Jessica Beever

Jessica Beever, née Spragg, has Pākeha and Māori (Ngāti Toa, Te Ati Awa and Ngāti Mutunga) ancestry. She has degrees in Botany (BSc and MSc) from the University of Auckland, and a PhD in Plant Science from the University of Leeds, UK.

As a frequent participant in the John Child Bryophyte Workshops from their inception in 1983, a member of the Department of Conservation's expert panel on threatened bryophytes and a member of the Offshore Islands Research Group, she has specialised in the documentation of New Zealand's mosses, and has stimulated the resurgence of interest in these small plants. An endemic moss genus, Beeveria, has been named in her honour.  Currently she is a Research Associate of Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, working on the Flora of New Zealand: Mosses.