Dr. Ragone, who has a PhD from the University of Hawaii, is an authority on the conservation and use of Breadfruit. For the past twenty years, she has conducted horticultural and ethnobotanical studies throughout Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia. Her extensive fieldwork enabled the NTBG to establish the world’s largest collection of Breadfruit at its Kahanu Garden in Hana, Maui. In 2002, the NTBG appointed Ragone director of its newly created Breadfruit Institute.

Dr. Diane Ragone of the Breadfruit Institute at the National Tropical Botanical Garden has collected more than 120 breadfruit varieties over the past 20 years.