Violet Talbot is a retired early childhood teacher who spent much of her career inspiring children and educators to investigate the natural world. She counts the prairies and woodlands of her native Oklahoma, and childhood visits to the deserts and seacoast of southern California, as the genesis of her delight in nature and rugged spaces. Talbot was a founding teacher at Cold Spring School in New Haven and taught at Foote School for many years. She has worked at numerous daycare centers and directed the New Haven school system’s Early Childhood Resource Center. She is also a garden designer, and in addition to planning private spaces and playgrounds, has worked for decades encouraging people to use native plants in their domestic landscapes. She is very pleased to be a part of the URI board, and eager to put her energies behind Greenspace initiatives to bring community gardening to all our neighborhoods.