THE LEAFLET

At Casey Trees, we are always pleased when there is an opportunity to promote people internally who have demonstrated dedication to our mission, who also have the experience and skills to further that mission – restoring, enhancing, and protecting our city’s tree canopy.

Thus, we are delighted to announce that Vincent Drader has been promoted to Director of Communications and Development! As our CRM Administrator, Vince made countless improvements to our data systems and internal processes. Now, we’re excited to see Vince taking on a larger role in managing many of the external-facing parts of the department as well.

Vince and his family | Michigan Park (NE DC)

Casey Trees (CT): Congrats on stepping into your new role! Tell us, who is Vince?

Hi – I’m Vince! I’ve lived in Washington, DC for 13 years now, and been with Casey Trees for close to 8 years. I’ve worked in many spaces – retail, landscaping, local government, information technology, data management, education, international development, grant-programs, and non-profits. Each has provided great experiences to learn and grow. When I really get down to it, I suppose that’s what I consider myself most – a lifelong learner.

I am originally from Winston-Salem, NC, and went to Wake Forest University for undergraduate (Go Deacs!) and later UDC locally for graduate school. I live in Michigan Park with my wife and two kids. My life is great, my life is full, and Casey Trees is a part of that. That’s probably a point that gets missed because we are always talking about our mission and planting trees, but Casey Trees is also a wonderful place to work. I’m glad to have been here this long and look forward to my new role as Director.

Vince and his RiverSmart Homes tree (dogwood), planted 2014.

CT: How did you get drawn into the work in the urban forestry and/or environmental nonprofit field?

I kind of fell into non-profits. After college, I served in the Peace Corps in the Republic of Macedonia. It wasn’t necessarily out of a sense of service – I was young, wanted to explore, travel, learn, and quite frankly, I couldn’t think of anything else I wanted to do (ha!). Like many volunteers, it ended up being a pivotal experience that taught me so much about myself and reframed what I wanted to do with my life. After that, I knew I’d only want to work at mission-driven organizations. So, whether I meant to or not, I found myself in non-profits or government every moment after.

I ended up at Casey Trees because my wife and I heard about the RiverSmart Homes Program and we planted a couple trees at our house back in 2014. The arborist came to our house, planted the trees, and let us know about the mission. I soon became a donor, and a year later a position for a CRM Administrator (i.e. Data Manager) opened up. I applied, and I’ve been at Casey Trees since.

CT: What are you looking forward to doing at Casey Trees as our new Communications and Development Director?

I’d like to continue building our department’s culture of customer service – making sure our volunteers, donors, and community members feel valued. We also pride ourselves on putting out great content, hosting memorable events, and communicating our mission effectively. We want everyone who reads our Leaflet, engages with us on social media, volunteers with us at an event, or plants a tree at home to feel our excitement and love for trees; and so, feel connected to trees themselves.

One important idea I’d like us to communicate more broadly is trees as infrastructure. It’s the concept that trees aren’t just landscaping, pretty to see and nice to have – but are an essential part of the urban landscape, on par with utilities, roadways, transportation, and housing. It’s an idea that is obvious to our long-time supporters and constituents. But we need to reach the people who have yet to fall in love with trees, and yet to realize the benefits they bring or see them as essential infrastructure. Trees are the best solution we have for combating climate change, taking carbon from the air and putting it back into the earth. Trees are technology. Trees are infrastructure. We can solve a lot of problems if we treat them that way.

CT: And finally – do you have a favorite tree? 

This one’s easy – hands down my favorite tree is the Serviceberry. I’m going to get a lot of flak from my fellow Casey Trees colleagues for not loving a larger tree species, but the Serviceberry is small and mighty. It’s a smaller canopy tree, but it has all the things anyone could love – beautiful white blooms in spring, wonderful fall color, and its berries are edible and delicious. It’s actually my favorite fruit. The berries are ripe around June and are about the size of blueberries, just as sweet but never tart.

My kids and I can be found walking the neighborhood in June, collecting Serviceberries. If I can offer anyone an introduction to loving urban trees, this one might be it.