Educator, Manager

12 years experience in environmental education and management

Isabel oversees the Naples Botanical Garden’s outreach landscaping projects since 2021. In her role at Naples Botanical Garden, she has coordinated and supervised the planting of over 600 trees and 1,000 shrubs in public places (parks, medians, and museums) in part through a grant from the Community Foundation of Collier County. Additionally, she has furthered the Garden’s relationships with the City of Fort Myers, City of Naples, Everglades City, Immokalee City, City of Marco Island and Collier County, coordinating the participation of Naples Botanical Garden in the planning of major public landscape projects including medians, parks, and other planting initiatives.

Isabel was the Project Greenscape Coordinator at the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve for several years, training landscapers in sustainable landscaping practices, and for over five years, she worked as Master Gardener and Florida-Friendly Landscaping Coordinator for the University of Florida IFAS office; her extensive experience as an educator in these institutions included organizing and teaching education programs on different sustainable landscaping practices that have reached over 14,000 Collier County residents, including landscapers, homeowners, and county and city staff.

Isabel is an active member of the Greenscape Alliance, a group of local organizations with the common mission of protecting natural resources by promoting sustainable landscape practices in Southwest Florida, and a certified and active instructor for the Green Industries Best Management Practice training, training landscapers and other instructors in the Southwest Florida region both in English and Spanish. Isabla wrote guidelines for organic production in Colombia, assisting farmers in obtaining organic certification.

B.S. in Environmental Resource Management
Co-owns Colusa Farms with her husband, Colusa Farms is a 1.5 acre hydroponic farm that grows lettuce, microgreens, edible flowers and assorted culinary delicacies for the hospitality industry in Naples, Florida.