He began his career at
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1969, where he worked as Executive Assistant to the Secretary of the Corporation and President of the Board. He then held positions at the
Brooklyn Museum, the
American Museum of Natural History, and the
New York Zoological Society (now the Wildlife Conservation Society). Throughout the 1980s, he served as vice president for Public Affairs at
The New York Public Library. In 1989 he was elected the eighth President and chief executive officer of the
New York Botanical Garden, a position he served in until 2018. During his twenty-nine-year tenure with the New York Botanical Gardens, Long completed more than twenty capital projects, including the Edible Academy. The $28 Million project was built to provide year-round educational opportunities; the Edible Academy consists of high-tech classrooms, a teaching kitchen, a freestanding greenhouse, teaching pavilions, dedicated gardening plots, and an amphitheater. The Edible Academy is one of the most extensive educational programs in the United States, teaching more than 100,000 people yearly about organic gardening and healthy eating. == Publications ==