Latina CEO Adriana Quiñones Has Big Plans for an Arboretum

In December 2024 Adriana Quiñones left her post as CEO of the Columbus Botanical Garden in Georgia to head up the new San Antonio Arboretum. As a 200 acre green space development, the Arboretum will give San Antonio added amenities as the city continues its quest as one of America’s great cities. The Arboretum is the brainchild of former mayor and HUD Secretary, Henry Cisneros. Under Mayor Cisneros, San Antonio received the prestigious All-America City Award in 1982–83 from the National Civic League. Quiñones and Cisneros hope that San Antonio, a major tourist destination city known for its UNESCO Cultural Heritage missions, the Alamo, and the Riverwalk, will soon receive similar recognition for hosting Texas’s finest arboretum.

Jesus “Toro” Martinez. Oil painting. “Walk through the night at Salado Creek.” Courtesy of the artist.

This project began three years ago when Cisneros invited a large gathering of San Antonio civic leaders to discuss an arboretum project. Arboretums, he explained at that meeting, which I attended, are a special category of park featuring trees that grow in a region. Texas has more than 250 native species of trees, and San Antonio is rich in tree quantity, quality, and diversity. Cisneros envisions the new arboretum in the city’s Southside that will invite admiration, study, and peacefulness. The recent acquisition of 200 acres of the former Republic Golf Course consists of rolling land, 300 year old trees, and a watershed from the Salado Creek. Adriana Quiñones has been tasked with transforming the former Republic Golf Course into a “living museum” dedicated, according to Cisneros, to the conservation, education, and celebration of native and adapted trees and shrubs of South Texas.

Adriana Quiñones at the San Antonio Arboretum. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Adriana Quiñones is a prominent figure in the field of public horticulture and botanical garden management, with connections to both Ohio and Georgia. Quiñones first learned about public horticulture from her volunteer work as a teen at the Dawes Arboretum in Newark, Ohio. Born and raised in Lancaster, Ohio, to a Puerto Rican family, she has built an extensive career in public gardens across the United States. She holds both a Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Horticulture (summa cum laude) and a Master of Science degree in Plant Molecular Genetics from Ohio State University.

Adriana Quiñones and Dr. Henry Cisneros at Pico De Gallo Restaurant presenting Arboretum plans to Latino civic leaders. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Ohio State University recognized her undergraduate research in rosebuds and awarded her a graduate fellowship in Plant Molecular Genetics. She excelled in her graduate studies. During her time at the university, she continued to work at the university arboretum as a curator and plant record specialist. She became part of the horticulture faculty teaching plant biology, plant identification, and introductory horticulture to undergraduate and graduate students. Her strongest attributes have been to increase educational programing and strengthen partnerships with other community organizations. Among the community partners that Quiñones found when she arrived in San Antonio was Brooks Development Authority led by CEO and President Leo Gomez.

With an initial funding of seven million dollars from the Bexar County Commissioners the Cisneros team acquired the golf course three years ago. The Brooks Development Authority also contributed $1,000,000 to the development of the Arboretum. Gomez oversees strategic planning, economic development, and initiatives like Brooks Gives Back, a philanthropic arm focused on community impact. Over the past decade, Gomez has overseen the transformation of the 1,308-acre former Air Force base into a hub with over 50 businesses and $1.3 billion in investments. The former Brooks Air Force Base, a neighbor to the Arboretum, is a thriving mixed-use community. Gomez anticipates that the 3,300+ employees at Brooks will enjoy the beautiful outdoor space at the Arboretum.

Jesus “Toro” Martinez oil painting of Salado Creek, “Field of wildflowers.” Courtesy of the artist.

The 200 acre site will be the first in South Texas and the second largest in the Lone Star state after the Arboretum along Cypress Creek in Humble near Harris County. Henry and Mary Alice Cisneros hosted a picnic for a small gathering of friends at the Arboretum last week. The Cisneros family organized a golf cart tour for Harriett and me, Lionel and Kathy Sosa, Charles and Melisa Barrett, and the new Arboretum CEO, Adriana Quinones. The site already boasts over 30 species of trees, heritage oak trees, a rustic bridge over Salado Creek, a recycled water pond, and more than four miles of existing paved trails.

In the coming year, CEO Adriana Quiñones will be working on site and meeting with local community leaders to discuss the proposed Arboretum features and planned amenities including walking and biking trails, educational facilities and classrooms, tree plant collections, a city-based tree nursery, community gardens, tree houses and canopy walks, and play areas. Cisneros explained to the SA Report, “The effect of a properly designed and well-maintained arboretum is to create a special space amid nature, touched by sun rays and breezes, comforted by shade and living colors.”

Dr. Henry Cisneros leads a tour of San Antonio Arboretum. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

San Antonio is known for its green space. Access to water, green space, and friendly natives attracted the first Spanairds to the area they named San Antonio de Valero. These intrepid Espanoles under the leadership of Governor Domingo Terán de los Ríos arrived in 1718 at a spring-fed area along a creek and river, which Indigenous people called Yanaguana. Cisneros has read widely on the exploration and settlement of San Antonio noting that Native American Indigenous people selected campsites in the shade of San Antonio’s cypress and pecan trees. Spanish explorers noted in their journals an amazement in finding an oasis of water and trees that led to the building of five missions in the area. The site of the San Antonio Arboretum is fortunate to have the Salado Creek running through it. The creek provides water for numerous different trees along its banks and the large trees provide welcome shade along the walking and hiking paths in the Arboretum.

Jesus “Toro” Martinez oil painting, “Salado Creek during the day.” Courtesy of the artist.

The Arboretum is expected to raise the profile of the city. The green space is located in the city’s Southeast Side [zip code 78222]. According to the US Census, the area has a population of nearly 25,000, with nearly two-thirds of the residents [ 64 percent] reporting Hispanic background. While the medium income of residents of the area is $64,251, the per capita income is only $34,336. An average home sells for $176, 477 which makes home ownership possible for many southsiders and promotes pride in local neighborhoods. With the expansion of Texas A&M San Antonio nearby, the area’s college completion level, which is presently about 17 percent, is expected to rise over the coming decade.

Henry and Mary Alice Cisneros [center] hosted a picnic attended by L-R: Harriett and Ricardo Romo, Teresa Cisneros Burton, Charles and Melisa Barrett, and Kathy and Lionel Sosa.

Cisneros has been asked by many if the Arboretum would be primarily a facility for community activities or more like a traditional park. Some visitors have expressed a desire to leave the area wild, consisting primarily of hiking paths and trails. Finally, the Arboretum also offers the possibility of an open green-space research laboratory where visitors and scholars can learn more about native Texas plants and trees. All three ideas are intriguing, and we look forward to seeing what develops in the near future.

Table setting for the first “official” picnic at San Antonio Arboretum. Photo by Ricardo Romo.