Loraine Kohorn Washburn is an ecologist and conservation biologist based in Maine, most recently a conservation botanist and laboratory manager at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, CA.  Prior to this she taught marine science at Coastal Studies for Girls in Freeport, Maine. Loraine has taught conservation and environmental science at Duke University and at Bates College.  She has also worked in applying conservation science to land protection through serving on the board of the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, as well as serving on local Conservation and Environment Commissions.  Past work has included review of threatened Chinese plants for the Global Red List through IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), contributing chapters to an ecology textbook, and conducting research in the Sonoran desert on sexual dimorphism and reproductive allocation in a desert shrub.  The currents guiding Loraine's boat have been a profound love of all things living, a pressing curiosity about how species get by in the world, and a personal drive to bring consideration of maintenance of native biodiversity into public policy and land use decisions. Loraine is a native of Rhode Island, and has a Ph.D in Biology from UCLA and an undergraduate Biology degree from Brown University.