Pregnancy, Parenting, and Practice—Let's Talk About It - 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Recorded On: 10/29/2023

Over one million women have left the American workforce since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Professional services are the highest expense and the highest value that a design firm provides, making the investment to retain talent vital. This session examines how to retain caregivers, their experience in the workplace, and how parenthood impacts practice.

Learning objectives:

Gain a broad overview caregivers' diversity of experience across our profession.
Understand the financial, personal, and emotional implications of caregiving, parental leave, and corporate and state policies.
Review and discuss tested firm management and cultural strategies that contribute to "family supportive" practices.
Build a toolkit of support options and best practices as employers, and coping techniques and negotiation strategies as caregivers. Develop communication strategies for employers and employees.

Jennifer Ng, ASLA

Senior Associate

Klopfer Martin Design Group

Jennifer is a landscape architect who defines successful and inspiring designs as those that speak equally to place-making and place-keeping. The consistent theme in her projects is to create a sense of home. Through her practice, stewardship of the environment and culture become an everyday, every project opportunity. Jennifer was raised equally in rural New York and Chinatown, Manhattan. As such, she has a deep appreciation for the lifestyles and landscapes that accompany rural and urban environments. Prior to joining KMDG, she worked with Sasaki, CMG Landscape Architecture, and Hargreaves Associates

Anna Cawrse, ASLA

Denver Office Director, Associate Principal

Sasaki

Anna has dedicated her career to weaving nature, culture and history into urban landscapes. At every scale, she is committed to engaging communities and strives to create designs that reflect the communities’ needs. Anna leads complex built projects and master plans across the world. Her most notable projects include Bonnet Springs Park in Lakeland, FL, which is transforming an abandoned railyard into Florida’s own Central Park; the implementation of University Lakes in Baton Rouge, LA, an ambitious project to set the six lake system on a more ecologically sustainable and recreationally rich future; and Hellinkon Metropolitan Park in Athens, Greece.

Julie W. Gawendo, ASLA

Founding Member

re:public

Julie Gawendo is a co-founder of re:public, a feminist-based landscape architecture and urban design cooperative located in San Francisco. This newly founded collective allows Julie to combine two of her greatest passions, women’s advocacy and landscape architecture. With over 14 years of global experience, Julie has designed and managed projects at a variety of scales from Governors Island Park and Public Space in NYC to the California State Capitol Visitor Center in Sacramento, CA. Julie is a graduate of Harvard University Graduate School of Design and previously worked at West 8 in NYC and CMG Landscape Architecture in San Francisco.