Graduate Students Nichole Tiernan and Jonathan Flickinger do Outreach and Fieldwork in Haiti

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

In October, graduate students Jonathan Flickinger and Nichole Tiernan, were hosted by Les Cayes Botanic Garden in Southern Haiti. Tiernan, a Fairchild Graduate Fellow in the Education department, provided a two-day educational workshop, at Les Cayes Botanic Garden for Les Cayes Botanic Garden Education staff, local teachers, and Haiti Futur, a non-profit organization that supports education in Haiti. Together with William Cinea (Founder of Les Cayes Botanic Garden and Director of Research and Conservation) and Theogene P. Andre (Director of Education, Les Cayes Botanic Garden), Tiernan and Flickinger spent a week exploring Southern Haiti. Flickinger, who studies Caribbean occurring members of the Myrtle Family (Myrtaceae), and Tiernan, who studies the genus Plumeria (Apocynaceae) both made collections of native and endemic plants of the region as part of their dissertation research. Flickinger and Tiernan are both pursuing their PhD at Florida International University under the supervision of Dr. Javier Francisco-Ortega, a faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences with a formal research appointment at Fairchild. Logistics for this trip were greatly facilitated by Dr. Brett Jestrow (Herbarium Curator of Fairchild) who has active research projects in Haiti. This work was supported by Phipps Conservatory and Botanic Garden (Flickinger and Tiernan), FIU Kelly Tropical Botany Scholarship (Tiernan), and FIU Judith Parker Travel Scholarship (Tiernan). 

Left to Right: CInea, Tiernan, Flickinger, and Andre at the main building of Les Cayes Botanic Garden.