Janet Meakin Poor is a landscape design

Landscape design

Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practised by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice landscape design bridges between landscape architecture and garden design.-Design scope:...

 specialist based out of Winnetka

Winnetka

Winnetka may refer to:One of the following places in the United States:* Winnetka, Los Angeles* Winnetka, Illinois* Winnetka Heights, Dallas, TexasOr to the following educational experiment:* The Winnetka Plan...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. She is the great great niece of the famous American impressionist

American Impressionism

Impressionism, a style of painting characterized by loose brushwork and vivid colors, was practiced widely among American artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.-An emerging artistic style from Paris:...

 painter Lewis Henry Meakin

Lewis Henry Meakin

Lewis Henry Meakin was an American Impressionist landscape artist born in Newcastle, England, moving to Cincinnati, Ohio with his family in 1863. After studying art in Europe he returned to Cincinnati where he taught at the Cincinnati Art Academy...

.

Career

She has been vice president of the Garden Club of America, vice chairman on the board of trustees of the Center For Plant Conservation, chair of Open Days; 1989–2000, a showcase of hundreds of American gardens by the national organization The Garden Conservancy, advisor to the historic country estate at the Filoli

Filoli

Filoli is a country house set in of formal gardens surrounded by estate, located in Woodside, California, about 25 miles south of San Francisco, at the southern end of Crystal Springs Lake, on the eastern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains....

 Center near San Francisco, on the awards committee at the Winterthur Museum and Country Estate in Delaware

Delaware

Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...

, a board member with the American Horticultural Society

American Horticultural Society

The American Horticultural Society is a nonprofit, membership-based organization that promotes excellence in American horticulture. It is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia....

, and a member of the advisory council of the United States National Arboretum

United States National Arboretum

The United States National Arboretum is an arboretum in Washington, D.C., operated by the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service as a division of the Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center...

, an appointment by the United States Secretary of Agriculture

United States Secretary of Agriculture

The United States Secretary of Agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The current secretary is Tom Vilsack, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on 20 January 2009. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other...

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She is also an advisor on the McKee Botanical Garden

McKee Botanical Garden

The McKee Botanical Garden 18 acres is a non-profit, subtropical botanical garden in Vero Beach, Florida. It is located at 350 U.S. Highway 1, Vero Beach, Florida. It was founded in 1929, when Waldo Sexton and Arthur G. McKee purchased an tropical hammock along the Indian River...

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She is a driving force behind saving and conserving our planet’s botanical heritage. At 40, she decided to pursue her passion for plants in earnest. She cobbled together a landscape architecture degree from three different schools, traveling as far away as the University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

 to study.

The mother of two then launched a career that led her to the forefront of plant conservation and landscape design locally, nationally and internationally, including serving as board chair of the Chicago Botanic Garden

Chicago Botanic Garden

Located at 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Illinois, USA, the Chicago Botanic Garden is a living plant museum situated on nine islands featuring 24 display gardens and surrounded by four natural habitats: McDonald Woods, Dixon Prairie, Skokie River Corridor, and Lakes and Shores. The Garden is open...

, where she has headed an ambitious program to collect seeds from the world’s endangered plants. The Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG) has taken a leading conservation role nationally and internationally under Poor’s leadership. She encouraged CBG into its participation in the international Millennium Seed Bank Project

Millennium Seed Bank Project

The Millennium Seed Bank Project is an international conservation project coordinated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Launched in the year 2000 and housed in the Wellcome Trust Millennium Building situated in the grounds of Wakehurst Place, West Sussex, its purpose is to provide an "insurance...

. By 2010, seeds from thousands of the world’s rare and threatened plants will be stored, some of them in Glencoe.

Currently, she is playing a major role in the development of the new Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice

Dan and Ada Rice

Daniel F. Rice and his wife Ada L. Rice were American businesspeople, thoroughbred racehorse owners and breeders, and philanthropists. Dan Rice was educated in the public school system of Chicago, Illinois and spent two years at Depaul University and the University of Notre Dame. In 1919, he...

 Plant Conservation Science Center at CBG, which provides laboratories and teaching facilities for more than 200 PhD scientists, land managers, students and interns. It opened in September 2009.

Personal life

She was married to Edward King Poor III, a partner in a recruiting firm and a keen golfer who served in the U.S. Army in World War II. He died in 2002. She has two sons; E.King Poor a partner in a Chicago law firm and Thomas Meakin Poor owner of the Bin 66 Fine Wine and Spirits Stores.

Janet Meakin Poor Symposium

The Janet Meakin Poor Symposium at the Chicago Botanical Garden was created to highlight the increasing need for a cooperative international plant conservation effort to better understand the impact of climate change on plants. Some of the best plant conservation research, practice, and outreach from around the globe will be highlighted. Internationally recognized experts will discuss global strategies for plant conservation through science and education. The Symposium is partially endowed by the friends of Janet Meakin Poor.

Awards

Poor's many awards include:

• Catherine H Sweeney Award from the American Horticultural Society
• Hutchinson Award from the Chicago Horticultural Society
• Creative Leadership Award and Medal of Honor from the Garden Club of America
• American Horticultural Society Book Award (for Plants That Merit Attention: Shrubs)
• Chicago Botanic Garden Horticulture Society Medal