Mary Wharton

BUSINESS ADDRESS:        Long and Foster, Realtors

                                                7202 Old Keene Mill Road

                                                Springfield, VA  22150

                                                PHONE:  703-452-3945

                                                CELL:  703-795-0587

                                                FAX:  703-451-8023

                                                E-mail:  whar10@LnF.com

HOME ADDRESS:               11233 Robert Carter Road

                                                Fairfax Station, VA  22039

                                                PHONE:  703-250-2529

                                                E-mail:  whar10@aol.com

FULL NAME:                        Mary Kirchman Wharton

FAMILY:                               Married to Stephen B. Wharton, two sons

QUALIFICATION:               Bachelor of Arts in Art and Biology

                                                Masters of Education in Instructional Design

AFFILIATIONS:                   Member, Virginia Native Plant Society, Potomac Chapter

Member, Phi Delta Kappa, Honorary Society for the Advancement of Education, George Mason University Chapter

LANGUAGES:                      English

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE:

Seed Analyst – Southern States Cooperative Headquarters, Richmond, VA (1975-1976)

Southern States Cooperative services the south eastern section of the United States.  It is a major seller of feed, seed and farming supplies to both farmers and residential users.  For my first job right out of college, I tested seed lots for purity and germination.  I was specifically hired for my undergraduate background in plant taxonomy and my ability to identify weed seeds, both noxious and otherwise, in seed samples.  I left to get married, and moved to Alexandria, VA, after having been on the job for over a year.

Free Lance Artist, Alexandria, VA (1977-1984)

Worked for a large number of local real estate companies and individual real estate agents as a free lance commercial artist.  Created ads and pamphlets to promote properties being advertised for sale.  Wrote copy, did original artwork, took photos, and took promotional pieces from concept to finished product.

Real Estate Agent – Wharton Real Estate, Inc., Alexandria, VA (1984-1994)

Became a licensed agent in 1984.  Received Broker’s license in 1989.  Did residential and commercial real estate sales and rentals part time in my husband’s family’s real estate firm until the business was sold in 1994.

Associate Broker – Century 21 Old Town Associates, Alexandria, VA (1994-1996)

Worked as an associate broker part time selling and renting both residential and commercial property.  Actively participated as a trainer and mentor of new agents in the firm.  My husband had a partial interest in this firm and we left in 1997 when our partners bought us out.

Instructional Designer – PTI, Inc., Annandale, VA (1996-1997)

Worked as an instructional designer for a company that had several large training contracts with government agencies such as the FAA and FEMA.  Was hired as a contract employee because I had a degree in instructional design and was proficient in a computer program known as Authorware, which at the time was the preferred medium for creating computer based training modules.  Created a computer based training system for FAA employees using an FAA weather reporting system known as ASOS.

Instructional Designer – NVCC, Manassas Campus (1996-1997)

Under a grant procured by NVCC Biology professor, Marion Lobstein, I assisted her in completing an Authorware program she designed for her students on the Chesapeake Bay which is still on the Virginia Department of Education’s list of approved materials for Earth Science Classes.

Associate Broker – Century 21 New Millennium, Alexandria, VA (1997-2004)

Worked full time as an associate broker selling and renting both residential and commercial property.  Actively participated as a trainer and mentor of new agents in the firm.  Was listed as one of the company’s top 20 sales agents several years in a row prior to my departure.

Associate Broker – Long and Foster, Springfield, VA  (2004 – present)

Continued working as a full time associate broker.  Changed focus to mainly doing residential sales and rentals.  Also, started doing more sales of new homes and lots.

Was one of the company’s top 10 transfer agents in 2004.  In 2006 was awarded Long and Foster’s Affiliated Business Award for Top Capture Rate.

Training and Development

As an undergraduate, I worked on the restoration of the University of Richmond herbarium with its historic collection of Virginia plains plants.  I also had the pleasure of being a lab assistant for botanist, Dr. Robert F. Smart, who had done some of the original collections for the herbarium, and who was well known for his research in algology.

As a graduate student at George Mason University, I recreated a computer-based dichotomous plant key using a computer based instructional design tool called Hypercard.  The plant key focused only on spring monocots, and included my own line drawings of the plants which I drew using the very limited black and white graphics program that came with the Hypercard program.  (The pictures came out surprisingly well.)  Unfortunately, Hypercard was only designed to work on older versions of the MAC, and so the program is no longer usable.  I’ve had requests from several biology teachers to recreate it using other computer authoring tools, but I have not found an authoring tool yet that gave as much flexibility as the old Hypercard program.

As an undergraduate, I took semester long courses in Plant Taxonomy, Plant Physiology, and Plant Anatomy.  I was also a member of the BBB Biological Honorary Fraternity.  Papers that I wrote as an undergraduate included one on the work I did on the University of Richmond Herbarium restoration, specifically on the family Onagraceae; another on anomalies of sexually dimorphic flowering plants; and another on a comparison of fecundity between two species freshwater fish belonging to the genus Lepomus.

As a graduate elective, I took a semester long course on plant identification which was offered through the University of Virginia.  The professor was Marion Lobstein, with whom I had worked before.  The course was unique in that it was taught at Blandy Experimental Station located at the Virginia Arboretum, and was truly one of the best field classes I ever took.  Whereas my courses at University of Richmond focused on plains plants, the main reference for this course was the Flora of West Virginia, and the plants that were the subject of our studies were mostly mountain or piedmont plants.  The course went into great detail in the use of traditional dichotomous plant key, and offered many opportunities for practice.  It was not an easy course, but I found it very helpful.  It was the first time I realized what it was like to be totally dependent on a dichotomous key for the purpose of correctly identifying plants.

As a volunteer for the Nature Conservancy in 1998-1999, I assisted in helping their staff botanists to identify plants with economic uses in the large new collections that had just started to pour out of Brazil.

Currently, I hold a life membership in the Virginia Native Plant Society, and still attend seminars and lectures which the Society sponsors.  I also participate in community efforts to eradicate invasive plants.

Last spring I participated in a special weekend-long hands-on seminar on botanical illustration by noted illustrator, Laura Call Gastinger.

I also continue to assist Professor Marion Lobstein when I can on her plant walks and other associated projects.

MEMBERSHIPS AND OFFICES:

Industry

Northern Virginia Association of Realtors                      Member 1984 – present

Virginia Association of Realtors                         Member 1984 – present

National Association of Realtors                                   Member 1984 – present

MFO Real Estate Master Mind Group              Member 2000 – present

Residential Sales Council of North America                  Member 1992 – present

Community

Inner Wheel of the Rotary Club of Alexandria, VA        1984-1990 (when the club was disbanded)

                                                                                    President – 1989

Alexandria Chamber of Commerce                               1985-2002

Chairman – Professional Services Committee – 1992-1993

American Cancer Society – Alexandria Chapter            Board Member – 1990-1992

Central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce             Member – 2004 – Present

Vienna Tysons Chamber of Commerce             Member – 2008 – Present

Rotary Club of Burke, VA                                            Member since March, 2008

                                                                                    Currently serving as

                                                                                    Programs Chairman and

                                                                                    Service Projects Chairman

INTERESTS:

Drawing with pencils, charcoals, pen and ink, or pastels; painting with watercolors; photography; gardening; hiking; travel; reading; and golf as long as no one keeps score.