Boxwood Blight Insight Group Teams & Partners

Chuan Hong

Project Director and Professor of Plant Pathology at Virginia Tech’s Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Virginia Beach, VA, has provided leadership in the national fight against boxwood blight since 2011. He has coordinated several Farm Bill projects funded through USDA Animal and Plant Health Service. He also co-organized several national and international workshops on this emerging disease. In addition, he served on the AmericanHort’s Science Panel and spoke at its annual educational event - Cultivate’18, as well as at biennial International Boxwood Summits hosted by ABS both in 2018 and 2020. Additionally, his program is most known for contributions to the science and management of Phytophthora diseases, irrigation pathogens and recycled water quality. Chuan oversees this new project.

Margery Daughtrey

Co-Project Director and Senior Extension Associate at Cornell University in Riverhead, NY, has forty-one years of experience supporting the nursery and floriculture industries. She diagnoses cases of boxwood blight, and provides presentations and advice to nursery, landscape maintenance and arboriculture businesses on integrated pest management (IPM) for the disease. She has been a discussion leader or speaker in three boxwood symposia sponsored by the Royal Horticultural Society and ABS. Margery leads the Extension/Outreach team of this project.

Douglas Luster

Co-Project Director and Plant Physiologist with USDA-ARS Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit at Ft. Detrick, MD since 1988. His research has focused on development of rapid diagnostic assays to detect emerging plant pathogens. He has licensed diagnostic immunoassay reagents for the emerging plant pathogen Phakopsora pachyrhizi (Asian soybean rust) to a commercial diagnostics company. Current targets for immunoassays include Calonectria pseudonaviculata (boxwood blight), Rathayibacter toxicus (Select Agent, annual ryegrass), and Phytophthora ramorum (sudden oak death). Doug leads the Research team of this project. 

Charlie Hall

Co-Project Director and Professor and Ellison Endowed Chair in International Floriculture at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX, has been the economic lead/member on two SCRI projects - one on rose rosette disease and the other on mitigating disease issues associated with capturing and reusing irrigation water in nursery and greenhouse settings. He has expertise in economic modeling to determine production costs and other economic impacts associated with changing BMPs during production and post-production stages of the green industry life cycle. Charlie currently serves as the Chief Economist for AmericanHort and the economic lead on this project.

Jerry Weiland

Co-Project Director and Plant Pathologist of the USDA ARS Horticultural Crops Research Unit in Corvallis, OR, has a research program that is aimed to more fully understand pathogen biology, epidemiology and ecology in order to develop better management strategies for ornamental crop diseases on the West Coast. Jerry is working with Oregon nurseries to determine how common boxwood blight is in the state’s boxwood industry and to identify production risks leading to the infection and spread of the boxwood blight pathogen within the nursery industry. Jerry coordinates the research and extension activities on the West Coast.

Fulya Baysal-Gurel

Co-Project Director and Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology at Tennessee State University in McMinnville, TN, develops sustainable, environmentally-friendly and economical management practices for woody ornamental diseases. Fulya is working closely with growers, Tennessee Department of Agriculture plant inspectors and Extension educators to identify critical control points for boxwood blight mitigation in production nursery settings and help coordinate extension/outreach programming in this project.

Fred Gouker

Co-Project Director and Plant Geneticist/Breeder with USDA-ARS, U.S. National Arboretum, Floral and Nursery Plants Research Unit in Beltsville, MD. His research program focuses on development of improved woody ornamental landscape plants with superior ornamental value and that are tolerant to abiotic and biotic stress. For this project, Fred is leading efforts for boxwood blight resistance breeding and genetics research and extension activities. Fred will be utilizing the boxwood germplasm collection amassed at the U.S. National Arboretum to screen boxwood accessions for disease resistance, will develop screening assays, and study crossing and seed parameters to create new hybrids as part of a long-term breeding program to develop blight resistant boxwood cultivars.

Ping Kong

Co-Project Director and Research Scientist at Virginia Tech in Virginia Beach, VA, has helped adapting mulching technique for boxwood blight mitigation while developing a better understanding of the pathogen biology and etiology. She has identified several potent bacterial and fungal isolates for blight mitigation and recently expanded her research to investigate boxwood endophyte communities sponsored by private and local government including Horticultural Research Institute, Virginia Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services. Ping leads the efforts of cataloging and manipulating boxwood microbial communities for blight mitigation in this project.

Jo Anne Crouch

Co-Project Director and Molecular Biologist with USDA ARS Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Lab in Beltsville, MD, leads research programs focused on emergent and quarantine-significant agricultural plant pathogens, including boxwood blight, downy mildews, and fungi that cause turfgrass diseases. Jo Anne specializes in the use of DNA for diagnostics and to understand how pathogens emerge, reproduce and diversify during disease epidemics. In this project she is leading efforts to understand how the boxwood blight pathogens infect and colonize plants and to learn how different DNA characteristics influence pathogen biology and virulence.

James LaMondia

Co-Project Director and Chief Scientist of Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in Windsor, CT, supports the nursery and landscape industry with diagnostics, research and outreach including the identification and management of boxwood blight with fungicides, sanitizers and cultural controls. He cooperates with the industry and boxwood breeders to screen for resistance to blight in current boxwood cultivars and breeding lines. James leads integration of new and emerging technology for blight mitigation in this project.

Jay W Pscheidt

Co-Project Director and Professor of Plant Pathology at Oregon State University and Oregon State Extension Service in Corvallis, OR, is working with Oregon colleagues to develop a video to help producers scout for and locate boxwood blight in their plantings. Research and demonstrations of spray technology are also being conducted to get better fungicide coverage of tightly sheared plants. Annual updates to the Pacific Northwest Plant Disease Management Handbook will incorporate the most up-to-date information on managing this disease. 

Luisa Santamaria

Co-Project Director and Associate Professor, Extension Plant Pathologist & Bilingual Educator at Oregon State University, North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, OR. Over the last ten years, Luisa has been actively engaging the nursery industry by offering both on-site consulting and bilingual education aimed at preventing the introduction and spread of threatening plant diseases in a nursery environment. She also collaborates with the Oregon Department of Agriculture in extension and education efforts, the most recent of which will focus on boxwood blight education and outreach. Luisa has already developed some bilingual extension boxwood blight publications that target frontline nursery workers. She will extend this effort to this project.

Nina Shishkoff

Co-Project Director and Plant Pathologist with USDA-ARS Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit at Ft. Detrick, MD, works with stakeholders to support ornamental horticulture, with research into boxwood blight, Impatiens downy mildew, and Phytophthora ramorum blight of Rhododendron. Research includes understanding pathogen life cycles to improve BMPs and evaluation of sanitizers for greenhouse surfaces and tools. Nina develops a better understanding on how boxwood cultivar and relative humidity may impact the blight pathogen reproduction and how the disease symptoms on less susceptible cultivars may differ from English boxwood and other most susceptible cultivars.

Karen Snover-Clift

Co-Project Director and Director of the Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, diagnoses plant diseases on a wide range of host plants including woody ornamentals, herbaceous plants, fruits, vegetables, turfgrass, and field crops. She trains Master Gardeners, Extension Educators, and other green industry members on the basics of plant disease and the pathogens that cause them, as well as introducing youth to the vast world of fungi. As Associate Director of the Northeast Plant Diagnostic Network, Karen is liaison to the NPDN and Master Gardeners.

Postdoctoral Associates 

Urmila Adhikari*, Virginia Tech

Vanina Castroagudín, USDA ARS Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit

Ihsan Khaliq, Virginia Tech

Srikanth Kodati, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

Xiaoping Li, Virginia Tech

Prabha Liyanapathiranaga, Tennessee State University

Mana Ohkura, Oregon State University

Olanike Omolehin*, Virginia Tech

Xiao Yang*, USDA ARS Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit

*having officially left the project after making significant contributions

Graduate Students

Ravi Bika*, Tennessee State University

Bhawana Ghimire, Tennessee State University

Gabriel Sacher, Oregon State University 

Summer Interns & Other Assistants 

Cole Jackson, Virginia Tech

Kimberly Clark, Virginia Tech

Robert Holtz, Virginia Tech

Paulina Rychlik, Cornell University

*having graduated and left the project