Dr. Joanne Whitney
Board Member
Dr. Joanne Whitney has been an Adult Walk and Interpretation Station Docent with the San Francisco Botanical Garden for nine years. She was Vice President of Flower Show Incorporated, the organization that at one time administered the San Francisco County Fair and produced an outstanding flower show with the help of the city’s many dedicated flower societies. She has been an American Orchid Society judge for over thirty-five years, presiding as Chief Judge, Secretary and Educational Officer of the Pacific Central Judging region. She has lectured extensively on orchid biology, history, nomenclature, and the judging process and is a recognized expert on the medicinal uses of orchids and other plants.
Whitney graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a B.S., from Duke University with a Ph.D. and from the University of California, San Francisco with a Pharm.D. She has held a faculty positions at UCSF since 1971 with the exception of 5 years during the AIDS crisis when she served as Director of Pharmacy at California Infusion Services providing intravenous medications to AIDS patients.
After retirement from UCSF, she remained active teaching in clinical pharmacy courses and as a preceptor in the community service outreach program working with seniors and underserved populations. She has been named Preceptor of the Year three times, most recently in May 2018. For over ten years, Whitney was Editor of Miraloma Life, the newsletter of the Miraloma Park Improvement Club, which reached 2600 private homes. Whitney was a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee of the Inglenook Police Station and wrote the by-laws for this organization. She has been a Police Advisor and Lecturer on the use of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drug and has lectured to athletic groups on these topics.
