Sylvia Steiner
Greenhouse Technician

E-mail: ssteiner@danforthcenter.org

Sylvia has been working at the Danforth Center for ten years and is responsible for keeping the potting room clean and organized. She has a BA from Webster University in St. Louis and a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. She worked in Cambridge as an Art Director at MIT Press and later as a Design Manager at Yale University Press. She moved back to St. Louis to be near family.

Olive Davis
Greenhouse Assistant

E-mail: odavis@danforthcenter.org​

​Olive works part-time as a Greenhouse Assistant while earning her Certificate of Proficiency in Horticulture from St. Louis Community College. In her free time Olive is a student of the ancient art of Bonsai and is a member of the Bonsai Society of St. Louis. Her other hobbies include painting with acrylics and playing music on violin and cello.

Nick Hastey
Greenhouse Assistant

E-mail: nhastey@danforthcenter.org

​Nick always had an interest in plants growing up. From playing in the woods of De Soto to helping family members out in their gardens, he was always around plants.

When it came to schooling, he had no idea what to do. The last class that he took for an Associate’s degree happened to be Intro to Horticulture. After completing the class, Nick had fallen in love with it and turned around and got his second associates in Horticulture.
From there on he worked with the Botanical Gardens and in greenhouses until he landed a job working part time at the Danforth Center.
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It has been 6 months since he started working at Danforth and he loves every minute of it. 

Tracy Minner
Greenhouse Assistant

E-mail: tminner@danforthcenter.org

John Derda
Greenhouse Assistant

E-mail: jderda@danforthcenter.org

​John grew up in the St. Louis area and went to North County Tech High School where he studied machine tool technology. After graduating, John joined the military and served as an artilleryman until the age of 22. He then returned to college where he studied social work, graduating in 2016.

After some time in Colorado, John moved back to St. Louis, where he took a job as a case manager at St. Patrick Center. However, his time in Colorado and his proximity to the Missouri Botanical Garden had instilled a greater appreciation for nature and plant biology, so he decided to go back to school to study horticulture at St. Louis Community College-Meramec.
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It was at Meramec that John learned about the Danforth Center’s Summer Internship Program from his instructor and Danforth Horticulturalist, Mary Lyon. John was accepted into the internship program and at its completion, was offered a position as a part-time greenhouse assistant at the Danforth Center while he completes is horticultural studies.