Staff
Edward Toth, Director
Edward Toth worked for the New York City Department of Parks for 36 years, beginning in 1985. He was the founding director of the Greenbelt Native Plant Center, a program of the Forestry, Horticulture, and Natural Resources division. The 13-acre nursery, greenhouse, seed increase and seed bank facility is the oldest and largest municipally-owned native plant nursery in the U.S. In 2012 he initiated the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank (MARSB) program within the GNPC, as a regional partner of the national Seeds of Success program. He is a prior recipient of Parks’ Thomas Stofka Award, and he was a 2018 recipient of the Sloan Public Service Award from the Fund for the City of New York. He is currently a member of the Committee on an Assessment of Native Seed Needs and Capacities of the National Academy of Sciences. Upon retiring from the City of New York in the summer of 2021, Ed committed to operating MARSB independent of the City of NY. In 2022 MARSB has incorporated as a not-for-profit in the state of New York. MARSB, Inc. will continue to jointly operate the physical seed bank with the GNPC at its facilities on Staten Island.
Email: etoth@marsb.org
John Price, Seed Collection Coordinator
John Price has worked in the environmental science field for nearly twenty years. Following several years spent honing skills in the nursery and landscape industry, John shifted his focus to ecological restoration. As an ecologist and project manager with Applied Ecological Services, he coordinated the enhancement and construction of dozens of habitat restoration projects across the northeast, specializing in wild seed collection, nursery seed production, and rare species studies. For over a decade, John supervised the ongoing establishment and maintenance of the Albany Landfill Mitigation, a critical 220-acre restoration project in the heart of the Albany Pine Bush. This mammoth effort restored connectivity between the east and west portions of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve and assisted in the recovery efforts of the federally endangered Karner blue butterfly. John holds a Bachelor’s in Plant Science from S.U.N.Y. Cobleskill.
Email: jprice@marsb.org
Megan Homison, Native Seed Collection Field Technician
Megan is a recent graduate with a Bachelor’s in Botany from Kent State University. Throughout her college career, she spent three years working in KSU’s herbarium and coordinating volunteers in the campus conservatory. Megan’s passion for conservation was sparked in her month of field work in the Peruvian Amazon with the Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon. This led her to an internship with the Student Conservation Association the following year, where she worked on the Native Plant Materials project in the Olympic National Forest. This sparked her interest in native seed collection, which led her to her position at MARSB.
Email: mhomison@marsb.org
Pam Skripak, Administrator
Pam Skripak, MARSB Administrator, has spent her career in the field of experiential education, leadership development, human and organizational capacity-building, and program design and development in the higher education and nonprofit sectors. Pam co-founded and directs Home Earth Alliance / IMAGINE Native Plant Farm in Glenmont, NY, an organization dedicated to inspiring people to cultivate outdoor spaces that support biodiversity, mitigate climate change, and promote environmental justice. Prior to that, she directed the Institute of Nonprofit Leadership and Community Development at the University at Albany and for five years ran the Emerging Nonprofit Leadership Accelerator (ENLA), an intensive, immersive six month long leadership development program. Pam holds a BA in English and Women’s Studies from Hamilton College and a Masters in Public Health, Population and Family Health from Columbia University. Pam served for two years in Peace Corps Ecuador.
Email: pskripak@marsb.org
Braden Skripak Gordon, Controller
Braden has spent the past 5 years working in the financials services industry after graduating from Vanderbilt University with a degree in Economics. He is currently getting his MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Braden’s affinity for the natural world started from a young age as he spent his summers wondering around the woods in the Adirondacks, and is eager to help MASRB manage their finances as they continue to grow and expand.
Email: cfo@marsb.org
Board of Directors
Timothy Chambers, President
Jeremy Le Pointe, Vice President
Elizabeth Johnson, Secretary
Janice Wiles
Fred Erlich