The Found-Hers: Professional Perspectives at Three Stages of Practice - 1.25 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)

Recorded On: 10/11/2025

Ever dreamed of starting your own firm? It’s both exciting and daunting at the outset. Beyond that, how do you navigate the messy middle? When do you consider transition? Through case studies and video interviews, three women owners relate the challenges and opportunities they’ve experienced over a life in practice.

Learning objectives:

Learn the importance of identifying your firm’s mission and vision and how this approach should continue to inform your business growth and direction.
Understand how to weather the dynamics of a business—maturing with time, but also according to market realities.
Being open to failure helps identify the lessons to be learned at all stages of your firm’s life cycle.
Learn to identify the professional services, mentors, tools, and resources that are available to you as a business owner and how to best leverage them.

Claire Agre, ASLA, PLA

Partner

Unknown Studio

Claire is Co-Founder of Unknown Studio, based in Baltimore, MD. Broadening landscape practice with a background in painting and ecology, she has led a diverse portfolio of projects, including The Nasher Haemisegger Sculpture Garden, Governors Island, Druid Lake, North Meadow on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Baltimore's Harborplace, Portland Museum of Art, Houston Botanic Garden, The Land and Garden Preserve on Mount Desert Island, and interdisciplinary planning for the Lower Mississippi Delta. Claire considers stewardship of place to be a moral imperative; her work links beauty, care, and collective action, leaving our world better than we found it.

Kimberly A. Tryba, ASLA, AIA

Co-Founder + Managing Director

LILA Studio LLC

Kimberly Tryba, ASLA, is a landscape design leader, strategist, and educator focused on the long-term vitality of design practices. As Co-Founder and Managing Director of LILA Studio in New York, she leads business development, firm positioning, and growth strategy. Previously, she held global leadership roles at Martha Schwartz Partners, guiding offices in New York, London, and Shanghai. A frequent speaker at the American Society of Landscape Architects and other forums, Kimberly champions succession planning, operational resilience, and values-driven leadership. She also teaches urban horticulture, serves on industry boards, and advances stewardship and economic literacy as foundations of resilient public-realm design.

Catherine McCullough, FSMPS, CPSM

President/CEO/CMO

McCullough Landscape Architecture, Inc.

A graduate of the marketing program at Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles, Catherine joined husband David, Principal Landscape Architect with McCullough Landscape Architecture in 2001. Prior to joining McCullough, Catherine was Marketing Director for the Westfield Corporation’s San Diego super-regional shopping center, UTC. It is in her shopping center and retail experience where she gained skills in branding, promotions/public relations, and project management. In 2002, Catherine became President, Chief Executive and Chief Marketing Officer of McCullough, allowing the firm to become a woman-owned, Small Business Enterprise (SBE) by the State of California.