Bio – Gregg, Katharine B.

Gregg, Katharine composite

Education:

        • B.A. Emory University, 1966 (Biology)
        • Ph.D. University of Miami, 1973 (Biology)

Served:

  • Curator of the George B. Rossbach Herbarium, 1985-present
  • Chair, Wesleyan Landscape Committee, 2007-present

Taught:

        • Associate Professor of Biology and Director of the Greenhouse, 1980-85
        • Assistant Professor of Biology and Director of the Greenhouse, 1976-80
        • Professor of Biology, Director of the Greenhouse, and Curator of the George B. Rossbach Herbarium 1985-2012
        • Professor of Biology, Director of the Greenhouse, and Curator of the George B. Rossbach Herbarium, Emerita 2013-present

Notes:

        • Digitized and databased the George B. Rossback Herbarium, making it available to the worldwide scientific community. See it here.
        • Ph.D. Dissertation: Doctoral dissertation: Studies on the control of sex expression in the genera Cycnoches and Catasetum, Subtribe Catasetinae, Orchidaceae
        • Led travel courses with her husband, Dr. Carl Colson: Tropical Rainforest Ecology in the Peruvian Amazon (five times, most recently in May 2015); Tropical Marine Biology in Jamaica seven times; Tropical Ecology in Belize three times
        • Course specialties: Plant Systematics, Plant Physiology, Microbiology, and Experimental Biology, plus non-major courses in West Virginia Natural History and Plant Science.
        • Research interests include ecological physiology, reproductive biology, pollination biology, and population dynamics of orchids.
        • Over a period of some 35 years she studied native orchids in West Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina, publishing over 20 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, and presenting her work at international, national, and regional meetings.
        • Her orchid research has contributed to the management of orchid populations on the Monongahela National Forest and at Canaan Valley State Park in West Virginia and in the Morningside Nature Center in Gainesville, Florida.
        • She recently co-authored a floristic study of a species-diverse meadow in Barbour County, West Virginia, and has been helping to develop and manage Buckhannon’s Nature Park and Learning Trail.
        • For 20 years she served as a Consultant-Evaluator for the Higher Learning Commission, for which she visited small church-related, liberal arts institutions like West Virginia Wesleyan throughout the Midwest.
        • Professional Memberships
          • American Orchid Society
          • Association of Southeastern Biologists
          • Association for Tropical Biology
          • Botanical Society of America
          • Omicron Delta Kappa
          • Organization for Tropical Studies
          • Phi Beta Kappa (Emory University)
          • Phi Kappa Phi (Charter member, West Virginia Wesleyan College)
          • Phi Sigma National Biology Honorary (Emory University)
          • Southern Appalachian Botanical Club
          • West Virginia Academy of Sciences
          • West Virginia Native Plant Society (Charter member)

Sources:

PLM 4/7/2019; Revised 4/18/2019