Queens Botanical Garden names new executive director
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Astoria resident Evie Hantzopoulos has been named the new executive director of the Queens Botanical Garden. Photo via QBG
By Jacob Kaye
The Queens Botanical Garden will head into the spring with a new executive director at its helm.
Former City Council candidate and executive director of Global Kids, Inc., Evie Hantzopoulos has been tapped to lead the Flushing cultural institution, the Queens Botanical Garden announced this week.
Hantzopoulos, who will officially start the job on Monday, will succeed Susan Lacerte, the 27-year executive director of the garden who retired in September.
“I'm just thrilled –– I couldn't be happier,” Hantzopoulos told the Eagle. “I feel like it's just such an important part of our community, and there's so much potential there. I'm really excited to build on the foundation that the previous executive director Susan Lacerte built.”
The QBG was founded in the 1940s and slowly expanded to its present 39-acre space in Queensboro Hill. However, the garden was in a state of disrepair when Lacerte first took over nearly three decades ago. Building up the garden’s grounds, expanding its community programming and making the space a leader in green technology, Lacerte planted the seeds that Hantzopoulos said she’s excited to harvest.
“Those kinds of principles and those values, those are something that I'm really excited about,” the Astoria resident said. “As an executive director, I'm not starting from scratch – there's an amazing vision that's already there and that makes perfect sense.”
In 2020, the QBG updated it’s master plan – the previous master plan was created in 2002. The first phase of the updated plan revolves around the creation of a new educational building, which is expected to break ground in the summer and be completed by the end of 2024. The new building and programming that comes along with it, is at the top of Hantzopoulos’ to-do list.
“Evie is an educator at heart,” Rebecca Wolf, QBG’s interim executive director said in a statement. “Her dedication to building inclusive, equitable and sustainable organizations and communities completely aligns with the mission of the Garden as being the place where plants, people, and cultures meet.”
Also on her mind is deepening the garden’s presence within the community and the city. She said she doesn’t see the city’s larger botanical gardens as competitors, and instead sees the QGB serving a unique role in Queens.
“The Queen's Botanical Garden is really rooted in the community and is really responsive to the Queens community,” Hantzopoulos said. “You'll see that reflected in the programming, you'll see that reflected in the board of directors, you'll see that reflected in who comes to visit it.”
Before taking the new job, Hantzopoulos served as the head of Global Kids, Inc., a nonprofit that works with young people and engages them with critical issues. Hantzopoulos also finished second in last year’s Democratic primary for City Council District 22. In the early days of the pandemic, she co-founded Frontline Foods Queens, which provided meals to frontline hospital workers, food pantries and NYCHA residents. She also helped to found the Astoria Mutual Aid Network, Astoria Urban Ecology Alliance and the 31st Avenue Open Street.
“Evie’s proven leadership and commitment to Queens are the perfect fit for our Garden,” said Raymond Jasen, the chair of the QBG Board of Trustees. “As we prepare to break ground on our Education Center later this year, we are confident that Evie will be the right person to lead our organization into this exciting new era and keep Queens Botanical Garden on the cutting edge of what it means to be an urban botanical garden in today’s world.”
