About Us
Photo by Kylie Cooper
Our mission is to satisfy the urge for nature where we live & work
Our Team
Lauren Mandel, PLA, ASLA
Founder
In 2013 Lauren authored EAT UP: The Inside Scoop on Rooftop Agriculture (New Society Publishers), the first full-length book about rooftop food production, and remains a leading expert in the field. She was also the principal researcher and author of the “Site Commissioning White Paper” (U.S. General Services Administration, 2017), a federal-policy tool aimed at elevating the value of landscapes by proving their social, environmental, and financial performance. Lauren holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Environmental Science from Skidmore College.
Kelsey Evans
Marketing & Brand Strategist
Kelsey brings more than a decade of results-driven, integrated marketing and branding experience to Bloomtime after honing her approach with local leaders including Lokal Hotel, Metropolitan Bakery & Cafe, and the Philadelphia 76ers. She’s highly analytical…and enjoys nerding out with data and spreadsheets possibly more than Lauren!
Hudson Greenberg
Landscape Barkitect
Hudson is a lifelong nature lover. Whether he’s hiking mountains, rolling in the grass, or catching frisbees, there’s nowhere he’d rather be than outdoors. At Bloomtime, Hudson lends his outdoor-enthusiast expertise when reviewing plant combinations and inspecting R&D installations at the Bloomtime headquarters.
Charlie Miller, P.E
Product Advisor
Charlie Miller, P.E. is a civil engineer who introduced green roof technology to the U.S. in the ’90s and continues to bring innovative solutions to market. He is the founding principal of the green roof design and engineering firm Roofmeadow.
Abdallah Tabet, RLA, RA
Design Advisor
Abdallah Tabet, RLA, RA is a licensed landscape architect and architect with extensive international experience. He is an associate at a world-renowned, landscape architecture firm, and holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, American University of Beirut, and The Lebanese University.
Michael Mandel, PhD
Tech Advisor
Additional Contributors
Business Coaching: Ravid Butz
University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School: Meghan Chung, Amanda Cohn, Kamran Elahi, Augustin Gar, Agustin Garcinuno, William Gallagher, Ricardo Gonzales, Aden Horowitz, Rebecca Jiang, Ali K., Chaya Levin, Vasu Macherla, Yadel Zazueta Monroy, Marialena Mouaikel, Emmanuel Nkurunziza, Vivek Olumbe, Nicholas Pawlowski, Alison Royce, Julian Samek, Cherie Sio, Pranav Srinath, Isaac Tham, Nicole Windreich, Lorry Wu, Amanda Yao, Julian Yau, Mary Ye, Edward Zhang
University of the Arts: Kamakshi Arora, Raunak Deshmukh, Anne Irving
Our Story
Lauren Mandel, PLA, ASLA
Founder
I grew up in a forest and have always loved the outdoors. As an adult, I moved to Center City Philadelphia and quickly realized how much I missed being surrounded by plants, listening to birds, and smelling fresh air.
After earning a Master of Landscape Architecture degree and designing landscapes around the country for a decade, I discovered that this feeling I had, this longing for nature, has a name. Biophilia is human’s innate draw to nature, a feeling that we’ve literally evolved to have. Human’s recent, global migration from wild places to cities—which the UN projects will reach 89% by 2050—is happening so quickly that evolution can’t keep up.
This displacement from nature, this evolutionary mismatch, has resulted in widespread depression, social unrest, and ADHD, which some researchers are re-categorizing as “Nature Deficit Disorder.” Luckily, exposure to nature can help. In fact, more than 25-years of peer-reviewed research demonstrates that exposure to nature can benefit physical health, psychological health, and social well-being.
So what are the tens of millions of people living in cities supposed to do? Some are lucky enough to live near public landscapes, places like parks and waterfronts, where they can get a biophilia fix. But what about everyone else?
I founded Bloomtime in 2020 to help those who need a biophilic fix at home. My goal is to create a process that’s quick, simple, and affordable in order to help as many people as possible love the outdoors at home, like I do.