The Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society ( PHS ) is pleased to announce the election of four new members : Sharrieff Ali , Dr. Wilfreta Baugh , The Honorable Lillian Harris Ransom , and the regaining of long - full term Board member Kenneth G. Wood after a hiatus . Robin Potter has been freshly elected as the Chair of the Board of Directors for PHS . Christine Henisee , Loree D. Jones , and Jason E. Vermillion suffice as Vice Chairs of the Board .
As drawing card in the fields of entrepreneurship , occupation , medicine , law , and finance , the new members will assist manoeuvre PHS in its endeavor to increase health and health throughout the region .
“ As we focus our efforts on advancing the health and well - being of the region , the various background and experience of our unexampled Board members and the leading of our new Board Chair will be an priceless contribution to the next chapter of growth for the organization , ” say Matt Rader , PHS President .
unexampled members are elected to a three - class term on the 23 - person Board bringing their expertise , resource , and dedication to commission and projects throughout the organisation . Below is entropy on the raw members of the PHS Board of Directors and the newly elect Chair .
Sharrieff AliSharrieff Ali ’s entrepreneurial experience brace three 10 beginning with Dior - Rossi LTD , a style accessories design and manufacture company in Philadelphia with interior dispersion to Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdales department store . He was elect President of the Philadelphia Fashion Designers Alliance , a tri - state intent and manufacturers association , co - acquire with the Office of the City Representative of Philadelphia “ Philadelphia Dresses the World , ” a fashion and textile trade exhibition show arrange at the Philadelphia Civic Center . Mr. Ali serve as the Executive Committee Officer of the Spruce Hill Community Association for over 10 years and as a member of the organizing committee for the Penn / Alexander community catchment schooltime where he serve as Education Committee Co - Chair . He also serve as a Board Member of The Friends of Clark Park and participated in the fundraising efforts for the re - foresting and strong-arm environment improvement preparation and effectuation for the park . He is an active PHS Tree Tender in Germantown .
Dr. Wilfreta BaughDr . Wilfreta Baugh has demo at the Philadelphia Flower Show annually from 1974 until 2018 , at World Association of Flower Arrangers and other national shows and has place interpretive designs in museums . She is a volunteer at Emlen School , where she initially tutor reading and mathematics and later assist as an aesthetic wise man to the artistry instructor on bid plant pictures . Dr. Baugh taught Mathematics and do as Department Chair at Cooke Junior High School , a Philadelphia public school . She complete her undergraduate studies at Hampton University with a major in Chemistry and modest in Math , dispatch postgraduate school at Penn State with a major in Meteorology , completed medical school day at Jefferson Medical College , and residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Internal Medicine . She practice medicine from 1981 - 2013 . Dr. Baugh is a mother of two , grandmother of seven , and a smashing - grannie .
The Honorable Lillian Harris RansomJudge Ransom start her judicial vocation in 1995 when she was elect to a ten - year term on the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia . She was retained for two additional ten - year footing . During her tenure on the Philadelphia bench , she presided over cases in Family Court and in the Criminal Division . At the time of her engagement to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania , Judge Ransom was the Homicide Team Leader and was responsible for leading the carrying out of the re - sentencing of over 300 juveniles who had been sentenced to mandatory lifespan in prison .
When Judge Ransom start her career as a evaluator of the Pennsylvania Superior Court following her nominating address by Governor Tom Wolf in 2016 , she became the fourth African American to serve on that court in its 100 - plus year chronicle . She continued her service to the Commonwealth as a older judge of the Superior Court until 2018 . In 2018 , she assumed the position of Senior Judge for the First Judicial District in Philadelphia . She is the president of Our Garden Club of Philadelphia and Vicinity , the sometime continuously operate African American garden club in the United States .
Robin PotterRobin Potter was elected Chair of the Board of PHS as of January 1 , 2021 . An entrepreneur with all-embracing experience in the financial services software and software service industry , Robin ground and drove the speedy growth of a big - exfoliation business systems implementation firm that served Fortune 500 company . After sell that ship’s company , she retired from an active business enterprise calling and refocus on her cacoethes of gardening and tree farming . She later completed the credentials program at the Barnes Foundation ’s Arboretum School and became a Camden County Master Gardener . Robin join the Board of PHS in 2015 . She was electric chair of the Governance and Nominating Committee until the goal of 2020 . A longtime PHS military volunteer , she is a flight simulator for the PHS Tree Tenders program and was antecedently on PHS Council , carbon monoxide - chairwoman of the Philadelphia Flower Show ’s Early Morning Tour template , and chairwoman of the Plant Dividend member welfare committee . Robin is a alumnus of the Wharton School of Business ( MBA ) , Swarthmore College ( BA ) , and Harvard University ( MA ) .
Kenneth G. WoodKenneth G. Wood is Senior Vice President , Credit Risk Executive , with Bank of America ’s Global Commercial Banking team serve Pennsylvania and southerly New Jersey . Since calibrate from Villanova University , Ken has spend over 35 years in commercial banking , the last 18 twelvemonth with Bank of America . In add-on to being active nurseryman , Ken and his wife , Teresa , are 18th - century chronicle partizan . They are extremity of the President ’s Council for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation . Ken ’s first affair with PHS was on the Finance Committee in 2002 . He link the PHS Council in 2004 , serve on the Board since 2011 , and rotated off the Board at the close of 2019 . let in governance and finance , Ken ’s field of particular interest at PHS let in public gardens , the McLean Library , and PHS ’s story .
