Cultivating Biodiverse Landscapes: Tools, Tips, and Mindset Shifts for Working with Living Ecosystems - 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Bram Gunther is the VP of Science and Development at Plan it Wild, an ecological restoration design/build/and monitoring firm based in the NYC metropolitan area. He is the former chief of Forestry, Horticulture, and Natural Resources for the NYC Parks Department, where he oversaw such initiatives as the MillionTrees campaign, Green Infrastructure, and the Greenbelt Native Plant Center. He is the co-founder and first President of the Natural Areas Conservancy, a nonprofit based in NYC, whose mission is to restore and protect the city’s over 20,000 acres of forests and wetlands. He has a master’s degree in Environmental Management from Yale School of the Environment.

Jenna Webster is a Senior Associate at LWLA (Larry Weaner Landscape Associates), a design firm specializing in the integration of garden design with ecological restoration. She joined LWLA in 2009 and is committed to the relationship between people, place, and ecology. She has served as a project manager on master plans for residential projects small and large as well as garden and natural areas design for parks, college campuses, historic cemeteries, and noted cultural landscapes. For twelve years she co-curated the annual conference series through LWLA’s affiliate New Direction in the American Landscape (NDAL) and for seven years taught the capstone design course in the ecological design certificate program at the Mt. Cuba Center in Hockessin, Delaware. She received a master’s from the Conway School, a graduate program in sustainable landscape design and planning, and a master’s in education and a bachelor’s from Harvard University.

Suzette Lopane, RLA, ASLA, is a member of the ASLA Climate and Biodiversity Action Committee Subcommittee on Biodiversity and is a Landscape Architect with the County of Westchester, New York. She focuses on comprehensive street revitalization, environmentally sustainable design practices, and community engagement in underprivileged areas.

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.