Meet Our Garden Fellows
The Thinkers, Makers, and Dreamers Shaping What Grows Next Here
The Garden Fellows program invites five visionary creators whose work flows at the intersection of nature, art, and community each helping us spark dialogue, connection, and wonder across the Garden.
Jasmina Aganovic
Founder & CEO, Future Society
Jasmina Aganovic is a pioneering entrepreneur at the intersection of science and beauty. After earning her degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering from MIT, Jasmina went on to work for companies like Fresh, Living Proof and Mother Dirt. She saw the potential of biology in beauty and started Arcaea, a biology-first beauty company that develops novel ingredient technologies that enable new claims and product experiences. Future Society is the first brand from Arcaea, which launched 6 fragrances based on extinct flowers, made possible through DNA sequencing and the artistry of the worlds best perfumers.
Karina Del Punta, Ph.D.
Neuroscientist, visual artist, and founder, neuroXnature
Karina Del Punta’s early career was shaped by a deep curiosity about how the brain makes sense of the world. She holds a B.S./M.S. in Biology from the University of Buenos Aires and a Ph.D. in Molecular Neuroscience from The Rockefeller University, where she later served as a Research Professor studying the molecular mechanisms of sensory perception and published in leading journals, including Nature.
With time, her curiosity expanded beyond the laboratory. While science could explain how the senses function, it could not fully capture the lived experience of belonging to the natural world. Witnessing the growing stress, isolation, and ecological disconnection of modern life, Karina felt called to bridge research with direct experience.
She trained in Nature and Forest Therapy and Nature as Medicine, and pursued advanced studies in depth psychology—integrating scientific rigor with relational, symbolic, and embodied practices.
Today, her work lives at the intersection of neuroscience, art, and nature. She serves as an advisor to the Board of the Miami Beach Botanical Garden and designs community-based experiences that reconnect people with nature—and with one another—grounded in science and open to transformation.
Her work reflects a simple truth: the brain has always known we belong to the living world. Sometimes, we just need help remembering.
Emily Estefan
Singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and founder, Alien Shrimp Records
Emily Estefan is a Grammy Award-nominated musician, songwriter, producer, actress, activist and Emmy Award-nominated talk show co-host. She began playing instruments as a child and that developed into a passion for all things music. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Estefan wrote and released her debut album, “Take Whatever You Want” and founded her own music label, Alien Shrimp Records. Estefan’s career has spanned across several domains including writing, producing, arranging, and performing music. She has performed in music festivals all over the US like SXSW and Essence Festival, and on the esteemed stages of the Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize and Kennedy Center Honors. Estefan has also shared the stage with a variety of reputable performers including Bette Midler, Dave Navarro, Carole King, Billy Gibbins, The Wailers, Cyndi Lauper, Karol G, and recorded virtual performances with Stevie Wonder, Josh Groban, Allen Stone, and more. Estefan has been with her partner, Gemeny Hernandez, in love and business since 2016. Together, the two have a podcast with iHeart Radio called “In Our Own World” that was named one of Spotify’s “Best Podcasts of the Month.”
Raymond Jungles
Raymond Jungles, FASLA, is the founder of the Miami-based landscape architecture firm, Raymond Jungles, Inc. (RJI), recognized for excellence in the design and implementation of public and private sector projects.
As a landscape architect, he strives to preserve and protect existing ecosystems while also evoking human interaction and improving the lives of others. Raymond pursued this passion through his adolescence and developed it into his career after graduating with a degree in Landscape Architecture, with honors, from the University of Florida in 1981. He established his award-winning firm in 1982, which became incorporated as Raymond Jungles, Inc. in 1985. In 2006, Raymond was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Raymond is the recipient of the 2024 American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Design Medal, one of the organization’s highest honors. His work has earned numerous accolades, including three ASLA National Awards for the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve, the Sky Garden, and Island Modern. He has also received fifty-six design awards from the ASLA Florida Chapter, among them nineteen Awards of Excellence and six Frederic B. Stresau Awards.
Raymond lectures domestically and internationally at a diverse array of institutions and universities on the subject of his work and on the work and influences of Roberto Burle Marx, whom he has acknowledged as his mentor. Raymond credits the time spent in the presence of Burle Marx, or the ‘master modernist,’ as having had a defining impact on his life’s trajectory.
Widely published, his four monographs, Ten Landscapes, The Colors of Nature, The Cultivated Wild, and his 2021 monograph Beyond Wild, feature more than seventy of his completed gardens.
Landscape architect and Founding Principal, Raymond Jungles, Inc.
Andi Potamkin
Gardener, The SEED School
Andi Potamkin is a Gardening Teacher at The SEED School of Miami. Her class, titled Gardening and Resilience, maintains a 15,000 SF regenerative farm located in the center of the school, providing fresh produce for the cafeteria and a free farm stand for students to take produce home.
She is also a Board Member of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, where she curates the living collection of over 50 native species in the museum’s sculpture garden.
She is a passionate advocate for human interaction with nature, and a proud member of the South Florida naturalist community.