Carol is an accomplished photographer with a deep love of nature.  Her photos have appeared in many publications including the National Geographic, Better Homes & Gardens, and Nikon World.  Carol has contributed her talents to myriad conservation projects, and in 2004 she began a the 'Endangered Species Photography' project.  This project, in which she aims to photo all of the threatened and endangered species in Illinois, is still ongoing and Carol uses the photos to help conserve and protect listed species.  She has worked with Plants of Concern for many years, and we regularly feature her photos in educational and outreach materials, including in our species gallery on the website.  To learn more about Carol and her work, visit her website.

In addition to being part of the first class of POC monitors in 2001, Kathleen has also lent her artistic talents to POC.  Her illustrations of native orchids have appeared on the cover of past Volunteer Manuals, and she has advocated for native plants and POC through art exhibitions, such as the ASBA catalogue for the traveling exhibit 'Losing Paradise? Endangered Plants Here and Around the World' for her yellow lady slipper watercolor painting, as well as through her scholarly work in the Native Orchid Conference journals and the Illinois Native Plant Society Journal Erigenia.  She's crafted educational materials, such as the Plant Family Guides, created in collaboration with the Field Museum of Natural History.  Kathleen has worked as a professional artist for many years, has taught bookbinding at Morton Arboretum and colored pencil and watercolor botanical illustration at other venues. In 1984 she was elected president of the Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts and she is currently newsletter editor for the Illinois Orchid Society and am admin of the North American Native Orchid Conservation Facebook site.

Heeyoung Kim, a recipient of several major awards including Best of the Show from New York Horticultural Society / The American Society of Botanical Artists (2012) and Gold Medal from Royal Horticultural Society London (2012), paints native plants of prairies and woodlands in the Midwest in a scientifically accurate botanical art form.  Her long-term commitment is Project 200, botanical documentation of rare and endangered native plants of the Midwest.  She was featured at Chicago Tonight, WTTW, as a rare plant painter.  Recently Heeyoung’s works have been selected for inclusion in the Transylvania Florilegium presently being created under the aegis of the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts to record in a permanent way the flora of Transylvania. She teaches botanical art at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods and occasionally at the Chicago Botanic Garden.  She also offers workshops near and far as a visiting artist. Heeyoung is represented by Joel Oppenheimer Gallery, Chicago.   To learn more about Heeyoung and her work, visit her website.

Nancy is a certified scientific and botanical illustrator who came to us with an impressive background, including an ongoing position as a Scientific Illustrator at The Smithsonian Institution specializing in the Araliaceae family and at the Field Museum creating illustrations for Nolana recheii, Magnolia bankardiorum, and primate origins. In 2008 Nancy was selected by The National Park Service as Artist-in-Residence at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Her work has been published in a number of periodicals, and we are grateful that she's turned her attention towards POC. Nancy has worked closely with POC to illustrate targeted species.  Nancy visits populations to get a feel for these species 'in the flesh'.  After sketching, measuring, and photographing the plants, she takes this information back to her studio where she creates highly detailed, scientifically accurate watercolor images of POC species. Completed illustrations can be seen in the Species Gallery.