We Flower the Avenue

A career volunteer with an education in environmental science and horticulture, Daeschler devotes much of her life to preserving and beautifying public green spaces and corridors in Northwest Philadelphia and throughout the region. Brought on board by Chestnut Hill Garden District Fund founder Dottie Sheffield soon after the organization was created, Daeschler became the Fund’s president in 2003. Her professional background prior to joining the Fund leadership team includes surveying sloughs in Everglades National Park, co-authoring a book on groundwater protection law for U.S. Congress, and owning her own gardening business.

After two decades in information technology management, Adams enjoys her volunteer commitments serving organizations focusing on gardening, historic preservation, and civic improvement. She is one of the Board’s two representatives of the Wissahickon Garden Club, which was founded in 1932 to preserve Forbidden Drive in Fairmount Park’s Wissahickon section solely for recreation.

As chair of the Spring Planting Committee, Arms oversees CHGDF’s biggest and most visible annual event, mobilizing dozens of volunteers to plant flowers in window boxes, barrels, and lamppost baskets along Germantown Avenue every spring. Arms appreciates that serving on the Fund’s Board allows her to reach beyond her own flower and vegetable gardens to help beautify Chestnut Hill.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman Program in Historic Preservation, Bitterman enjoys researching and learning about the history of area gardens. A representative of the Garden Club of Philadelphia, the nation’s oldest of its type, she lives with her husband and daughters in Glenside, and treasures time spent in her community garden vegetable plot.

A longtime member of the Chestnut Hill Garden District Fund’s Board of Directors, Coes is a consultant for the American furniture department at Sotheby’s. She has served on the boards of many of Philadelphia’s flagship nonprofit organizations, including the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, the Rosenbach Museum & Library, and the Pennsylvania Ballet.

A retired insurance executive, Duffy now devotes much of her time to serving community organizations and to gardening, the love of which she attributes to her mother. Her garden in Chestnut Hill, the neighborhood she has called home for more than three decades, has been recognized several times in the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s annual gardening contests.

Emlen, a former elementary school teacher, is part of a team of volunteers that runs the library at the Blankenburg School, a public K-8 school in West Philadelphia. A Mount Airy resident for 25 years, she loves spending time outside and getting her hands dirty — especially in support of the Fund’s annual spring plantings on the Avenue.

Retired after a long career in fashion retailing, Evans remains active as a volunteer serving local arts, garden, and conservation organizations. In addition to playing a critical role in CHGDF’s fundraising efforts, she is the garden club representative of the Weeders. Happy to assist in landscape chores as a child, Evans now treasures gardening as a “mindful, artistic, and physical outlet.”

Forjohn is an artist, designer, and creative marketer with deep connections to Chestnut Hill. She is co-owner of Giraffe, a clothing boutique on Germantown Avenue, and she recently served as the Chestnut Hill Business District’s marketing and events coordinator. When not working or painting, you can often find her in Pastorious Park with her dogs, Millie and Suki.

A Penn Nursing graduate who has served as an RN at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for two decades, Hagan was led to CHGDF by her love for our community and civic gardening projects. In addition to planting and maintaining flowers on the Avenue and in pocket parks, she assists with fundraising. Hagan also is an active member of the Random Garden Club.

Harbison is a retired technology CEO and attorney who has also served as President of the Friends of the Wissahickon and the Springfield Township Board of Commissioners. A Board of Directors member for much of the Chestnut Hill Garden District Fund’s history, he is a Harvard-trained biologist with a particular interest in forest ecology.

Retired after a long career in nursing and real estate, Hemmers is a longtime gardener, horticulturist, and Tree Tender for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. She is the Board of Directors’ representative of the Chestnut Hill Garden Club, whose volunteers planted daffodils and daylilies in Chestnut Hill’s Peace Park almost 20 years ago.

Horos joined the Board of Directors after serving as the Chestnut Hill Business District’s finance manager, a role she took on in 2021 after 25 years in accounting, financing, and operational support with Fortune 500 corporations. A longtime resident of Chestnut Hill, she also sits on the boards of Our Mother of Consolation Parish School and Cub Scout Pack 1855.

Lyon worked as a physical therapist in inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation and conducted vaccine clinical research at Merck & Co. for 20 years. She also serves on the Board of Chestnut Hill Meals on Wheels and is an active member of the Random Garden Club. A collector of exotic, rare succulents, Lyon credits her grandmother for instilling her passion for gardening.

A professional gardener for more than half a century, Markowski has served as a horticulturalist at many large East Coast estates. In 2000, he worked with Fund founder Dottie Sheffield to set up the Hill’s iconic flower basket and barrel program, winner of multiple Blue Ribbon Awards from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society during his tenure as CHGDF gardener.

Miller worked for the Chestnut Hill Business Association for four decades, playing a critical role in the inception and early growth of the Chestnut Hill Garden District Fund. Until her retirement in 2020, she was CHGDF’s only treasurer and bookkeeper. Now she provides the Fund’s leadership team with something just as priceless — an institutional memory — and manages CHGDF’s Instagram account.

A writer and environmental activist who has served as a volunteer for the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club since the 1980s, Nalle says her love for gardening was inspired by her mother (the late Ethel Benson Nalle Wetherill), her grandfather, and her aunt. She returned to the Hill in 2018 after running a garden design company in Virginia.

Olson is a retired technology executive who is active in community nonprofits focusing on issues ranging from preservation and homelessness to faith and writing. She has played a major role in fundraising for the Chestnut Hill Garden District Fund and elevating its public image since its founding. Olson coined the Fund’s mantra and statement of purpose, “We flower the Avenue.”

Osborne is the founder of two Chestnut Hill-based businesses: Tailored Transitions, a home staging and moving management firm; and Tailored Home, a luxury retail store and interior design firm. She has worked for Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and has run her own public relations firm — the latter providing insight and experience that has proved invaluable to Fund leadership.

A retired research associate in public health, Peck volunteers for several Chestnut Hill nonprofit organizations, including the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania. She co-chairs the Chestnut Hill Garden District Fund’s Pocket Parks Committee, which oversees the annual planting and maintenance of flowers in several small parks and green spaces along Germantown Avenue.

A leading expert in the area of women’s recruitment and retention in computer science, Powell is the Director of Diversity and Belonging at the University of Pennsylvania’s Computer and Information Science Department and a consultant for the National Center for Women & Information Technology. The Fund’s main grant writer, she enjoys gardening at her home in Cape May.

A registered nurse for more than four decades, Stout began her nursing career in Philadelphia at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania after graduating from Vanderbilt University. For the last 25 years, she has served as a part-time school nurse at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. Stout is valued by Fund leadership for her ability to mobilize volunteers.

Since moving to Chestnut Hill from San Francisco in 2015, Xie has been involved in a wide range of local nonprofits, including the Chestnut Hill Conservancy, the Andalusia Foundation, and the PHS Philadelphia Flower Show. An active member of the Wissahickon Garden Club, she enjoys her garden pond and caring for her growing collection of houseplants.