Tammy Parsons, assistant director of nursery research at the John T. Harrington Forestry Research Center at Mora, was born and raised in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and has always had a passion for the outdoors.
Her career with NMSU started in 2008 assisting with seedling nursery production and research projects in the field. From there, she has grown to be recognized as one of the leaders in nursery production systems in the country. She has grown more than two million seedlings over her career and has elevated the reputation of the nursery program.
With the recent fires in New Mexico and around the entire western U.S., with more likely to come, there will be a massive demand for seedlings for reforestation purposes. It will be people like Parsons who will help to restore these degraded environments and create future forests.
In her spare time, Parsons is an ultra-marathon runner.