Nan is an ethnobotanist with a focus on the history of crop plants and their wild relatives. Nan earned her graduate degree in geography from the University of Texas, where she researched traditional home gardens in Ciudad Vieja, Guatemala. She is currently finishing a project on the conservation of the native grapes that are the cousins of the wine grape. She enjoys working at Watermark Woods Native Plants in Hamilton, VA and she has been converting three acres into a native food forest. She is a member of the Virginia Native Plant Society and the Society for Ethnobotany.