Meet Kelly
Professionally Registered through the American Horticultural Therapy Association
Founder and Owner of Horticulture 4 Health LLC
Kelly Warnick has a multi-faceted background in greenhouse/garden center, design, and floriculture settings, horticultural therapy, and legal advocacy.
She spent nearly ten years as an appellate attorney representing corporations and healthcare systems before finding her passion in horticulture. Kelly is professionally registered as an HTR with the American Horticultural Therapy Association, meeting the rigorous standards (educational and field experience) established by this national organization. Learn more at ahta.org. She is also a Certified Mindfulness Facilitator and has a BA from Illinois Wesleyan University, an AAS in Horticulture from College of DuPage, and a JD from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law.
Kelly has experience delivering therapeutic horticulture sessions to many populations, including Veterans, youth, older adults, and individuals with physical, developmental, cognitive and sensory challenges. Committed to ensuring that all individuals have access to plants and nature, she also has been creating and bringing mobile horticultural therapy sessions to hospitals, schools, and older adult care facilities in the Chicagoland area.
Kelly is an Adjunct Instructor at College of DuPage and serves as President-Elect of the American Horticultural Therapy Association (AHTA), contributing to AHTA organizational development nationally and worldwide.
Kelly is committed to writing, speaking, practicing, and teaching to grow awareness of the people-plant connection and further the impact of the horticultural therapy profession.
In her personal time, Kelly embodies the principles she advocates. She enjoys spending time with family and friends in her garden, cooking with home-grown herbs, taking in the beauty and lessons of the natural world, and learning from her golden retriever who constantly teaches her the importance of “just being” in the present moment.
