Role of the Board of Trustees

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society Board of Trustees currently has 13 members, with a goal of 21 to 24 Trustees. The Board actively seeks to maintain a good mix of professional backgrounds and experiences, and a healthy balance of gender and age. Trustees are elected for terms of 3 years, up to a maximum of 3 terms (except when serving as President of the Board). Trustees and Overseers are elected at the Annual Meeting in September.

• To act collectively to support and govern the organization
• To ensure that the mission is fulfilled
• To select, support and review the Executive Director
• To insure that there are guiding policies and principles
• To insure effective organizational planning
• To insure that there are adequate resources to support board approved plans
• To support, individually and collectively, all board decisions and keep confidential the internal discussions
• To manage resources effectively
• To determine and monitor programs and services to ensure that they reflect the mission and the strategic priorities
• To serve as a court of appeal
• To assess its own performance
• To be a member of MHS and support MHS financially to the best of member’s ability

BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Fiscal Year 2010

Betsy Ridge Madsen, President - elected 2005 current term ends 2011
D. Scott Birney, Jr. - elected 2004 current term ends 2010
Gretel Anspach - elected 2008 current term ends 2011
Francis W. Hunnewell - elected 2005 current term ends 2011
Joe Kunkel - elected 2005 current term ends 2011
Jeanne Leszczynski - elected 2005 current term ends 2011
Paul Miskovsky - elected 2008 current term ends 2011
Hollis Perry - elected 2007 current term ends 2010
Heidi Kost-Gross - elected 2008 current term ends 2010
Kathleen Thomas - elected 2003 current term ends 2011
Joel Toner - elected 2004 current term ends 2010
Lura Provost - elected 2008 current term ends 2010

Trustee Biographies

Betsy Ridge Madsen is active in many horticultural and environmental groups. She is an Overseer for the New England Wildflower Society and a Corporate Trustee of the Trustees of Reservations. She is an active member of the Beacon Hill Garden Club, the Chestnut Hill Garden Club and the North Shore Garden Club, having recently served as President of BHGC. She serves as a GCA Judge for Horticulture and Photography. Betsy has taught in a variety of public school, college, and non-profit settings.  Currently, she does high school placement for eighth graders at the Epiphany School in Dorchester, MA. Betsy holds a BA from the College of Wooster and an EdM from Harvard University. She and her husband Peter have three grown children, all of whom reside in California. 

D. Scott Birney is a graduate of Yale University and received the MA and PhD from Georgetown University. He was a member of the faculty at Wellesley College, and he retired from there in 1991. He has served for more than twenty years as a member of the Nomenclature Committee for the New England Spring Flower Show. He was formerly the Treasurer of the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture. His garden in Wellesley won an MHS gold medal in 1999, and he himself was a recipient of the MHS gold medal in 2000.

Francis W. Hunnewell is an independent business consultant and former CEO of ChildLife, Inc., a manufacturer of children’s play equipment and other products. He had previously been a Consultant at Bain & Company in Boston. Frank is Director and Treasurer of the International Dendrological Research Institute and is a member of the Board of Corporators of the Middlesex Savings Bank of Natick, MA. Frank is a graduate of Harvard College (AB) and received his MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College. He serves on the Personnel Committee (chair 2006-2009) of St. Andrew’s Church in Wellesley, MA.

Jeanne Leszczynski, Ph.D retired from her position as the Deputy Director of the Massachusetts Biologic Laboratory and as an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in January 2006. Jeanne received her Doctorate in Public Health from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill having done research at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. She is a co-inventor on two patents for a drug used to prevent respiratory disease in premature neonates. She is a Major Donor to the Human Rights Campaign, the Freedom to Marry Coalition and GLAD (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders). Jeanne and her partner Diane DiCarlo are sponsors of the Goddess Garden at Elm Bank and in the process of creating an Italianate Garden in their backyard in Needham.

Holly Perry has been an incredibly active member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society since her retirement from teaching. During the last ten years of her teaching career she chaired Westwood High School’s Foreign Language Department. She studied Education at Northwestern University and received her Masters in Spanish from Middlebury. Since completing her certification as a MHS Master Gardener, Holly has been a facilitator of the program for MHS. She is also a board member of the Dedham Exchange.

Kathleen Thomas is the President to the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Inc. She has been involved in volunteer work with fund-raising activities for the Fay School, Governor Dummer Academy, Alternatives and Mass Gardens on Tour. Kathy is a landscape painter and has taught Art in the Holliston School System and was the past Executive Director of the Cultural Arts Alliance in Hopkinton.

Joel Toner - Senior Vice President, New Track Media, an enthusiast media company that manages a variety of magazines, clubs, events , TV and broadband video programs. Joel has a wide media background in publishing including managing TV productions; business to business and consumer events; and over 100 magazines including Horticulture and Garden Style magazines. He was formerly Senior Vice President of Garden.com. He also served as President of Studio G, a magazine marketing and design consulting firm. In addition to serving on the Board of the Massachusetts Horticulture Society, Joel serves of the Board of Yankee Publishing Inc. and formerly served on the Board of the Mailorder Gardening Association. Joel was awarded the MHS Gold Medal in Fall 2004. He lives with his wife LeeAnne and children in Winchester, MA.