Dr. Bethany Harris
With a passion for horticulture, Bethany earned an M.S. in Entomology and PhD in horticulture from the University of Georgia. After earning her degrees and working on pollinator research, she served as the Director of Education and the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center at Callaway Gardens where she planned and facilitated horticulture, entomology, and environmental, and gardening programs for K5-12th grade students, homeowners, and education groups and oversaw the 7,000 square-foot tropical butterfly conservatory. She previously served as the instructor and program coordinator for the Horticulture Program at Southern Crescent Technical College assisting in training students entering the horticulture industry. In her role as Center for Urban Agriculture Director, she works directly with industry, homeowners, and county agents in areas including small-scale sustainable food production, pollinator protection and conservation, landscape horticulture, urban forestry, urban entomology, and urban water management. 

Dr. Melba Salazar
Dr. Melba R. Salazar-Gutierrez is the Program Coordinator for the Georgia Certified Landscape Professional (GCLP) and Georgia Certified Plant Professional (GCPP) programs at the University of Georgia. She leads statewide certification efforts, advancing training quality, curriculum modernization, and industry engagement to support Georgia’s green industry workforce. With a background in plant physiology and specialty crop systems, she brings extensive experience collaborating with growers, educators, and industry partners to strengthen sustainable landscape and plant production practices across the Southeast.

Wayne Jeurs
Born and raised In Bronx New York, his horticulture bug bit him when his maternal grandmother whose yard was all willow trees had him stick a branch into the ground and it miraculously rooted. He and his grandmother continued to work with different plants rooting them and watching them grow.

At 16 Wayne traveled one and one half hours to a special high school in Queens, NY that offered an agriculture program which was the catalyst to get into a Landscape design program at a two year college in Cobleskill NY. From there he transferred to the University of Georgia where he got a BS in Ornamental Horticulture and also a second degree for Ag Education.

In 1973 he was teaching Horticulture at the High School level at Cherokee High School. In 1979 he found his dream job he began a 30-year career at Pike Family Nurseries where he began a 30-year career at Pike Family Nurseries where he developed a training program the Pike employees from Orientation to manager Training.
Since 1982 Wayne has trained over 1500 people to become Georgia Certified Plant Professionals. He continues to train students in Georgia and North Carolina to take the state Certification test in His Yard has over 285 plant species where he allows the students to use his yard to train in. They can see how the plant actually grows and better visualize the cuttings that are on the certification test.

In 2008 Wayne started a Company called the Garden Specialist Plant doctor LLC, a specialty Landscape design install company out of Roswell Georgia. He had 15 years of a successful business and has just closed part of the company. He will continue to teach Plant ID and basic horticulture classes for private companies.

Over the 55 years in the Horticulture industry, Wayne has been recognized by his for his excellence in the green industry with many awards from Young Nurseryman of the year in 1981 and Then Nurseryman Of the year in 1993., Educator of the year in 2010.