Working closely with Margaret Hatcher, Robert Parsley, and Geomantic Designs, as well as with the UM architecture and design faculty and buildings and grounds team, Bosey put herself into almost every leaf, blade, frond, and flower that now flourishes on campus. She was an ardent supporter of the University’s John C. Gifford Arboretum, a collection of rare plants and trees maintained for educational and research purposes and to inspire an appreciation for tropical vegetation. She opened a series of palmetums featuring palms and cycads from several countries. Her efforts continue to make buildings brighter, vistas more colorful and textured, and breezeways, walkways, and seating areas more inviting.
UM President Julio Frenk is pleased to present the Roberta “Bosey” Fulbright Foote Prize in her honor to a member of the UM community—faculty, staff, student, or trustee—who has made a meaningful and lasting contribution to the beauty, humanity, and future of the campus.
How to nominate
Past recipients
2022 Recipients
Terri Hood
Dr. Terri Hood, who specializes in environmental science and geology, has been working with the University’s Sustainability Department and the John C. Gifford Arboretum to transform what was once a landscape debris area into the Sustainable Suburbia Garden. She also serves as adviser to the CommUnity Garden Club, where she was instrumental in relocating their historical Hecht garden raised beds to find them a new home in the heart of the Sustainable Garden, which is now being shared with the University community to teach people how to create their own sustainable gardens at home.
Dr. Hood is the Associate Director for the Ecosystem Science and Policy (ESC) undergraduate program. Her research interests include chemical processes occurring in coastal sediments (kinetics of pyrite oxidation in marine systems) and development of new methods in electron microscopy. Her research in the last decade has focused on deciphering human impacts in coastal environments using sediment records. Dr. Hood's areas of study have included the Everglades/Florida Bay ecosystem and the Mississippi River outflow region in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Gustavo “Gus” Tovar
Gus serves as the Environment and Conservation Organization (ECO) Agency Chair and can often be found working in the garden with Dr. Hood. He collaborated to create a month-long Earth Month celebration at the University, instead of just a day, and worked to get solar panels approved for placement at the Watsco Center. This solar panel project is a step toward increasing the amount of photovoltaic rooftop solar systems on campus to make Florida known as the Solar State, as stated on the ECO agency page.
Not only does Gus show his love and passion for the environment on our beautiful UM Campus, but also within the community. Recently, Gus planned out a yearlong project known as the Earthbench, the goal of which was to eliminate 400 pounds of single-use plastic and waste to transform it into a bench to be used and enjoyed by the community. The Earthbench is a structure that is made of bottle bricks—empty water bottles stuffed with inorganic materials, such as cellophane, wrappers, and small non-recyclable plastics—which can now be enjoyed in the Sustainable Garden.
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Inaugural Recipient
Stephen D. Pearson, director of the John C. Gifford Arboretum, is the inaugural recipient of the Roberta “Bosey” Fulbright Foote Prize. Over the years, Pearson helped start the Tropical Flowering Tree Society and served as president of the Friends of Chapman Field. For the last 24 years, he has been a member of the board of directors of the Montgomery Botanical Center. As Chairman of the City of Miami’s Beautification Committee, he led volunteers in planting flowering and native trees along I-95 and other highways in the early 1990’s. He has been honored with the Outstanding Volunteer Award from the Florida Urban Forestry Council and the National Outstanding Volunteer Award from American Forests and the National Urban Forestry Council.
Through his enthusiasm for preserving the history of our community’s natural environment, Pearson has created a peaceful oasis for meditation and relaxation on our campus. With a diverse and unusual collection of over 450 trees that spans every continent except Antarctica, the Gifford Arboretum is also a valuable tool for education and research.
“Real estate and business law was my profession, but horticulture and plants were my vocation,” says Pearson, who worked as a lawyer for most of his career.
