Award of Merit
The Award of Merit is presented each year to the SMA
member who has contributed in an outstanding and
meritorious way to the advancement of the SMA's
goals. This year's Award of Merit honoree, Dorothy
Abeyta, epitomizes the qualities that we value. She has
over three decades of experience in urban forestry and
has served long and skillfully in various roles with San
Jose, California and consulting firms, currently working
for the Davey Resource Group. Dorothy is a long-time
member of SMA, ISA, ASCA, and other professional
groups. She is also a past president of the California
Urban Forest Council. Most recently, she has served the
SMA as our California liaison and contributed mightily
to the conference program planning committee. She
is also a current SMA Board Member. Well done to
our 2019 Award of Merit winner, Dorothy Abeyta.
Appreciation of
Conference Planners
Putting together a conference takes a crowd of people and
lots of hard work. We owe huge gratitude to everyone
on the Cleveland conference team who helped make our
conference such a success! For every conference, there
is a core group of a few volunteers who take the bull
by the horns and coordinate the conference to make it
work. This year's conference was again exceptional. In
gratitude for their splendid work, the SMA recognized
our trade show, education, and conference planning
leaders for all they did to make the conference such a
productive and memorable event. Bravo and thank you
to Stephen Harris, Dorothy Abeyta, and Walt Warriner.
Recognition of
Outgoing President
Finally, on behalf of all of our members, incoming SMA
President Darren Green took the opportunity to recog-
nize and thank our outgoing SMA President, Keith Cline,
for all of his hard work in his term. Keith is a superb
and approachable leader, beloved by his colleagues.
Congratulations again to all, and many thanks to
those who took time to nominate worthy col-
leagues. Start thinking now about who might be
deserving of recognition in Louisville in 2020!
Darren Green (right) presented outgoing
with an award of gratitude for his
Society. Photo by Michelle Sutton
Dorothy Abeyta has more than three decades
of experience in urban forestry leadership and
practice. Most recently, she has served the SMA
as our California liaison and contributed greatly to
conference program planning. She is a current SMA
Board Member and works as a project developer for
Davey Resource Group. Photo by Michelle Sutton
www.urban-forestry.com 21
