Karla Nagy

Throughout my career I have been dedicated to improving lives and the planet. My careers in social work, landscape architecture and urban forestry are marked by a commitment to building relationships, improving lives and creating innovative and workable solutions in challenging situations.

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I arrived in San Francisco almost 30 years ago and was immediately captivated by the trees and plants that were radically different from my native Ohio. While working at a homeless shelter in South of Market within my first year in SF I discovered a run down playground nearby - nicknamed Needles Park - that was transformed into a lush and popular community garden by the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners.  I signed up immediately and became one of the original SLUG gardeners with a plot at the Howard/Langton community garden. I volunteered for native oak woodland habitat restoration in Buena Vista Park and tree planting with Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF).

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In 2000 I was inspired to pivot my social services career and began studying landscape architecture while working  for FUF.  During my time as a tree planting manager I coordinated the planting of over 1,000 street trees in San Francisco, focusing in south-east neighborhoods - communities that historically were provided the least resources and had the lowest canopy coverage in San Francisco.. After completing the landscape architecture certificate program at UC Berkeley Extension I worked for a landscape architecture firm until the economic crisis shifted my career  and all of the designers in the firm were laid off in 2009. Please read more about my landscape architecture experience here.

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I returned to FUF in 2010 to oversee the fledgling Sidewalk Landscape Program and since then I coordinated the replacement of over 20,000 square feet of excess concrete in the public right-of-way with beautiful climate adaptive gardens. Under my guidance the Sidewalk Landscape Program grew from a pilot project to a fully funded, integrated and popular program based on FUF's community greening model.  

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As a planting manager and then the Sidewalk Landscape Program Director I worked closely with neighborhood leaders, businesses and organizations, city officials, district supervisors, inspectors, local contractors, property owners and residents in neighborhoods throughout San Francisco. I cultivated a successful garden design that responded to city requirements as well as the challenges inherent in planting in the public right-of-way with native California and drought tolerant plants suited to San Francisco's challenging soils.

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In November 2016 SF voters passed Prop E, with 79 percent support, amending the City Charter to transfer responsibility for the care of the City’s 124,000-plus trees and surrounding sidewalks from property owners to Public Works. This was a game changer for FUF and since then  I have been at the forefront of preparing FUF to be a major stakeholder in urban forestry locally, regionally, nationally and on the international stage. Currently I am responsible for day-to-day operations, ensuring that all programs goals, budgets and deliverables are achieved. I oversee the development of organization-wide policies, protocols, procedures and systems. I am a driving member of the Senior Management team, developing and implementing the current Strategic Plan and DEI initiative. I work to secure financial support, fee-for-service projects and government funding. I monitor programs, organizational budgets and ensure compliance with labor laws, grant agreements and contracts. This year I've led the pivot to working remotely, ensuring all staff have adequate equipment, policies, procedures and supervision to work from home.

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Over the last 10 years I’ve gained a wide range of forestry experience, working with prominent industry experts, networking with municipalities and community forestry organizations from Honolulu to Cleveland and representing the city of San Francisco and the 2018 US at the World Forum on Urban Forests, where I presented a the historic Teatro Sociale in Montova in northern Italy. In 2017 I attended the Municipal Forestry Institute (MFI), a high‐level program geared for urban forestry professionals focusing on leadership, management, program administration, coalition building, strategic thinking, program planning, and public relations.