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He does some consulting work now but he's home full-time with our boys, which has completely enabled my career to take this trajector y. You cannot do it all. You can tr y, but it's tough. Let's just say you can't do it all well. For instance, I have totally given up on cook ing. I've been lucky because my husband loves cook ing. So why should I? ere's no reason to delve into that [laughs]. He loves it. A nd he's great at it. It's great for our kids to have this stability of a parent who's oen at home with them because a job like mine requires extra hours and evenings, so it's a great balance for our family. It's interesting…at least 60% of the women I interview in our generation (aged 55 and younger) are in a situation where they're the majority breadwinner. It has become pretty common. When we first started we felt like we heard that a lot of people were doing it, but we didn't know that many people doing it. ere's been a lot of emphasis in the media how we need to see women in leadership positions and how the divide between the genders in that regard is still really wide. I think in order to have more women in leadership positions, we need more men to support them in those roles. We all need to be as collaborative as we can so we can all get ahead. A nd in order to get ahead, you have to have a certain fearless streak and really roll your sleeves up and do it. Did you have any female role models growing up or in your career? I had a male mentor. I was very close with the CEO of the New York Botanical Garden, who was a man. He was really my mentor. It's hard until we have more women in those leadership posts…it's hard for that mentoring to happen. Was it a culture shock to move to Sarasota? Actually, it was harder to move from Manhaan to Westchester County than to move from Westchester to Sarasota, because this really is a city atmosphere and there's a lot going on. I don't miss the north at all. To have this wonderful weather and this energ y here… what's great is that there are a lot of the amenities of a big city, but in a smaller seing. My whole family is really enjoying it. e school system is excellent and my kids are doing great here. We're really happy. I'm a history buff so I love to hear about the beginnings of things…what can you tell me about the Selby? Selby Gardens was founded by Marie Selby who, in fact, was a wonderful female role model. e Selbys were a founding family and had a huge impact on Sarasota. is house [where we are meeting] was built in the 1920s. Marie and her husband Bill came from Ohio and looked for an area to have a respite and a vacation place. ey fell completely in love and ended up moving here full time. Marie Selby was ver y outdoorsy with a love for gardening and horses and dogs. She is credited as being the first woman to drive cross countr y, which was really a ver y big thing at that time. Bill was in the shotgun seat. She had a ver y adventurous spirit. For the time, she really was a strong female leader. Marie Selby lived a long life here and passed away in the early 70s. She had no children and it was her wish in her bequest that her property be le as a botanical garden to be enjoyed by the public. Over the years, more land was acquired, until we now have 15 acres. It's a really wonderful thing she did for this community because this property is an oasis. Sarasota is booming and there's a lot of Robert and Jennifer with their sons Luke and Noah. development, but this oasis will remain as a land preser ve for the people of Sarasota to enjoy. Tell me about some of the exciting things going on at the Gardens. We have this interdisciplinar y ex hibit here right now, "Marc Chagall, Flowers, and the French R iviera: e Color of Dreams." Chagall has been studied many, many times but never in the context of his love of flowers, and never in a botanical garden. So it really is a histor y-mak ing ex hibit and basically evokes Chagall 's French R iviera. Actually, Sarasota and the R iviera are ver y similar. e waterfront…the light…there are a lot of similarities. (See page 95 for details about this stunning Chagall exhibit.) During the run of the show, once a month we have had our Chagall Nights, where visitors can see the exhibit at night and enjoy different performance arts groups. We have had the ballet and the opera, with the orchestra in June. is community is so much about the arts, it's wonderful to collaborate with these other groups for experiences in the garden. I think that's what people want— experiences. e FSU/Asolo Conservatory had a run of Shakespeare in the Garden with "A Midsummer Night's Dream." It was amazing…the first day tickets went on sale, it sold out. e next big ex hibit is in October, our orchid show, and then coming up aer that in Februar y 2018 we will be doing an ex hibit of A ndy Warhol called "Flowers in the Factor y." We really are combining the arts and nature in order to create unique ex hibits that you wouldn't find any where else. I'm just really blessed that we have such a fantastic team that has been able to execute this new direction the institution has taken. ere has been a lot of freedom to explore and really create a new vision for Selby's future. I feel so proud of the team that's here; they have done an amazingly brilliant job of executing the new initiatives. If you could give your 16-year-old self some words of wisdom, what would they be? I' d say, "the on ly th ing to fear is fear itsel f." I k now that wasn't said by me f irst [laughs], but it's ver y appropriate. In order to move a head you have to have a cer tain amount of fearlessness or abi l it y to act in the face of whatever you m ight be af raid of. Visit GravitasMag.com to hear the full interview embedded into the digital version. Subscribe at GravitasMag.com | 61 Subscribe at GravitasMag.com | 61

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