Director

Joseph Novak, Ph.D., is the director of the Betty and Jacob Friedman Holistic Garden. Dr. Novak has a doctorate from Cornell University and served on the faculty of Texas A&M University where he created the area of sociohorticulture. Since 2014, he has been an adjunct professor and lecturer in the Biosciences Department at Rice, where he teaches BIOS 204 and BIOS 207, advises students in special project activities, and is faculty sponsor of the Rice Urban Agriculture club.

Garden Manager

Todd Walker, email: tw72@rice.edu

Garden Assistant

AJ Morris, email: aa553@rice.edu

Garden Student Workers

Elena Alvarado	Anish Jonnalagadda	Abigail Jablon	Carmen Lizarraga
Malachy Pearlman	Emma Sjodin	Germany Herrera	Serenity Stepanik
Kathryn Barry	Jewel Moore-Young	Norah Cichowski	Lily Hestjean
Claire Morton	Eva Barnhardt	Jonah Blunt	Sophia Murphy
Lillian Levi	Sadhana Chari	Kamden O' Connor	Sophia Cheng
Karis Williams	Princess Barge	Joselyn Lwigale

Summer Interns 2026