AT THE GARDEN — Senior staff

The Chicago Botanic Garden welcomes nearly one million visitors each year to its 385-acre living plant museum featuring 24 display gardens, 81 acres of lakes and waterways, as well as a prairie and native woodlands. The Garden is a world leader in plant conservation science, the nation’s finest teaching garden, and is breaking new ground in urban horticulture and jobs training in the City of Chicago and North Chicago with its Windy City Harvest and Green Youth Farm programs. In 2009, the Garden opened the 38,000-square-foot, gold LEED-certified Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center. The building is unique, and features nine laboratories dedicated to plant biology, a publicly accessible 16,000-square-foot green roof garden, and interactive exhibits with windows into working laboratories; it also serves as the headquarters for the Garden's graduate degree programs in plant conservation biology with Northwestern University.

Sophia joined the Garden in 2006 as vice president of visitor programs and operations and was promoted to president and CEO in 2007. Prior to her tenure at the Garden, Sophia served for eight years at The Field Museum, most recently serving as vice president of exhibition and education. Prior to her years at the Field, she served in curatorial positions at the Museum of Contemporary Art and The Art Institute of Chicago.

Sophia holds an M.B.A. in finance and accounting from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, and an M.A. in art history from the University of Chicago. She earned her B.A. in art history and economics from Wellesley College. She is the author of The Arts Club of Chicago: The Collection 1914–1997.

Sophia serves as president of The Arts Club of Chicago and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, The Commercial Club of Chicago, The Chicago Network, and the Economic Club, among other affiliations.

In 2002, Crain’s Chicago Business named Sophia one of Chicago’s “40 Under 40” and in 2008 honored her as one of Chicago’s “Women to Watch.” Among other media profiles, she has been featured on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight and 848 on WBEZ, and in Chicago magazine’s “Frontlines.”