Kendall Kroesen, Ph.D., community outreach coordinator for Tucson Mission Garden, who also leads birding groups, will be the FSL lecture speaker in October.
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
On Oct. 12 at 4 p.m. in the DesertView Theater, the Friends of SaddleBrooke Libraries (FSL) lecture will feature Kendall Kroesen, Ph.D., community outreach coordinator at Tucson Mission Garden.
Tucson Mission Garden is a living agricultural museum of Sonoran Desert-adapted heritage fruit trees, traditional local heirloom crops, and edible native plants.
Tucson Mission Garden is located at the foot of Sentinel Peak at the site of the Native American village of S-cuk Son (pronounced Chuk Shon), a place sacred to the Tohono O’odham. Current garden plots include native plants, early agriculture, Hohokam, O’odham before European contact, O’odham after European contact, Spanish, Mexican, Chinese, Yoeme, Africa in the Americas, medicinal, and youth. The garden is open to visitors and offers special exhibits and events.
Dr. Kroesen grew up in Southern California and earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology at the University of California, Riverside. After college, he worked for four years on archaeological and conservation projects and became a bird watcher. Later, Dr. Kroesen received a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of California, San Diego, after 20 months of fieldwork in Central Mexico. Kroesen held post-doctoral research positions at UCLA and at the Tucson VA Medical Center. In February of 2002, in a departure from social science, Kroesen joined the staff of the Tucson Audubon Society. There he was involved in communications, rural habitat restoration, and creation of an urban bird habitat program. Kroesen has served on a variety of community advisory committees, including the Tucson Parks and Recreation Commission. He now works as community outreach coordinator at the Mission Garden. He enjoys gardening, birding, and walking dogs with his wife Mary Beth Tyndall.
This lecture is free for FSL members and $5 for nonmembers.