Ms. Townsend is the editor of the Institute's Journal of Botanical History, Huntia, the newsletter, the Bulletin, and the Website. While providing general editorial support for Institute faculty and staff, she assists in preparing and producing various publications, including collection catalogs, registers, art exhibition catalogs, and various other materials.
Ms. Townsend has a B.A. in professional and creative writing from Carnegie Mellon University. She is a Council of Science Editors member and the Carnegie Mellon Magazine Advisory Board. After publishing several poems, she completed the first draft of a novel set in the post-Civil War West and diligently worked toward her first published short story.