Is your lawn harming you, your kids, and your pets?
Join experts Dr. Ray Dorsey, Dr. Sarah Evans, Dr. Carl Safina, and Perfect Earth Project founder and landscape designer Edwina von Gal for an enlightened conversation on the dangers lurking in your yard from common landscape chemicals and the health effects on you, your children, and your pets. Yes, you can have beauty without the beast!
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Ray Dorsey
Ray Dorsey is a neurologist and researcher working to end Parkinson’s disease by addressing its root causes: toxic environmental exposures. He is the founding Director of the Center for the Brain & Environment at the Atria Health and Research Institute, where he is working to uncover and eliminate the environmental contributors of brain conditions from autism to Alzheimer's. He is also a Professor of Neurology (part-time) at the University of Rochester and is the co-author of The Parkinson’s Plan (2025) and Ending Parkinson’s Disease (2020). In 2015, the White House recognized him as a “Champion for Change” for Parkinson’s disease.
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Sarah Evans
Sarah Evans is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her research focuses on how early life exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals like BPA and phthalates shape the brain and behavior. Through her work with the Mount Sinai Center on Health and Environment Across the LifeSpan (HEALS), Children’s Environmental Health Center (CEHC), Region 2 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU), and the New York State Children’s Environmental Health Centers (NYSCHECK), she is committed to translating research to action to promote safer practices and policies that protect communities from toxic chemicals.
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Carl Safina
Carl Safina is an ecologist, writer, and the first Endowed Professor for Nature and Humanity at Stony Brook University. He’s the author of 11 books including Alfie & Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe; Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel; and Song for the Blue Ocean, and hosted the PBS series Saving the Ocean.He’s received a MacArthur “genius” prize, Pew and Guggenheim Fellowships; book awards from Lannan, Orion, and the National Academies; and the John Burroughs, James Beard, and George Rabb medals. He runs the not-for-profit Safina Center, which advances the case for Life on Earth by fusing scientific understanding, emotional connection, and a moral call to action.
Photo: Ines Duran
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Edwina von Gal
A leading voice in sustainable gardening and landscape design, Edwina von Gal founded the Perfect Earth Project in 2013 to promote ecological land care. An award-winning designer, Edwina created landscapes with a focus on simplicity, sustainability, and beauty for clients around the world. Her work has been published widely, and her book Fresh Cuts won the Quill and Trowel award. She serves on the board of What Is Missing, Maya Lin’s multifaceted media artwork about the loss of biodiversity, Longue Vue’s National Council, and is a member of the Native Plant Trust’s Council.
Photo: Inez and Vinoodh
Sponsors
Performing Arts programs are supported by 2026 season sponsors Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, with additional lead support from Henry and Peggy Schleiff, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, Monica and Peter Tessler, and Vital Projects Fund.
Music Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming, and the Anne Wolf Concert Fund.
Dance programming is supported by Principal Sponsor SHS Foundation.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: Natascia Ayers and Jim Ciquera, Bonnie and Joel Bergstein, Gene Bernstein and Kathy Walsh, Amy Cooney and Marty Feinman, John and Joan D’Addario, Suzanne and John Golden, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Steve Pesner, in memory of his wife, Michèle Pesner, whose entire life was devoted to all aspects of culture, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, Stacey and Oliver Stanton, and Susi and Peter Wunsch.