MAGIC JOHNSON PARK
EVENT CENTER

SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 2023
8AM – 4PM

Learn about ASLA’s 2023 Climate Action Plan and how design professionals, educators, and civic leaders throughout the Southern California Chapter and beyond are addressing these critical topics in their projects.

Presentations will address critical topics related to climate change including biodiversity, carbon sequestration, sea level rise, urban forestry, green schoolyards, redesigning cities for climate resilience, and creating healthy communities.

VIEW PHOTOS FROM SYMPOSIUM

HOSTED BY

Torey Carter-Conneen
Torey Carter-ConneenChief Executive Officer, ASLA
Pamela Brief, PLA, ASLA
Pamela Brief, PLA, ASLAPresident, ASLA Southern California

#aslasocalclimate

PRESENTERS

Lauren Bergenholtz, ASLA – CMG Landscape Architecture

Presenting:
“Climate Positive Design in Practice: Reflections on Integrating Carbon Analysis into the Design Process”

Lauren is inspired by  landscape architecture’s potential  to address far reaching questions in subtle ways. Her work on Treasure Island Parks and Open Space has brought this multi-decade project closer to final design realization. Lauren currently manages CMG’s work on the City of San Francisco’s Waterfront Resilience Program.

Benjamin Boisclair, PLA, ASLA – Sasaki 

Presenting:
“Wicked Hot: Redesigning Cities for Heat Resilience”

Benjamin’s passion as a Landscape Architect stems from social love of people and nature. Spanning multiple scales, he believes that grounding the built and natural world in everyday life is a critical path to storytelling and wellness. His interests and work center around juxtaposition of sustainability, narrative, and tactical design.

Pam Brief, PLA, ASLA – Pamela Studios Landscape Architecture

Presenting:
“Welcome Message”

Pamela Brief is a Landscape Architect and Founder of Pamela Studios.  She has worked at award-winning firms including POD, Emmet Wemple & Associates, Jerde Partnership, and Walt Disney Imagineering. Pamela serves as President of The ASLA Southern California Chapter. She  serves on the UCLA Extension Guidance Committee and was recently appointed to the Landscape Architect Technical Committee (LATC).

Mayor James T. Butts – City of Inglewood

Presenting:
“TBD”

Torey Carter-Conneen, ASLA

Presenting:
“ASLA New Vision – Strategic Plan”

Torey Carter-Conneen joined ASLA as Chief Executive Officer in August 2020. He has served in executive leadership roles for companies ranging in size from $7 million to $750 million in annual revenues and staff of nearly four hundred. Prior to joining ASLA, Torey served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Wendy Chan, ASLA – MIG

Presenting:
“Magic Johnson Park: Healing Land and Water, Modeling Sustainable Design, and Restoring a Resource to the Underserved”

Wendy Chan is a Senior Landscape Architect at MIG. Throughout her career, she has led projects from conceptual design to implementation focusing on integrating environmental and cultural ecology with urban infrastructure.

Eden Ferry, PLA, ASLA – Studio-MLA

Presenting:
“Harnessing the Power of Rivers to Make Communities Healthier and Economically Stronger”

Eden Ferry is driven by her fascination in urban ecology, specifically waterways, and pursuit of environmental and social justice. Her ability to visualize natural systems solutions through an artistic lens is particularly helpful in communicating ecological design to communities and stakeholders. She is a licensed Landscape Architect in California.

Adriana Garcia, ASLA

Presenting:
“Equity, Practice, and Advocacy through Greening Schoolyards in LA”

Adriana Garcia is a project manager for the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust. With a background in community engagement and landscape architecture, she approaches landscape design with an understanding of inclusivity and aims to center marginalized perspectives through community-led design and craft spaces focused on user experience.

Alison B. Hirsch, PhD, FAAR

Presenting:
“Rural Futures in the ‘Other California'”

Alison is an Associate Professor at USC’s School of Architecture & Director of the Landscape Architecture+Urbanism Graduate Program.  She also directs USC’s Landscape Justice Initiative, focusing on communities not historically reached. Alison was the 2017-2018 Prince Charitable Trusts/Rolland Rome Prize Fellow & 2020-2021 LAF Fellow in Leadership+Innovation.

Jeremy Klemic, Associate Principal – SWA Los Angeles

Presenting:
“City of Trees: Protecting the Urban Forest through Changing Climates'”

Jeremy Klemic is an Associate Principal at SWA Los Angeles.  Jeremy’s recent project works include updating design standards for street trees, roadway medians, and planting palettes towards current climate conditions and sustainability standards.  Jeremy has been engaged to speak on Urban Forestry Master Planning at a variety of past venues.

Gary Lai, ASLA – Kimley-Horn

Presenting:
“5 Ways Paying Attention to Site Design Can Beat Climate Change”

Gary Lai is a thought leader in sustainability, resiliency and conservation with over thirty years’ experience in landscape architectural design and planning. Gary is currently the Vice Chairman for the Board of Directors for USGBC-LA and Practice Builder in Nature-based Solutions for Kimley-Horn in Los Angeles, California.

Mia Lehrer, FASLA – Studio-MLA

Presenting:
“ASLA Climate Action Plan”

Mia Lehrer, FASLA is widely recognized for a collaborative and pragmatic research-based design process that draws insights from ecological systems and advocates for climate-appropriate, resilient, and just relationships between individuals, communities, and nature.

Kate Lenahan, ASLA – CMG Landscape Architecture

Presenting:
“Climate Positive Design in Practice: Reflections on Integrating Carbon Analysis into the Design Process”

Kate organizes climate + resilience research and practice at CMG. Her project work focuses on climate-adaptive design and planning in the public realm. She currently supports the San Francisco WaterfrontResilience Program developing near-term sea level rise adaptation projects on the city’s historic public waterfront.

Robin Mark, TPL, Program Director

Presenting:
“Equity, Practice and Advocacy through Greening Schoolyards in LA”

Robin Mark is Trust for Public Land’s Los Angeles Program Director. Recently, she has focused on school greening to create healthier, more climate resilient school environments in collaboration with the Los Angeles Living Schoolyards Coalition. She has also worked along the Los Angeles River, implementing park projects as well as larger planning and policy work around large-scale infrastructure projects and their relationship to displacement alongside the Los Angeles Regional Open Space & Affordable Housing coalition.

Daniel Martin, Landscape Architect – ESRI

Presenting:
“CA 30×30: Tools to Further Climate Resilience and Protect Biodiversity”

Daniel is a Landscape Architect working as a consultant for the environment and geodesign department at Esri. Daniel leverages his background in landscape architecture, ecological mitigation and restoration, and wildlife management to help clients utilize technology and design to build resilience and achieve balance between the natural and built environments.

Evan Mather, FASLA, Principal and Director of Landscape Architecture – MIG

Presenting:
“Magic Johnson Park: Healing Land and Water, Modeling Sustainable Design, and Restoring a Resource to the Underserved”

Evan Mather, FASLA, is an award-winning landscape architect and filmmaker whose work in both mediums is a high-level practice of inquiry and exploration. Evan’s unique synthesis of disciplines and his incorporation of new technologies enables him to educate and inspire clients and the general public—offering a fresh perspective and unveiling unexpected project possibilities. He is Principal and Director of Landscape Architecture with MIG.

Kush Parekh, PLA, ASLA – Studio-MLA

Presenting:
“Sustainability Scrimmage at SoFi Stadium: Designing Resilient Sports Landscapes for the Future”

Kush Parekh has practiced landscape architecture for over 18 years. His work is inspired by complex relationships between socio-cultural factors and ecological systems in urban environments. He was the lead designer for SoFi Stadium and the Hollywood Park Entertainment district, devoting nearly a decade to this high-profile urban infill project.

Marcella (Marci) Raney, PhD

Presenting:
“Equity, Practice, and Advocacy through Greening Schoolyards in LA”

Marcella Raney, PhD, is a Senior Manager in the Office of Well-Being at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Most recently, she has leveraged her educational background, professional networks, and location to decrease income-based disparities in physical activity participation and wellbeing in Los Angeles through Living Schoolyard planning and controlled research studies.

Marta Segura, MPH, Chief Heat Officer & Climate Emergency Mobilization Director – City of Los Angeles

Presenting:
“Wicked Hot: Redesigning Cities for Heat Resilience”

Segura serves a dual role as City of Los Angeles’ founding Chief Heat Officer and Director of Climate Emergency Mobilization. One of 7 Chief Heat Officers worldwide and the only Latina to serve in those respective roles. Segura is a thought leader in environmental health, public health, and stakeholder engagement.

Ana Tabuena – Ruddy, Assistant Director/Chief Sustainability Officer for City of Los Angeles’ Streets LA

Presenting:
“Wicked Hot: Redesigning Cities for Heat Resilience”

Ana is a Landscape Architect with both public and private sector experience. She successfully led her team in securing $300M in multi-benefit grants, and currently oversees the Urban Forestry Division, which manages the largest urban forest in the nation.

Tamar Warburg, AIA, LEEP AP BD+C – Sasaki

Presenting:
“Wicked Hot: Redesigning Cities for Heat Resilience”

As Sustainability Director at Sasaki, Tamar works across architecture, landscape and planning projects on sustainability and resilience goals. Her experience includes mixed-use developments and institutions, resilience planning, and zero-energy and zero-carbon projects. She believes that every project is an opportunity to address climate change, biodiversity, and community resilience.

Jennifer Zell, ASLA – MIG

Presenting:
“Planning for Change: How one coastal community is assessing their risks associated with sea level rise and making plans to adapt”

Jennifer Zell is an award-winning Landscape Architect whose work encompasses landscapes throughout Southern California from mountain to desert to sea. Jennifer is committed to finding ways to increase biodiversity in urban areas and utilizes her team building skills to lead efforts that can enhance and sustain the natural world.

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