Adaora "Zora" Lathan

June 29, 1952 - April 9, 2025

Slow it down, Spread it out, Soak it in!

It's a phrase every Watershed Steward knows by heart, and it's a phrase we live by. It's so simple - no calculations, no Latin names, no regulations. Yet, it's the one phrase that has changed landscapes across the County through the outreach and actions of hundreds of Watershed Stewards over the last 16+ years.

The phrase was brought to us by Zora Lathan. While she is not the author, she is the person who plucked the concept from among so many environmental slogans and helped to embed it in the fabric of WSA.

Zora was a founding Consortium Member of WSA, helping to guide the development of the Steward Certification Course. Her book "Ecoscaping Back to the Future" was included in WSA's first "Tool Box for Sustaining Actions" and distributed to hundreds of Watershed Stewards over the years.

In 2010, Zora approached me with an idea to spread the word about RainScaping to communities across our County through Watershed Stewards. WSA's Clean Water Communities program was born and the concept of RainScaping was embedded in our Certification Course and all of our outreach materials.

Perhaps she is most well known locally for founding the Chesapeake Ecology Center - both the physical gardens installed at Mary Moss at the J. Albert Adams Academy and the prolific writings and resources on the CEC website.

Personally, I am so grateful to have known Zora and for the gift of her tenacious and passionate commitment to helping us all slow it down, spread it out, and soak it in.

-Suzanne Etgen