Meg Calkins, FASLA, FCELA, is a Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at NC State University. She has taught and written about resilient site design and construction for 27 years. Her current book is Details and Materials for Resilient Sites: A Climate Positive Approach (Routledge 2025). She is the author of Materials for Sustainable Sites (2008) and editor of the Sustainable Sites Handbook (2012). Meg has taken an active leadership role in development and implementation of SITES since 2003, and has served on the ASLA Climate and Biodiversity Committee since 2023. She currently serves on the LAF Board.

Mariana emphasizes the importance of place-based, sustainable design. She enjoys working in urban settings that engage diverse user groups and activate spaces essential to civic life. In her work as a licensed landscape architect, Mariana seeks to create a vibrant public realm, connect people to the environment, and develop strategies to accomplish the project vision. At SWA, she leads a wide range of projects, from community parks to district-scale urban development and planning around the Bay Area and beyond. Mariana is committed to climate action and advancing sustainability efforts within her project work, at a firm-wide level, and professionally.

For over 20 years Jennifer has worked at the interface of ecology, landscape architecture, & conservation planning, leading projects ranging from regional greenways to state and national parks, institutional and educational campuses, and citywide ecological networks merging landscape ecology, climate resilience, and equity strategies with regenerative design. Her practice engages principles of systems-ecology, resilience, biodiversity, and environmental justice, facilitating dialogue and socio-ecological narratives that engage nature in design. Jennifer has published pieces in Landscape Architecture Magazine, PLACES Journal, theEarthIssue#4, The Nature of Cities, and contributed to the book, The Landscape Approach: From Local Communities to Territorial Systems.

Diane Jones Allen, D. Eng., PLA, FASLA, is Director/Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Texas at Arlington, and Principal Landscape Architect with DesignJones LLC, which received the 2016 American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Community Service Award. Diane is part of one of a cross disciplinary team, that won the 2020 Skidmore Owens and Merrill (SOM Foundation Research Prize, which examined social justice in urban contexts. She was a 2021-2022 fellow for Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, where she researched Maroons in coastal Louisiana. She currently serves on the 2025 ASLA’s Climate Task Force.

Andrew is a Project Leader at LPA, a national integrated design firm. He leads designs at the intersection of built, cultural, and natural systems and is a champion of metric-driven design. His interest lies in how the blending of built and natural environments can enhance a user’s experience and reinforce values of equity, ecology, and curiosity. Andrew is a proven thinker and strategist, speaking at numerous conferences about the value of performative landscapes and human experience. He is Trustee for Sierra Chapter and co-chair of the Leadership and Communication sub-committee of the Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee.

Amy Syverson-Shaffer is passionate about connecting people to nature and to each other. Her past work as a landscape architect and in business development frames her collaborative approach to taking on big challenges. Today, she is lending her design acumen and contextual understanding to leading sustainability for the modern craft manufacturer, Landscape Forms. Since 2023, she’s served on the ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee, working to bridge between key efforts by Landscape Architects and their industry partner community. On any given day, you'll most likely find her working in the garden.

Laura Marett, RLA, LEED AP, is Director of Landscape Planning at SCAPE. Her practice includes landscape design and systems planning with an emphasis on resiliency. Laura’s work encompasses a range of scales and project types, from the design of public parks, streetscapes and waterfronts to large-scale landscape planning and campus master planning. Laura has particular interest in the design of vibrant urban public spaces through an engaged public process and resilience planning with communities. Laura holds a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor’s in literature from Harvard College.

Deb Guenther is a design partner at Mithun, an integrated design firm with offices in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Deb enjoys collaborating with people in public agencies, private entities, non-profit groups and with community members to co-create experiences and places that are a meaningful part of everyday life. Nationally recognized for her leadership on green infrastructure and ecosystem service issues, she was awarded the American Society of Landscape Architect’s Presidents Medal in 2010. She is a 2021-22 fellow in the Landscape Architecture Foundation Innovation and Leadership program exploring pre-project, relational models of practice with community leaders. .

José Juan Terrasa-Soler is a CLARB Certified landscape architect, environmental scientist, and professor with over 25 years of experience. Originally from Arecibo, Puerto Rico, he holds degrees from Mount Saint Mary’s College (Maryland), The University of Michigan, Yale University, and Harvard University. He has led teams in corporate, governmental, and nonprofit sectors. Currently a Partner at MARVEL, his work focuses on the intersection of ecology and design, including green infrastructure and sustainable urban design. José Juan is also a founding faculty member at Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico's Master of Landscape Architecture program.

José is a truth-teller and landscape architect who believes laughter is powerful preventative medicine. His personal and professional journeys are deeply spiritual, grounded in the understanding that he remains a lifelong student with a deep passion for learning. As Co-founder and Director of MIG’s Native Nation Building Studio, he nurtures the power of co-creation through inclusive, community-driven design and planning that honors cultural identity and placeknowing. Through landscape architecture, José advocates truth and healing as a better path forward, while simultaneously creating space for individual and collective transformation to help us do and be better.

Dr. Cheng is the Director of Stuckeman School and Professor of Landscape Architecture at Penn State University. Previously, Dr. Cheng directed the Hydro-GI Lab and applies a Climate Justicescape framework to identify spatial and systemic injustice associated with climate change impacts in vulnerable communities and to evaluate social-ecological outcomes of green infrastructure design. Dr. Cheng’s work on Climate Justice Design informs planning and design with community-centered natural-based solutions for climate actions and urban resilience. Dr. Cheng serves on the ASLA Environmental Justice PPN as past Co-Chair, Member of Climate Actions Committee and Climate Action Plan Advisory Group, and CELA President. 

Amy Syverson-Shaffer is passionate about connecting people to nature and to each other. Her past work as a landscape architect and in business development frames her collaborative approach to taking on big challenges. Today, she is lending her design acumen and contextual understanding to leading sustainability for the modern craft manufacturer, Landscape Forms. Since 2023, she’s served on the ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee, working to bridge between key efforts by Landscape Architects and their industry partner community. On any given day, you'll most likely find her working in the garden.

For over 20 years Jennifer has worked at the interface of ecology, landscape architecture, & conservation planning, leading projects ranging from regional greenways to state and national parks, institutional and educational campuses, and citywide ecological networks merging landscape ecology, climate resilience, and equity strategies with regenerative design. Her practice engages principles of systems-ecology, resilience, biodiversity, and environmental justice, facilitating dialogue and socio-ecological narratives that engage nature in design. Jennifer has published pieces in Landscape Architecture Magazine, PLACES Journal, theEarthIssue#4, The Nature of Cities, and contributed to the book, The Landscape Approach: From Local Communities to Territorial Systems.

Grant Thompson, ASLA, PhD, PLA, LEED AP, is a landscape architect, horticulturist, and urban soil ecologist with over 15 years of experience. His practice career includes planning and built work in parks and open space, urban design, and college and university markets. His research includes peer-reviewed publications about tree biodiversity, soil microbiomes, and biodiversity-ecosystem function in the built environment. He co-organized the 4th International Urban Tree Diversity Conference in 2022, is the chair-elect of the Board of Directors for Trees Forever (IA, IL, WI), and Iowa Urban Tree Council advisor, and a member of the ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Change Committee.

Christian was the lead designer for the Louisiana Children’s Museum, working with museum staff and local horticulturists and biologists to design the experiential and ecological landscape. Christian is passionate about designing at the intersection of nature, culture and human health in the public realm. He has worked on parks, education and ecological design projects across the country, from the Mariposa Grove Restoration at Yosemite National Park, to Blakely Elementary School on Bainbridge Island, and the Issaquah Anchor Parks Master Plans. He is currently designing several inclusive and nature-based playgrounds in park and educational landscapes in the Pacific Northwest. 

Amy Syverson-Shaffer is passionate about connecting people to nature and to each other. Her past work as a landscape architect and in business development frames her collaborative approach to taking on big challenges. Today, she is lending her design acumen and contextual understanding to leading sustainability for the modern craft manufacturer, Landscape Forms. Since 2023, she’s served on the ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee, working to bridge between key efforts by Landscape Architects and their industry partner community. On any given day, you'll most likely find her working in the garden.