Audrey Barker Plotkin

After growing up near Rochester, NY, Audrey Barker Plotkin found her way to Massachusetts, where she is a forest ecologist and forester. Audrey’s spark of interest in The Land Institute was fanned into a full-on bonfire after working with a recent Land Institute intern alum at a veggie farm. Modeling human-managed ecosystems on natural ecosystems deeply resonates with Audrey’s life’s work. But as she considered the next steps after two years at The Land Institute, she knew her home place was the eastern woodlands. How could she translate perennial polycultures in the tallgrass prairie to a forest? Her answer was to enroll in forestry school in Maine, and since then, she has built a fulfilling career as a forest ecologist and forester at the Harvard Forest in central Massachusetts. On a more personal note, the Land Institute is where Audrey met her husband, Jeremy Barker Plotkin (1994 Intern at The Land Institute), and current next-door neighbor Dave Tepfer. Audrey was an intern in 1993 and stayed on as Intern Coordinator and all-around junior staff person in 1994.

My most perennial trait is Joy – The world is broken and beautiful, and it is a joy to be part of it.

1993 Intern, 1994 Staff Intern Coordinator at The Land Institute