Nicolaas Verloop has worked in arboriculture for the last 35 years. After school, he worked for three years in England, France, and the United States, after which he started his own landscape gardening company. After selling his company, he served as the director for several leading green industry companies. During that time, Nicolaas and three associates founded GreenGuard, a company which develops and produces biological products especially for landscapers, tree care companies, and councils. Currently, Nicolaas is working as a partner of TFI Vital Green, a specialized company that is creating optimal tree-growth opportunities for trees in the urban environment.

Nicolaas has a great interest in business strategies, marketing, and education for our profession. For the last eight years he has served on the KPB-ISA Dutch Chapter Board and has served the Dutch Employers’ Association for the last ten years as a board member of the tree department. Both associations wish to stimulate the arboriculture profession and opportunities for good education.

Nicolaas has served ISA as a chapter executive and as a member of the Student Subcommittee and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Committee. He was a member of the ISA Council of Representatives (CoR) for three years before being named the CoR Chair from 2014 to 2016.

Tom has served as President of the Southern Chapter, founding chair of the Board Certified Master Arborist committee, Tree Risk Assessment Qualification panel of experts, Tree Care Industry Association's member on the Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers, International Tree Failure Database steering committee, Singapore National Parks Board-Research Advisor, and the American Society of Consulting Arborist's (ASCA) Tree and Plant Appraisal Qualification committee. 

He is the long time chair of the ISA Best Management Practice (BMP) committee and has co-authored many of the BMP' s. He is one of the longest serving advisors to the American National Standards 
Institute A300 committee. 

He has received many awards including Shigo Education, Chadwick Research, Author's Citation, President's Commendation, Southern Chapter Award of Merit, Society of Municipal Arborists Award of Achievement, Society of Commercial Arborists Arborist of the Year, Urban Tree Diagnosis Association of Japan -Honorary Member. 

Tom graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Colorado State University, and Michigan State University. He is an ASCA Registered Consulting Arborist. 

John Gathright is a permanent resident of Japan. He holds a Doctorate of Bio-Agriculture from Nagoya University and lectures at Chubu University. He has conducted extensive research into the physiological, psychological and societal benefits of purpose specific, tree-climbing and tree-assisted therapy programs. He is a pioneer and leader in this field. 

John founded Tree Climbing Japan in 1997. This was Japan’s first technical tree-climbing school. It has grown into a national organization with 4,000 certified tree climbers who have helped over 250,000 individuals of all ages and abilities, to climb trees in urban forests and green spaces.

Dr. Gathright created the Japan Arborist Association, an ISA affiliated organization and the Arborist Training Institute of Japan.

In 2000, John established Tree Hab, a non-profit organization that works with societies, government, doctors and child care facilities in order to enable mentally and physically handicapped children to also experience the joy of climbing a tree.

When not climbing trees, training tree-climbing instructors or enjoying the smiles of the children and families he helps, he can be seen sharing his expertise at events and conferences around the world.

Gail Nozal has over 25 years of experience in the municipal, non-profit and commercial sectors of urban forestry and arboriculture. She is an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist, Municipal Specialist and holds the Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ).She is an Area Manager with the Davey Resource Group.

She is a member of the Minnesota Chapter of the ISA. Gail earned her master's degree in Urban Forestry at the University of Minnesota. Her years of service have included Chair of the Certification Committee in the Minnesota ISA Chapter, ISA Certification Liaison Committee, ISA Credential Council and is currently serving her second term on the ISA Board. In addition she has also been involved with the Minnesota Shade Tree Advisory Committee which serves as the state urban forestry council in Minnesota. While involved in MnSTAC she served on several committees including serving as a Board Member and Chair of the Outreach Committee. 

Gail is passionate about teaching youth, volunteers and professionals about opportunities in arboriculture.She believes serving on the board is an opportunity to continue to expand and share her passion by encouraging others to get involved in the field of arboriculture.

Sharon Jean-Philippe is an Associate Professor of Urban Forestry in the
Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries (FWF). She earned her
M.S. in Botany and PhD. in Natural Resources from the University of
Tennessee in 2005 and 2010, respectively.

Sharon has successfully led the development and approval of FWF's
Forestry curriculum concentration in "Urban Forestry" (the
concentration became official beginning in the fall of 2012). Her teaching-related duties for this concentration have gradually shifted from curriculum development to instruction and recruiting, where she teaches courses in the fields of urban forestry, tree law, urban soils and arboriculture.

Sharon applies her substantial teaching skills to promote outreach program to the citizens of Tennessee. Her Extension appointment allows her to work with Extension agents and specialists, as well as directly with all Tennesseans, to help them with their urban forest needs.

Sharon is married to Smith Jean-Philippe and they have two sons, Sidney and Seth Jean-Philippe and they enjoy cruising.

Caitlyn Pollihan serves as CEO and Executive Director for the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA).  She began her role as Executive Director in 2017, with the Board adding the CEO title in 2020 to better reflect Caitlyn’s leadership responsibilities. During her tenure Caitlyn has successfully led the organization’s relocation to Atlanta, GA US, initiated the modernization of ISA systems and operations, and has increased the global connectivity and accessibility of the association.

Prior to joining ISA, Caitlyn served as the executive director of the Council of Western State Foresters (CWSF) and the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition (WFLC). In this role, she facilitated the development of the organization’s strategic goals and agendas and worked with members and CWSF/WFLC staff to ensure the organization’s success. Prior to this role, Caitlyn was the CWSF/WFLC governmental affairs director where she was instrumental in the creation of key legislation and educating members and partners on legislative proposals and national policy with western implications.

Caitlyn previously served as the staff vice president for government and environment affairs for the Home Builders Association of St. Louis and Eastern Missouri. In this role, she worked on state and local legislative initiatives, green building programs, and helped create and implement a ground‐breaking approach to building site safety inspections with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 

Caitlyn participates in several coalitions and committees, such as the Sustainable Urban Forestry Coalition Steering Committee, the i-Tree Executive Committee, and previously served on numerous public policy committees and was an appointed member of the National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule.

Caitlyn holds a bachelor’s degree in contemporary media and journalism/public relations from the University of South Dakota and a master’s degree in organizational communication from the University of Missouri‐St. Louis. She has a Certificate in Nonprofit Organization Management from the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Institute for Organization Management and has earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential, the highest professional credential in the association industry.

Christopher Boza is currently a consultant with over 40 years of experience in municipal tree management, park management, employee management, fiscal budget management, irrigation design, construction and management, landscape design, construction and maintenance management, capital project construction management, volunteer coordination and inter-agency coordination.

Chris tested for and received his Arborist Certification in 1986. He holds a Municipal

Arborist Specialist certification and a Tree Risk Assessor Qualification. He served on the Western Chapter Certification Committee from 1992 to 2000. He served on the Montana Urban and Community Forestry Association (MUCFA) board from 2014 to 2016.

Chris recently retired from the City Arborist for the City of Missoula, Montana. Prior to Missoula, Chris served as the Urban Forester for Hayden, Idaho, the Urban Forester for Chico, California, the Assistant Arborist for San Jose, California, and as a Field Tech for Forest-Ag in Lafayette, California. His first experience in municipal tree care occurred during the Summer of 1980, collecting data for a street tree inventory in Sterling Heights, Michigan, on paper forms!

Chris is passionate about educating residents and homeowners about proper tree and landscape care. He has facilitated numerous public and industry seminars in San Jose, Chico, Hayden and Missoula. He was instrumental in the formation of the Chico Tree Education and Enhancement (CTrEE) volunteer program in Chico, the Community Canopy volunteer program in Hayden and the Volunteers in Planting/ Pruning (VIP) volunteer program in Missoula.  His favorite project was an introductory urban forestry class for high school students at Big Sky High School in Missoula.

In his spare time, Chris is an avid model railroader in in 1:1 and 1:87 scales. He models the Grand Trunk Western Railroad in Detroit, Michigan.  He is a member of the Pacific Locomotive Association and the Inland Empire Railroad Historical Society. He served as the Chief Arborist for the Niles Canyon Railway from 1988 to 2006. He held a Lone Railway Worker Certificate and a Conductor Certificate from 1990 to 2008.

Samuel serves as the Director, Consulting Arborist & Climbing
Specialist of Kassod Arbor Tree Consultancy & Services Limited
(Hong Kong) & EmCypress Arborist Consultancy Limited
(Taiwan). Also, he teaches the Higher Diploma Program of Tree
Management & Conservation at Hong Kong Institute of Vocational
Education, VTCHK, aimed to teach the proper practices and
manner to the youngster besides of the regular Arborist works. On
the other side, Samuel speaks fluently in three languages including
English, Cantonese and Mandarin, and fair in Japanese. He was invited by various University, Institute, organization to provide the Arboriculture training, teaching, sharing in different countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, United States, etc.

Samuel Ma holds BSc degrees in Applied Biology from Hong Kong Baptist University, and now going back to the Faculty for his tree related research study. He is also an ISA Master Certified Arborist, Certified Tree
Worker - Climber Specialist, Qualified Chainsaw and Pruning (Ground) Technician and Tree Risk Assessment Qualified.

Samuel chaired the Tree Climbing Competition Committee from 2013 to 2015, and also as the member of the chapter's certification committee since 2013 and also. He helps the local Chapter development from 2013 and being the Board of Director since 2015. He has been the Asia Pacific Tree Climbing Championship Operations Committee since 2014. He is also the convener of The Hong Kong Institute of Professional Arborists, and also serves as the committee of Arboriculture & Horticulture Industrial Specification of Competency Standards helping to set up the local qualification framework. He enjoys being a travel Arborist helping the development of tree industry. Besides of the works, Samuel is also a tree climbing athlete for organizing and participating various Tree Climbing competition and related activities in the world.

John Coles is employed as the Senior Tree Officer to the Royal Court of Norway. He is responsible for the management and maintenance of the historic tree population that grows on the Royal estates. The largest of these areas being The Royal Palace Park in central Oslo.

John also works part time as an arboricultural tutor and climbing instructor at Norway's Only State Arborist school.

He has been an ISA Certified Arborist® for 20 years and is TRAQ
qualified. ISA Board of Directors Nominee

John's strong interest in practical arboriculture has led to his involvement in several of ISA's
committees over the past years. He is a former member of ISA's ETCC committee and a present member of ISA's ITCC, ISC and rules committee, and he is also a former ITCC competitor. In his own chapter, John is a member of the Norwegian tree-care forums educational committee and is also an exam sensor.

When not involved with tree projects John likes riding his motorcycle and spending time with
his wife and two daughters.

Carlos has been active for 16 years as an ISA Certified Arborist®, contributing his technical and scientific knowledge to the improvement of national standards for forest management, and the
development of the arboriculture industry. His contributions and management have been of vital importance to encourage and disseminate the concepts and criteria of arboriculture in Colombia
and Latin America, thanks to his diverse contributions, since the creation of the Colombian association of arboriculture ACA, as well as his collaboration in the creation and strengthening of arboricultural associations in Ecuador, Brazil, and Peru.

As well as the creation of the Latin American Institute of Arboriculture, he has been a tireless multiplier of technical concepts, through the training of hundreds of prospects, in the arboriculture industry, both in Colombia, El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil. Carlos has also served as a professor at the district University of Bogotá and the University of the Valley, thus contributing to the training of new forest engineers, and contributing to the generation and definition of national climbing standards, and themanagement of urban trees from the country.

His contributions in the area of research have been very important for the management of vegetation
associated with electric networks and urban trees. Carlos has been the executive director of his
business group, ASFOR Group for15 years, which is considered as the leading business group in the
execution of cutting-edge arboriculture activities in Colombia.

Randall H. Miller serves as Director of Research and Development at CNUC. He is responsible for conducting utility vegetation management research (UVM), providing subject matter expertise to
utility vegetation management programs across North America, benchmarking UVM programs against CNUC industry surveys, and serving as an expert witness in vegetation management litigation.

Randall has a broad arboricultural and urban forestry background having previously served as Club Arborist at Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Illinois, Wasatch Front Community Forester for Utah State Lands and Forestry, and as an Area Forester and System Forester/ Director of Vegetation Management for PacifiCorp, an electric utility serving parts of California, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. He holds a BS degree in Horticulture from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and an MS in Urban Forestry from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. He has been an ISA member since 1987 and has been an ISA Certified Arborist® since 1990. He is an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist® and an ISA Certified Utility Specialist™ .

Randall has been Chair of the TREE Fund Board of Trustees, President of the Utility Arborist Association (UAA), Chair of the Edison Electric Institute Vegetation Management Task Force, and President of the Oregon Community Forest Council. He has served on the ISA Certification Test Committee, the ISA Editorial Board and the ISA Appeal's Committee.

He is the ISA 2005 R.W. Harris Authors Citation award recipient, in addition to the 2001 UAA Utility
Arborist Award, 2007 UAA President's Award, 2007 Pacific Northwest Chapter ISA President's Award, 2008 Utah Chapter ISA Distinguished Service Award, 2011 UAA Education Award and 2017 Utah Chapter ISA Lifetime Achievement Award.

He has more than 75 published writing credits, including the ISA Integrated Vegetation Management
Best Management Practices and, as coauthor with Geoff Kempter, Utility Arboriculture: The Utility
Specialist Certification Study Guide. Randy is an accomplished speaker and has delivered hundreds of presentations on arboricultural topics over three decades. Randy is also an eight-time Tour des Trees rider and has raised over $60,000 for TREE Fund.

Tadashi Touchi is a Japanese tree doctor, landscape architect and researcher.  He was born in 1967 into a family managing a landscape and tree care company, Teijyuen Co.,Ltd. established in 1877.  He proceeded to study Environmental Green Planning in Chiba University.  After completing his bachelor study, he worked for a famous modern Japanese garden architect, Yoshikuni Araki.  Three years later, he moved to the US for studying Landscape Architecture.  After graduating from the MLA of Louisiana State University, he returned to Japan to manage Teijyuen Co.,Ltd.   

While managing the company, he was certified as a Tree Doctor in 2009 and as a Street Tree Pruning Instructor in 2011.  Touchi has also worked with various landscape and tree care associations to further their objectives.  He has been selected jurist of several landscape awards and qualifications.  

Abroad, he is a Japanese delegate to the AIPH (International Association of Horticultural Producers) which certify international flower and garden expositions.  While visiting other countries for meetings, he has researched and interviewed street tree managers.  Recently he co-authored a book titled “Gairoju Ha Toikakeru” or “Street Trees are Calling”, in which he introduced the street tree management systems of the US and Germany.  Touchiʼs ongoing mission is to incorporate urban forestry into Japan for the betterment of future generations. 
 

Susan is a Professor of Urban Forestry in the Department of Forest Resources Management at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada and Program Director for the Bachelor of Urban Forestry degree. Before coming the UBC, Susan was a faculty member at Virginia Tech in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation. She has been a member of the ISA since the early 1990s and has a career of service to the organization. Susan’s research focuses on managing urban soils to enhance tree growth and longevity in the context of environmental challenges such as stormwater mitigation and land development impacts on soil-mediated ecosystem services. She helped shape the soils metrics for the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES®) international crediting system for sustainable design projects and developed Soil Profile Rebuilding, a rehabilitation technique to restore damaged urban soils in situ and enhance urban soil carbon storage. Her research in the water relations of trees in engineered soil systems and in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Trust has informed storm water policy in the Chesapeake Bay region of the United States. Susan also led Urban Forestry 2020, a research-based investigation into urban forestry career paths and education. 

In addition to research and guiding UBC’s urban forestry program, Susan enjoys teaching and working with students. She currently teaches Arboriculture Principles and Practice and Ecology of Urban Green Infrastructure. Susan has published more than 150 articles and book chapters on urban forests and urban soils and is the 2017 recipient of the L.C. Chadwick Award for Arboricultural Research. Susan holds a B.A. from Yale University, a M.S. from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.

Susan is currently a member of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the ISA (PNW-ISA) and was a long-time member of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter (MAC-ISA) until 2019. She is also a member of the American Society of Consulting Arborists, the Society of Municipal Arborists, the Ecological Society of America, the Soil Science Society of America, and the Canadian Institute of Forestry. She is also a SITES Accredited Professional and former long-time member of the Society of American Foresters. 

Mike Watson is the Sales Manager for Shady Lane Expert Tree Care in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Ontario. He is also a Consulting Arborist and past Co­ Owner of Thomson Watson Consulting Arborists.

Certified Arborist ON-0246A (Since 1990) Qualified Tree Risk Assessor

Oak Wilt Qualified-Ontario MIOWQ-047{ON}

Mike is currently serving as a member of the Council of Representatives Executive Committee and is a Past President of his home Component of ISA Ontario, serving as a Board of Directors member for Ontario from 2013 to 2022. He has been very involved in ISA Ontario over the years as past chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, Education Committee, and the Ontario Tree Climbing Championship.

Mike was influential in starting Women in Arboriculture Ontario. An ISA Ontario committee that has grown over the last 6 years to increase awareness of women in our industry as well develop programs that increase Component membership while positively influencing Arboriculture in Ontario. He is one of 6 people involved in creating and developing the Ground Worker Training program in Ontario that over the last 4 years has brought over 120 new workers into the industry with hands-on training in a safe and practical manner.

Mike has shown he has the necessary leadership skills to work in further developing the relationship between ISA International and our local Components to enhance that relationship. He understands that we both need each other to succeed in getting the message to the world that ISA is a leader in Arboriculture Awareness, Education, and Safety.

Beyond his passion for worker safety and his love of trees, Mike enjoys cooking, good movies, travel, motorcycles, and the love of his life.

Jason Grabosky serves as John and Eleanor Kuser Faculty Scholar in Urban and Community Forestry at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, supporting a teaching, research and Cooperative Extension role within his department.  He currently teaches classes in forestry from dendrology and arboriculture to silviculture and urban forestry.  His extension work falls predominantly within the arboriculture and urban forestry area and his research is generally focused on tree growth and response within urban systems.

Jason started his career in the landscape installation/maintenance area as a teen, and worked his way through an Associate’s of Applied Science Degree in at SUNY Cobleskill and a Bachelor’s Degree at California Polytechnic San Luis Obispo  Majoring in Ornamental Horticulture with emphasis on Nursery Management in both programs.  He worked in the nursery industry for several years prior to returning for a Master’s and Doctorate degree at Cornell University in the 1990s working in the Urban Horticulture Institute.  He has been faculty for brief periods at Cornell University and the University of Florida, Gainesville prior to his current appointment at Rutgers.  His involvement with the ISA dates back to the early 1990s.   

Jason has served in various positions with ISA over the past several years most notably with the ISA journal Arboriculture & Urban Forestry and its predecessor title Journal of Arboriculture.  He served on the BCMA committee in the initial development of the exam and its structure, and served AREA as President 2003-2005.  More recently, Jason has been focused on some state-related groups within Urban Forestry and worked at Rutgers duties which included two terms as the Director of the Undergraduate Honors Program for the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

Jessica serves as the Executive Director of the Sacramento Tree Foundation.  She fell in love with the Sacramento Tree Foundation’s holistic vision of urban forestry and prioritizes the organization’s goal of urban forestry from seed to slab, creating and cultivating an equitable urban forest through education and stewardship of trees in the Sacramento region.  She has a doctorate from Rutgers University and is a certified Project Management Professional. She previously worked at Casey Trees as the director of science and policy, overseeing community science, mapping, policy, partnerships, and land conservation.

Jessica has a passion for the urban forest, and her research has focused on developing and enhancing current urban forestry practices in order to better manage the urban interface. Growing up in New Jersey and spending her college years walking through Atlantic white cedar bogs, she wanted nature to be a daily experience, not a destination. Jessica has worked at the intersection of science communication and creation of long-lasting urban forestry policy.

She served as the chair of the conference program committee and the nominations and elections committee for the International Society of Arboriculture.  She was a board member for the Mid-Atlantic Chapter (MAC) of ISA and has served as President of AREA.  In her free time, you can find her reading, outside with her partner and two pups paddle boarding on the river, or hiking.