Horticulture Faculty & Staff

Full-Time Faculty & Staff:

Renee Harber
faculty
office: Clairmont Hall 121
telephone: 503-657-6958 extension 2785
fax: 503-650-6662
email: rharber@clackamas.edu

From her early years on a farm in Indiana, Renee developed a love of plants and gardening, and is committed to helping others develop a better understanding of plants.  She began teaching horticulture at CCC in 2002, including courses in Plant ID, Propagation, Greenhouse Crops and Computer Aided Landscape Design.  She earned a doctorate in Horticulture from Oregon State University, where she studied how plants survive environmental stress - in particular, low temperature stress.  And, she did a post-doc with the USDA Agricultural Research Service outside of Macon Georgia.  Renee has been an OSU Master Gardener since 2000.  And, she also creates the gardening crossword puzzles for the Oregonian’s Home & Garden section.

Elizabeth Howley
department chair
office: Clairmont Hall 119
telephone: 503-657-6958 extension 2389
fax: 503-650-6662
email: ehowley@clackamas.edu

Elizabeth has enjoyed teaching at Clackamas Community College since 1983. Her greatest joys have been the successes of her students who have become successful owners and managers of horticultural businesses, and developed their gardening abilities growing trees, shrubs, herbs, perennials, and vegetables. Elizabeth serves as faculty advisor for horticulture majors, helping students develop their educational plans and select courses. Elizabeth is a frequent lecturer for Master Gardeners, and writes a monthly garden column for Horticulture, the nations oldest and finest gardening magazine, and this information serves gardeners in the Pacific Northwest.

Bob Nelson
faculty
office: Clairmont Hall 125
telephone: 503-657-6958 extension 2236
fax: 503-650-6662
email: bobn@clackamas.edu

Having grown up on a family farm and having been an owner/operator of a tree service Bob has a wide variety of horticultural experiences to compliment the variety of horticulture classes he teaches. He is avid gardener and is often found in his garden "The landscape at my home is a work in progress, my hope is that it will never be completed". A current area of interest is weeds and their life stories. Bob is a frequent speaker at many horticultural events such as Master Gardener Training, Yard, Garden and Patio Show, and the Ornamental Northwest Seminars. Bob has taught a wide variety of horticulture classes at CCC over the past 10 years. He earned an MS from the University of Idaho in 1978 and has 10 years experience as an owner/operator of small horticultural business. Bob is active with the Interstate Professional Applicators Association and the Oregon Landscape Contractors Association organizations.

Bruce Nelson
faculty
office: Clairmont Hall 122
telephone: 503-657-6958 extension 2786
fax: 503-650-6662
email: brucen@clackamas.edu

An interest in utilizing a variety of instructional techniques, a passion for gardening, a fascination with insects and a fervent interest in the urban forest allow Bruce to greatly enjoy the challenge of teaching a wide variety of Horticulture classes.

As faculty advisor for the CCC Landscape Club, Bruce accompanies interested students who compete every March in Landscaping competitive events at Student Career Days.

With a MS in Entomology from Washington State University and continuing status as a Certified Arborist, pest management challenges remain a strong interest with Bruce.

Loretta Mills
department secretary
office: Clairmont Hall 120
telephone: 503-657-6958 extension 2246
Fax: 503-650-6662
email: lorettam@clackamas.edu

A return to Clackamas Community College was in the plans and the Horticulture department was a perfect fit!  Her love of nature and all things green tie in nicely with the staff and students of the department. 

Chris Miskow
department lab assistant
office: Clairmont Hall 121
telephone: 503-657-6958 extension 2738
fax: 503-650-6662
email: chrism@clackamas.edu

Chris Miskow has been with the Horticulture Department for several years. He graduated from University of Connecticut and New York Botanic Gardens/Fordham. He is a talented musician as well as a luthier. He enjoys kayaking and has built his own sea kayak.

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Adjunct Faculty

Mary Lou Adams
instructor
office: Clairmont Hall 121
telephone: 503-657-6958 extension 2246

 

Mary Lou lives with her husband on 6 acres near Canby.  They have 4 children, 9 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.  Mary Lou began her floral work by taking classes at Michigan State University while her husband, Dave, was enrolled in Commercial Floral Production classes.  While Dave attended OSU, Mary Lou worked at Leading Floral Co. in Corvallis for 4 years.  Later while living in South Dakota, she was asked by the local FTD unit to develop a summer floral design school for florist employees.  For four years, students attended this class from all over South Dakota and Minnesota.  During this period, Mary Lou designed, and managed a new floral shop in Brookings, SD.  Following another move back to Oregon, Mary Lou began teaching Commercial Floral Design at CCC and has taught here for over 25 years.  Along with daughters Sandi and Dianne, Mary Lou operated a floral shop for several years in Lake Oswego.  Husband Dave does overseas horticultural consulting, and on two projects Mary Lou was asked to present floral design classes.  One project was in Kampala, Uganda and the latest project lasted two weeks in Davao, Philippines, where she spoke to a group of nearly 500 florists and flower growers.  Other than her grand- and great-grandchildren, her greatest enjoyment is seeing students learn the mechanics and art of floral design!

Linda Beutler
instructor
office Clairmont Hall 121
telephone 503-657-6958 extension 2630

email: lindabe@clackamas.edu

Linda was raised in a family of avid gardeners, learning early that gardening is a source of pleasure and serenity. Her career is in floral design, emphasizing growing flowers for cutting. "Gardeners make better florists," is a statement her students often hear. In her years at CCC, she brings her love of floristry  into the classroom for the spring and fall sessions of "The Flower Arranger's Garden."  Linda's goal is to teach her students about the surprising variety of cutting material that can be grown in Oregon, and to make them comfortable with easy first steps in floral design.  In addition to 16 years as a full-time florist, Linda is active in several local organizations, especially the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest Clematis Society.  She is a nationally published garden writer, and lectures on a wide range of topics (roses, clematis, herbaceous perennials, cut flowers) for Portland's Yard, Garden & Patio Show, the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in Seattle, and many local gardening organizations.  She is a 14-year veteran of the OSU Master Gardener Program.

Steve Burris
instructor
office: Clairmont Hall 121
telephone 503-657-6958 extension 2051

email: sburris@clackamas.edu

Steve started in the Landscaping business in 1966.  He has worked for only four companies and has also owned his own company.  Steve has extensive knowledge about his profession, partially because he loves what he does and partially due to the fact that he is very creative.  He has been a member of the Oregon Landscape Contractors Association for 10 years.  He has served this organization in several capacities; liaison with the state organization, Treasurer, Vice President, and President.  Steve has participated in the Yard, Garden & Patio show for several years.  Steve is married, has 4 daughters, 2 stepdaughters, and 14 grandchildren.  His hobbies are work, golf, and hunting.  This marks his 4th year of instructing the spring term Hardscape Installation class at CCC. 
 

Terry Flanagan
instructor
office: Clairmont Hall 121
telephone: 503-657-6958 extension 2038
email: terryf@clackamas.edu

Terry Flanagan has been working in arboricultural industry for over 25 years starting in the Boston, MA area after a “tree devastating”, heavy, wet snow damaged thousands of trees.  Upon earning Natural Resource Management degree from Colorado State University, he worked along the Front Range of Colorado where trees need the caring hand of an arborist to grow well. Realizing that the really big and beautiful trees grow in the Northwest--where trees can truly be trees--Terry joined his girlfriend who had just been transferred to the Portland area.  She is now his wife, and they and their daughter reside in Lake Oswego. Terry worked for one of the largest arboricultural firms in the Portland area for 13 years primarily as the Tree Division Manager.  He has served for short periods as Manager of the Landscape Construction Division and as Business Development Manager.  He is very active on various non-profit boards that work to promote, educate, and research the benefits of trees to the environment and our society.  Terry is currently serving as Vice President of the International Society of Arboriculture, a professional group with over 15,000 members in over 22 countries throughout the world.  Terry teaches the fall term Tree Climber Training class and substitutes for other arboricultural classes when necessary.
 

Alison Heimowitz
instructor
office: Clairmont Hall 127
telephone: 503-657-6958 extension 2644
email: alisonh@clackamas.edu

Alison has over 15 years of experience in the field of environmental education. She currently is the education coordinator for Clackamas Community College's Environmental Learning Center (ELC). Alison is responsible for managing school and field trip programs, delivering teacher education workshops, leading the planning efforts of a project to restore the ELC site, and developing a certificate and degree program for environmental educators in the state of Oregon. She serves on both the North America Association for Environmental Education's Certification Advisory Council and the Environmental Education Association of Oregon's Board of Directors. Alison loves exploring the natural world with her family and has passion for horses.

 

Dave Snell
instructor
office: Clairmont Hall 121
telephone: 503-657-6958 extension 2784
email: daves@clackamas.edu

Dave Snell was raised in Portland, and graduated from Portland State in 1972.  He began installing irrigation systems while in college.  In 1975, Dave founded and managed an irrigation contracting business, but sold the business in 1985 to begin working in sales and management for irrigation material suppliers until 1998.  Since 1998 he has carried out independent irrigation consulting, worked on water conservation projects, and helped irrigation manufacturers introduce new water efficient products into the marketplace.   The nursery and landscaping at his farm has become a “test lab” for new ag and turf irrigation products and ideas.  Dave is a certified Irrigation Auditor and designer with the Irrigation Association.  The most satisfaction he has received from sixteen years of teaching irrigation at Clackamas is bumping into former students who have furthered their careers with the knowledge they acquired in the irrigation class at CCC.
 

John Lee
instructor
office Clairmont Hall 121
telephone 503-657-6958 extension 2118
email: johnlee@clackamas.edu     

John was a registered landscape architect in the state California from 1972 to 1989. His current Oregon registration extends from 1974 to the present. He attended three years at Portland State University in the school of Architecture and Allied Arts and three years in upper division classes at the University of Oregon, School of Landscape Architecture. Military obligation interrupted his final terminal project.

John's 37 years as a registered landscape architect includes 21 years of practice in 6 different offices and 16 years as a sole proprietor of his own business. His experience includes large and small scale residential, commercial, recreational, environmental, industrial, and institutional projects. His passion is single family residential design where the art of landscape design is more diverse and less confounded by formula driven codes.

His memberships past and present include: Clackamas County Design Review Board, City of Tualatin Design Review Board, Clackamas County Surface Mining Committee, City of Lake Oswego Natural Resources Advisory Board, ASLA, Association of Wetland Managers, City of Lake Oswego Sensitive Lands Ordinance Task Force, Clatsop Community College Environmental Technology Advisory Committee, Rules Committee for the Oregon State Board of Landscape Architects, Volunteer with the US Fish and Wildlife Service Cultural Resources Team.

John's interests include: Birding and habitat study, Wildlife Photography, Wood media art, kayaking, hiking, motorcycling, fly fishing, mentoring young members of his profession, and Playing the tribal flute.

 

Jenni Ward
instructor
office: Clairmont Hall 121
telephone: 503-657-6958 extension 2155
email: jenniw@clackamas.edu

Jenni was raised in a family business which is a biomedical testing lab in the buckeye state of Ohio.  Jenni got her love of plants from her dad whose excitement for plants was contagious.  She learned about Oregon from a Botany professor at University of Kentucky who spoke about the big trees in the rain forests of the PNW.  She graduated from Oregon State University with a B.S. in Rangeland Management in the college of Agriculture.  She owned and managed a wholesale plant nursery for 17 years in the Willamette Valley and has held outside positions in nursery management and propagation; plant and ecosystem id; range trend analyses; with experience in tissue culture, soil and water testing.  Jenni has taught at CCC since 2005 in Plant Propagation, Plant ID, Nursery Management and CWE.