Biography

Andy Lipkis began planting trees to rehabilitate smog- and fire-damaged areas when he was 15 years old. He founded TreePeople and has served as its president since 1973.

Andy and Kate Lipkis were named to the UN Environment Programme's Global 500 Roll of Honour, and they hold American Forests' Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1998, Andy Lipkis was honored as Founder of the Year at National Philanthropy Day.

Andy Lipkis's creative programs include airlifting bare root fruit trees to Africa, inspiring the planting of one million trees in Los Angeles before the 1984 Summer Olympics, numerous disaster relief efforts during flood and fire and many versions of training designed to increase citizen involvement in urban tree planting and care. TreePeople has been a guiding light for the citizen forestry movement. Andy's latest program is T.R.E.E.S. (Transagency Resources for Environmental and Economic Sustainability), a public/private partnership aimed at retrofitting the greater Los Angeles area to be managed as a sustainable urban ecosystem.

TreePeople is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit dedicated to helping nature heal our cities.