Dear LAREy AMA - February 2025

Madeline is a former Akronite living in Orlando, Florida. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture degree with a French minor from The Ohio State University in 2010. After the recession, she found her way back to landscape architecture with a position at Nimrod Long & Associates in Birmingham, Alabama. She gained experience in both public and private work then obtained licensure in June 2017. Later that year, Madeline joined Dix.Hite + Partners where her current project focus includes campus, roadway and streetscape design, multi-family developments, residential design, community hardscape and landscape renovations, and exterior building color studies.

Emily graduated in 2018 from Ohio State University and moved to Louisville, Kentucky shortly after to begin her professional career. In the time since she graduated, she has gained experience in residential landscape design, design-build, parks and recreation, greenways and trail planning, commercial design, and urban landscape architecture. She currently works at Gresham Smith in downtown Louisville as a Landscape Architect. Emily took two LARE sections in the previous format and two in the current format, earning her licensure in the spring of 2024.

Jeff Holzer is a licensed Landscape Architect in the Commonwealth of Virginia and is a Certified Playground Safety Inspector for Kimley-Horn and Associates. Jeff has 7 years of experience with a practice in active and passive parks, playgrounds, streetscapes, school/universities, and athletic fields. As Kimley-Horn's only CPSI, Jeff has advised on over 70 playgrounds across 19 states. Jeff volunteers on the LARE Prep committee for ASLA, and the REC TALK committee for the National Recreation and Park Association. In 2020, Jeff won the ANOVA sponsored napkin sketch design competition with a sketch and essay entitled Inclusive Playgrounds for All.