent in Arlington County and the City of Alexandria, VA. She works alongside landscapers, homeowner associations, local governments, and more to provide answers and education about pest management, urban agriculture, and preserving the natural landscape. Q: Tell us about yourself. Where did you grow up? A: I was born and was raised in southwest Ohio in a small town called Oxford, where I attended elementary and high school. My parents met in Denmark when my dad was in the U.S. Army, and German was a dual first language for me. Although we lived in Germany for two years, my family was rooted in Oxford. We camped and traveled a lot in Europe and in Canada and the U.S., and my love for our country’s coastal areas and the outdoors is rooted in these experiences. Q: What got you interested in horticulture in the first place? A: My family influences certainly informed my professional inclinations. My paternal grandfather was the director of grounds at Miami University for many years, where he created a beautiful tree-filled campus and a formal gardens that are named for him today. My maternal grandfather and one of my uncles were farmers in northern Germany, and I have very fond memories of visiting and staying on the farm. Another uncle on my mother’s side was a landscape contractor near 8
WASHINGTON GARDENER
JUNE 2021
Copenhagen. But most of all, my family was oriented to the outdoors. My father always had a vegetable garden, fruit trees, and later, a pond, and a woodlot. Our home was surrounded by natural spaces, creeks, and woods where we hiked, fished, and hunted mushrooms. I learned a lot about natural resources, wild animals, geology, landscape, and food gardening at home. My formal education degrees at Auburn University in landscape design, and much later at Indiana University in outdoor recreation resource management, were both outgrowths of these life-long interests. Q: What is a typical day for you? A: I don’t think there is a typical day. One of the things I like about my job is its variability. I work with the general public, with professional landscapers and pesticide applicators, with homeowner association committees and local government departments, with nonprofit organizations doing like-minded work, with volunteer organization leadership committees, with schools, and with other Extension colleagues in Virginia. In a given week, I can be juggling communications about volunteer projects, partnerships with outside organizations, questions from our Help Desk or eXtension clients, professional development training, or course development for volunteer training, and calls from residents on subjects as diverse as tree health and human parasites and everything in-between. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Tell us about some of your peers and predecessors whom you admire. A: I work with so many talented and knowledgeable people. Certainly, I have had the benefit of great professional networks with fellow ANR agents in the Northern District. Adria Bordas in Fairfax County, Paige Thacker in Prince William County, Tim Ohlwiler in Fauquier County, and Beth Sastre Flores in Loudoun have been friends and mentors. Our amazing Extension Master Gardener volunteer program has had outstanding program coordinators and two who stand out are Leslie Fillmore, who has held this part-time job since 2017, and Joanne Hutton, who held the job when I started here. I greatly admired the late John Bottom, who was a mentor and whose career in the USDA and volunteer work with our Extension Leadership Council were hugely meaningful to me. Also, I have to mention Puwen Lee, founder of the Plot Against Hunger program, who truly was a leader of the start of what is now a multi-faceted urban agriculture initiative in Arlington. Alonso Abugattas, the outstanding award-winning author and speaker, who is the Natural Resources Manager for Arlington County, is a great reason Arlington has such a robust greenspace conservation effort. He was instrumental in the formation of the Arlington Regional Master Naturalist Chapter of volunteers that I serve as an advisor to. Q: What is the most-fulfilling part of your profession? A: What I have loved most about my job is the chance to be an educator. I am deeply involved with the people I work with in our urban agriculture, landscape best management, and natural resources volunteer groups in the business of helping others to be better stewards of the landscape. I do this in social media gardening groups, in training provided to green industry professionals, and in partnership with other institutions of higher education. Most valuable to me has been the opportunity to learn and expand my skills. I learn something every single day—from my colleagues, from my volunteers, from the public who contact me with questions that require research. I have been
