Barbara Fischer came to The Native Plant Center’s first Wildflower Symposium at WCC in 1998 and was sold, then and there, on native plants. She has been a member of The Native Plant Center since 1998, joined the Plant Sale Committee in 2001 and was invited to serve on the Native Plant Center Steering Committee in 2002, for which she served as chair, or co-chair from 2007 to 2009. She co-founded Go Native U at Westchester Community College and continues to teach classes on native plants. 

She is a Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardener (class of ’98). Barbara completed the Horticultural Therapy certification program at the New York Botanical Garden in 2004. She ran the after-school greenhouse program for The Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry, New York for over eight years and a horticulture program for St. Joseph’s Geriatric Day Care center.   

In her professional life, she worked as an environmental consultant to corporations, towns, and schools on issues of recycling and solid waste. She has a master’s degree in in psychology. 

Barbara lives and gardens in Armonk, New York, where she has named the deer so she can bill them for damages. 

She dedicates all her teaching to the next generation, including her little grandson who already understands pollination.