Hi. I’m Makalé Faber Cullen. I’m an ecologist and researcher. This is my personal portfolio. The commissioned projects featured here revolve around questions of place, identity, and plants. 

I’m currently a Researcher with Toyota Research Institute’s Harmonious Communities lab. Prior to that I was a Curator of Public Practice with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and an Andrew W. Mellon Research Fellow at the New York Botanical Garden. I’ve also been a Senior External Advisor with the Lenfest Center for Cultural Partnerships at Drexel University since 2016 working with a whiz team to make Drexel the most civically engaged university in the US.

I’m an alum of Slow Food (Director of US Biodiversity Programs) City Lore (Director of In-School Programs and Global Editor, Digital) and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (Researcher and Presenter) 

My work has been featured in the New York Times and Saveur and my writing appears in several publications and books: Urban Farms (Abrams, 2012), Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods (Chelsea Green, 2008) and Hidden New York: A Guide to Places That Matter (Rutgers University Press, 2004).

I’ve served on the Advisory Board of PhoScope: Think Tank on Light (2018-2021), the Founding Steering Committee of Social Science Research and Architecture, American Institute for Archiecture (2015-2018), the Board of Directors of the Southern Foodways Alliance (2009-2012) and, as a Panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts (Folk and Traditional Arts 2007, 2009, 2012). 

I hold degrees in Cultural Anthropology from George Mason University (BA) and the University of Virginia (MA), where I was a PhD candidate under Committee Chair Gertrude J. Fraser who remains a mentor and friend.