American Horticultural Society announces new leadership roles, honors retiring editor

The American Horticultural Society (AHS) is welcoming two professionals to its leadership team and bidding farewell to a cornerstone of its editorial team. 

Daniel Vincent has been named director of membership and communications. With more than 25 years of experience in nonprofit membership and marketing, Vincent will oversee AHS’s acquisition, renewal and communication programs.

His background includes managing membership programs at The Trustees of Reservations, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Landmarks Conservancy, The Frick Collection, Paul Taylor Dance Co. and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

A Washington, D.C., native and graduate of Georgetown University, Vincent currently resides in Massachusetts. A performing arts enthusiast, Vincent serves on the Board of the Berkshire Bach Society and was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

Rochelle Greayer joins the AHS as editor of The American Gardener, the organization’s bimonthly membership magazine.

A garden expert and entrepreneur, she founded Pith + Vigor, a literary newspaper and online magazine, and created the blog Studio ‘g’, named one of the top ten gardening blogs by Better Homes & Gardens. She also co-founded Leaf Magazine and contributed to Apartment Therapy as the weekly columnist of "The Gardenist.”

A graduate of the English Gardening School in London, Greayer has designed gardens for private residences and hotels since 2002. She has contributed to several gardening books and published her first solo work, Cultivating Garden Style, in 2014. Her background includes co-founding the Harvard Farmers Market and a previous career as a physicist and rocket scientist.

David J. Ellis, editor of The American Gardener, has announced his retirement at the end of this year, after a 40-year career in communications, including 30 years with the AHS.

Ellis joined the AHS as assistant editor in 1994 and became editor of The American Gardener in 1998, overseeing nearly 200 issues and several redesigns of the magazine. He also supervised the society's garden book publishing program, helped manage AHS’s communication and outreach programs and often served as the society's spokesperson.

With the AHS, Ellis coordinated the publication of more than 15 gardening books and served as project director for Homegrown Harvest (Mitchell Beazley, 2010). He contributed to several encyclopedias, including The AHS Encyclopedia of Gardening Techniques (Mitchell Beazley, 2013), the AHS A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants (DK Publishing, 2004) and the AHS Encyclopedia of Perennials (DK Publishing, 2006). He also wrote numerous articles for The American Gardener and other gardening publications.

His experience led to appearances on national radio programs like National Public Radio’s “Science Friday” and the "Kojo Nnamdi Show," participation in horticultural panels across the country and hosting tours internationally for the AHS Travel Study program. An active member of Garden Communicators International since 1998, Ellis was named a GardenComm Fellow in 2008.

Prior to the AHS, Ellis worked as a physical scientist at the U.S. Bureau of Mines and as a reporter with the Shippensburg News Chronicle. He holds a Bachelor of Science in geology and English literature from Dickinson College and completed coursework for a master’s degree in science communication from the University of Maryland.

“We are thrilled to welcome Daniel and Rochelle to the AHS family. Their expertise will be invaluable as we continue to inspire and educate gardeners across the nation and afar,” said Suzanne Laporte, president and CEO of the AHS. “We also extend our deepest gratitude to David Ellis, whose contributions to The American Gardener, our organization and the horticultural community have been immeasurable. His three decades of dedication have shaped our flagship publication into a beloved resource for gardeners nationwide.”