Rights of Nature: Approaches to Environmental Justice - 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

José Juan Terrasa-Soler is a partner and landscape architect at Marvel, based in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He is also an environmental scientist and university professor. He is a practicing Buddhist and enjoys hiking, nature exploration, amateur astronomy, photography, and fountain pens. 

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. 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.

Dr. Crystal Cavalier-Keck is the co-founder of Seven Directions of Service, an indigenous grassroots environmental nonprofit, with her husband. She is a citizen of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation in Burlington, North Carolina. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Social Sciences department at Salem College in Winston Salem, North Carolina. 

Crystal has dedicated the past five-plus years to defending her homelands against the Mountain Valley Pipeline/Southgate Extension. Crystal received the 2022 FracTracker Community Sentinel Award for Environmental Stewardship. She is leading a campaign to bring Rights of Nature laws to North Carolina to protect the waterways and communities in the pipeline's path. Crystal co-authored NC House Bills 795 and 923, the Rights of Nature/Rights of the Haw River, prioritizing environmentally impacted communities around the watershed. 

Crystal serves on the boards of Movement Rights, the Haw River Assembly, and the Women’s Resource Center and Benevolence Farm. Crystal is a Sequoyah Fellow with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and a lifetime member of the National Congress for American Indians.

Pamela Martin is a Professor of Political Science and the HTC Distinguished Honors Fellow at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina, where she teaches courses in International Relations, Environmental Politics, Sustainability and Coastal Resilience. Martin is also the Executive Director of the RISE Center, a United Nations University Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development. 

She has published numerous articles and books on global environmental policy, energy, and sustainable development. Her book co-authored with Craig Kauffman by MIT Press entitled, The Politics of Rights of Nature: Strategies for Building a More Sustainable Future, examines new policies and tools for sustainable development based on Rights of Nature approaches within communities. 

Aaron Hernandez is a registered landscape architect and Assistant Professor at the University of Guelph’s School of Environmental Design and Rural Development. His research investigates how landscapes inform relationships between cultural values, socioecological systems, and public policy, with a focus on regional urbanization and climate adaptation.

Aaron’s work has been featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine, exhibited at the Toronto Biennial of Art, and has been awarded by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture and the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation. Aaron was awarded the 2024-2025 Landscape Architecture Foundation Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership.

MaFe Gonzalez is a landscape designer and botanist with a strong interest in ecology, taxonomy, and conservation of plants. Her journey into landscape architecture was inspired by her studies in botany where she saw a need to participate in world-making—especially to create spaces that re-establish reciprocal relationships between people and the environment.

MaFe is a passionate and purposeful practitioner that initiates and supports a variety of projects and visions. Her practice framework is “Nature as Client”, which includes nature’s needs and rights as part of the design process. She is also a lecturer in the United States and Colombia, and is a leader and researcher of academic and pro-bono initiatives.

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.