Maureen Heffernan
Executive Director

Having grown up on a farm and nursery in Perry, Ohio, one of the nation’s leading growing regions for ornamental nurseries, horticulture was an obvious career choice for Maureen.

She received her B.A. from Fordham University in New York City. As a Fordham student, she worked in the greenhouses of the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. While studying ornamental horticulture, she served as an intern at the Agricultural Experimental Farm in Fairbanks, Alaska and the Ohio State University Experimental Farm in Columbus, Ohio.

After studying horticulture at The Ohio State University, Maureen worked at several prominent nurseries and public gardens in the U.S. and Europe.

Maureen was Education Coordinator at the American Horticultural Society from 1990-1995. She started the society’s first national children’s gardening symposium, which has become a landmark national event that inspires and trains educators and other interested adults in how to create children’s gardens and related educational programs. In conjunction with the children’s gardening symposium, Maureen created the Children’s Garden Project at River Farm, which gained national renown through feature articles in The New York Times and The Washington Post and on television’s “The Victory Garden” and CNN.

Maureen joined the Cleveland Botanical Garden in 1995 as Director of Education and Public Programs. There she oversaw the expansion of educational programs and services for adults, youth, families, and school and teacher groups. She coordinated the design and construction of the $1.3 million, award-winning Hershey Children’s Garden and created more than a dozen new school and community gardens throughout Greater Cleveland.

Maureen initiated CBG’s Green Corps, which provided inner-city youth with paid summer jobs to plant an extensive market garden and grow fresh produce sold at an area farmers’ market. These city teens learned gardening and general job skills as part of the program. She developed Ripe from Downtown™ salsa, a product made by the Green Corps students to learn basic business and marketing skills.

Maureen has published articles in a number of horticultural publications including Herb Companion and American Gardener. She is the lead author of Burpee Complete Gardener and author of Burpee Seed Starter. Her latest book, Hershey Children’s Garden: A Place to Grow, was published by Ohio University Press in 2004.