MEET OUR STAFF

Kristopher Dabner

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Kristopher Dabner is President and Creative Director of The Greensman, Inc. He has been involved in creative pursuits his entire life. He graduated with a degree in Architecture from the University of Kansas. He has also worked as an art director for television and film. He founded the Greensman in 1994 and the company has grown from a “one man show,” to its current size of 15 full-time and up to 30 seasonal employees.

Kristopher’s philosophy combines great design, enormous energy, entrepreneurship and philanthropy and he uses that philosophy to create unique gardens for the Greensman’s clients. Greensman designs take a full-picture approach, incorporating the existing structure, expanding the hardscape, taking into account plans for the future environment. Kristopher’s designs have been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, Country Gardens, Kansas City Home Design, KC Magazine, SPACES and the Kansas City Star.

James Walls

DESIGNER

James was born in northeast Oklahoma and grew up in the town of Webb City, Missouri. His love of the outdoors ultimately led him to a career in the landscape industry. His favorite climbing tree growing up was the American sycamore. James earned his bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from North Carolina A&T State University.

After a decade of living and starting a family in North Carolina, he and wife Katy returned to the Midwest along with their children Noah and Cora. When not designing your new landscape, James enjoys hitting the extensive mountain bike trails around KC and northwest Arkansas or playing just about any game that requires a racket.

Brian Martin

IRRIGATION MANAGER

Brian Martin was born in Kansas City. He has a Bachelor of Science in Turf Management from Kansas State University. He started working at Mission Hills Country Club when he was fifteen and worked there through high school and college and for four years after college.  He worked for himself for ten years offering lawn and irrigation services.  Before joining The Greensman, Brian worked for 1.5 years traveling the country working for a golf course irrigation company.

Brian lives with his fiancée and one daughter and his passions include camping, fishing and cooking/grilling outdoors. They have no pets yet, but we know as he spends more time around Kristopher, that is likely to change.

Charles Fugate

BOOKKEEPER

Charles has had careers as an actor, a singer, engineer, restaurant manager, and these days a bookkeeper. He’s a third-generation only child who was born and grew up in Jefferson City, Missouri. His career in landscaping began in 2001 assisting on a water feature construction; continued into crew maintenance and installation work; and eventually landed him in front of the one company desktop teaching himself Quickbooks. He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from University of Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri S&T).

Charles’ favorite plants are flowering perennials and decorative grasses; he loves watching the cycle of growth from nothing (above ground) to peak to cutback to starting over again the next year. Charles and his husband Joseph enjoy spending weekends at their home at Lake Ozark, traveling, and parenting a loveable but strong-willed Catahoula leopard mix named Denali. Other pastimes include cooking, knitting, paddle boarding, and photography.

Chance Scarlett

PROJECT MANAGER

Chance was born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, and moved to the Kansas City area in 2020. He grew up working for farmers around the Topeka area and eventually found his way to the landscaping industry he works in today. He has a degree in horticulture science with a focus on landscape design and maintenance from Kansas State University. His favorite perennial flower is liatris as it reminds him of his time growing up on prairie grasslands, and his favorite tree is the eastern cottonwood. In his free time, he works on his own landscape at his home and enjoys kayaking rivers in the midwest with his family and friends.

Samantha Arnas

OFFICE MANAGER

Sam Armas worked for Disneyland Parks and Home Depot before making her move to Kansas City. She was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, but was raised in Southern California. She is first-generation Mexican American and loves to embrace both of her backgrounds. She began her green industry with our company as our Office Manager. Sam has a degree in Business Administration from UC Irvine. Her favorite tree is the palm tree because it reminds her of her west coast life. Sam enjoys the culinary arts and loves to cook for her family and friends.

Jamie Veatch

MAINTENANCE MANAGER

Jamie Veatch was born in Wichita, Kansas, and attended college at the University of Kansas. Upon graduation from KU, she began working a temporary summer job as an annuals flower installer that would turn in to a career in horticulture. The last nine years have been spent in all fields of a maintenance division to include pruning, turf chemical application, plant health, installation and management.

Kinnedy Keating

SEASONAL COLOR SPECIALIST

Hello, my name is Kinnedy Keating. I was born and raised in Liberal, Kansas. My family owns an agriculture-based business there. I have a twin brother named Nash. Shortly after graduating from Liberal High School, I moved to Manhattan, Kansas, to attend Kansas State University. I took a summer job working for Liberal Parks and Recreation and realized I love working with plants, so I made the decision to switch my major from art to horticultural landscape design. Shortly after switching majors, I started working for the Kansas State University Gardens. We helped maintain the existing gardens and install a new section. I graduated in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in horticultural landscape design. I enjoy spending time with friends and family, going to the lake, and exploring Kansas City.

Hattie Kennedy

ASSISTANT TO THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR

I am originally from Kansas City, Missouri, and am the oldest sibling of eight.  I have five brothers and two sisters. I have two adult daughters and one vivacious grandson.  I have always loved gardening and had my own gardening/maintenance business for a couple of years off and on as a side job from my other full-time jobs as a Visual Coordinator at Pottery Barn for nine years, and then a Hospice Volunteer Coordinator for seven years.  I decided that my passion remained in the green industry and began working full-time in Kansas City at The Greensman in 2020 as a Seasonal Color Specialist, and then ventured to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, in 2021 to work as a Container Garden Specialist at Clay Gardens for 2-1/2 years developing and maintaining a program with a customer base of 25 regular customers during the time I was there. My role consisted of consulting/design, selling containers, planting and maintaining containers full of beautiful creations. KC tugged on my heart to return the summer of 2023, and I resumed working with The Greensman as Assistant to the Creative Director.  A couple of my favorite plants are zinnias and coleous, both as cutting flowers, and because of their broad color spectrum and texture.  I enjoy gardening, planting and pruning, landscape and floral photography, sharing quotes and photos on Facebook, and my photo website www.hk30a.com and kicking back with my family and friends with some good food and wine, and listening to music. Whether it’s in the garden, or elsewhere, I also enjoy working with people, providing exceptional customer service, and doing my best to make sure the people I am in contact with leave the conversation with a smile on their face!

Lee Conner

DESIGNER

Lee is a transplant from Nanih Waiya, Mississippi, where he grew up on an orchard. Growing up in a magical landscape designed by a master horticulturist surrounded by wild forests and pine plantations began inspiring him to dig deeper into landscapes from an early age. Lee moved to Kansas City in 2016 after receiving his bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Mississippi State University.

Lee is most passionate about native plants and ecology. His favorite tree is the Blackjack Oak.

Lee spends his weekends playing in his own landscape as well as brainstorming and falling in love with clients’ landscapes. Lee hopes to make a career of designing beautiful spaces for people, whether public or private, that also meet the needs of local ecology. His biggest landscape regret so far is planting English ivy at the base of the trees in his parents’ yard back home in Mississippi (eradication in progress).