Black History Month a time to highlight ASLA's diversity initiative

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WDAM) -

This is a news release from American Society of Landscape Architects

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) marks Black History Month by spotlighting the African American landscape architects who, along with their Latino colleagues, are helping to expand the Society's diversity profile.

According to ASLA President K. Richard Zweifel, FASLA, ASLA has a longstanding commitment to inclusion and is communicating and educating about the landscape architecture profession to diverse communities. ASLA is undertaking outreach that includes a redesigned career discovery page for students, including "personal paths" video interviews with minority landscape architects, and an education hub for teachers launched last year.

"The celebration of Black History Month is very important to ASLA," said Zweifel. "We want everyone to know that African American landscape architects are providing incredible contributions through their design skills and environmental stewardship in making our communities better places to live and raise our children. We also want parents, teachers and children to know about landscape architecture and the satisfying and creative professional career it offers."

In order to help develop and further action items and strategies to increase diversity in the landscape architecture profession, ASLA launched a multi-year commitment in July 2013 to sponsor a series of annual multicultural focus summits with landscape architects representing a variety of practice types. The African American landscape architects who participated in the June 2014 summit included:

C.L. Bohannon, Ph.D, ASLA. Bohannon is an assistant professor of landscape architecture at Virginia Tech, where he also received his doctorate in architecture design research in 2014. His prior leadership roles with ASLA include serving on the Florida ASLA Chapter's executive committee from 2008 to 2011, the Society's Council of Education from 2008 to 2009 and the Test Prep Committee from 2007 to 2008. He is a current member of the Committee on Education.

Wesley Brown, ASLA. Brown is the project manager of planning and capital projects at Central Atlanta Progress downtown Atlanta's business improvement district. In this role, Brown is responsible for managing downtown Atlanta's infrastructure improvements and strategic planning efforts, which create vibrant public spaces and improve mobility. Brown received a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture from North Carolina State University and a master's degree in urban design from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Domini Cunningham, Assoc. ASLA. Cunningham is a landscape designer with BETA Group Inc. and received two master's degrees from Auburn University, one in landscape architecture and another in community planning. At Auburn he was part of a team that received a 2014 ASLA Professional Honor Award in the Research Category for "The Phenology Project."

Michael Hill, ASLA. Hill's career has been devoted to empowering youth and communities to reconnect to and shape the places they live, play, work and learn. He works as a landscape architect for the U.S. Forest Service's Independent Resources Enterprise Team, and supports the agency through meeting facilitation, youth program support, scenery analysis, recreation facilities planning and design. He received his master's degree in landscape architecture and planning from Virginia Tech in 2011.

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Black History Month a time to highlight ASLA's diversity initiative