Naomi S. Fraga

Naomi Suzanne Fraga (born 1979) is an American botanist who is the Director of Conservation at the California Botanic Garden and research assistant professor of botany at Claremont Graduate University. She has focused her career on the conservation, monitoring and habitat restoration of rare plants across California. She was awarded the 2021 Center for Biological Diversity E.O. Wilson Award for Outstanding Science in Biodiversity Conservation. In 2023, Fraga received the Peter Raven Award from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. This award is given annually to a plant systematist who has made exceptional efforts at outreach to non-scientists.

Early life and education

Fraga grew up in California. She was an undergraduate student at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona where she studied biology and botany. In 2002 she wrote a senior thesis on A Short Flora of Short Canyon, Kern County, California.

Starting from 2001 she worked as a volunteer at the herbarium of the California Botanic Garden — then named "Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (RSABG)" — in Claremont, California. Tiehm's buckwheat has suffered in the changing climate of California, particularly with the diminished rainfall, excess temperatures and reduction in groundwater. When Tiehm's buckwheat becomes stressed the plants that sprout do not produce viable seeds.

Awards and honors 2019 United States Fish and Wildlife Service Recovery Champion award 2021 Center for Biological Diversity E.O. Wilson Award 2023 American Society of Plant Taxonomists' Peter Raven Award

Selected publications