JOSE ALMINANA, FASLA, SITES, LEED, RLA

Trained as a landscape architect and architect, joined Andropogon Associates in 1983 and has been a principal since 1995. His collaborative work has been instrumental in many of the firm’s complex site development projects, striving to create sensitive, ecological designs that respond directly to site conditions and incorporate innovative sustainable and regenerative design strategies and technologies. José has been instrumental in developing multiple high-performance LEED, SITES, and Living Building Certified projects. José is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and received the ASLA’s President Medal in 2010.

ISABEL CASTILLA, ASLA

Isabel is an associate partner at Field Operations where she has been practicing landscape architecture for over 15 years. She is also the landscape architect member of the New York City Public Design Commission. Her work concentrates on large-scale, transformative public realm projects with extensive community engagement and complex multi-agency approvals. Educated in both architecture and landscape architecture, Isabel brings exceptional attention to design creativity, detailing, and construction implementation.

She has led the design and implementation of notable projects including various phases of New York’s High Line; the High Line x Moynihan Connector, Dallas’ West End Square; the renovation of the history Lincoln Road District in Miami Beach; and the master plan and implementation of various phases of The Underline in Miami.

DARREN DAMONE

Darren’s passion for design and early experience as an instructor at an environmental education center in the Hudson Valley region of New York inspired him to pursue a career in ecological design, combining his strong design sensibility with his commitment to environmental concerns. In his professional practice, he has been involved in a wide range of projects varied in both scope and scale. His experience as a project manager has taught him that the most successful projects stem from an open-minded approach to a site—letting the site tell its story; and collaborative project teams that understand the important relationships between environmental responsibility, fiscal limitations, and the needs of the client and the end-user.

GINA FORD, FASLA

Gina Ford is a landscape architect, co-founder and principal of Agency Landscape + Planning. Underpinning her two decades of practice are a commitment to the design and planning of public places and the perpetuation of the value of landscape architecture via thought leadership, teaching, writing and lecturing. Her work has received awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Architects, among others. She is on the board of directors for the Cultural Landscape Foundation and was the recipient of the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Charles Eliot Traveling Fellowship and Wellesley College’s Shaw Fellowship.

ELIZABETH KENNEDY, FASLA

Elizabeth J Kennedy, FASLA, is the 2022 recipient of the Landscape Architecture Foundation Medal, which honors a career of distinguished work in landscape sustainability. The medal award follows her 2021 elevation to the ASLA Council of Fellows and recognizes her efforts to intersect cultural heritage and ecology in socially just ways. Deemed “an exceptional leader, visionary, entrepreneur, advocate for social change, designer, teacher, and mentor to young professional women and BIPOC designers,” the work she directs challenges mainstream assumptions about the aspirations and needs of underrepresented voices. EKLA’s numerous awards for design excellence, innovative sustainability, historic preservation, and interpretive site management reflect her thoughtful, highly disciplined, and minimally invasive approach to landscape architecture.

JOSEPH SIKORA, RLA, ASLA

Joe Sikora is President of Sikora Wells Appel, a landscape architectural firm located in Haddonfield, NJ. He has over 30 years of experience in planning, landscape architecture and urban design. He has been involved in an array of award-winning project types including campus planning for universities, hospitals and corporations, parks and gardens. His work strives for innovative and timeless solutions with a focus on creating socially and ecologically sustainable places. He has taught senior and graduate landscape architectural design studios at Temple University and Rutgers University and has presented at national and international conferences.

SARA ZEWDE

Sara Zewde is founding principal of Studio Zewde, a design firm in New York City practicing landscape architecture, urbanism, and public art. Named to Architectural Digest’s AD100 and an Emerging Voice by the Architectural League of New York, the firm is celebrated for its design methods that sync culture, ecology, and craft. In parallel with practice, Sara serves as Assistant Professor of Practice at Harvard University Graduate School of Design and is currently writing a book on her research retracing Frederick Law Olmsted’s journeys through the Slave South. Sara holds a master’s of landscape architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a master’s of city planning from MIT, and a BA in sociology and statistics from Boston University.

CHAO YANG

Chao is a Landscape Architect at Andropogon who joined the firm in 2016. With a background in horticulture, he brings an ecological approach to all of his work. Through his designs, Chao explores the relationship between vibrant ecosystems and thriving urban centers to orchestrate environments that allow communities of people as well as native plants and wildlifes to symbiotically build ecosystems together. Chao is adept at embracing complex, interrelated systems to find new solutions and has developed expertise at managing multi-faceted urban projects. Chao’s work ranges from high profile institutional and campus planning, to smaller urban spaces, to regional-scale master planning and ecological restoration.

RODGER WELLS

Rahenkamp Sachs Wells, 1964-1979: land planning and landscape architecture Wells Appel, 1979-2004: strategy planning, landscape architecture, urban design R Wells Design, 2004-2010: residential architecture & landscape architecture Kezar Garage Studio, 2010-present: Abstract Art Taught and lectured at several universities, colleges, conventions and conferencesFeatured and participated as an author in several publications including Landscape Architecture.

RHIANNON SINCLAIR

An urban planner with a background in architecture, Rhiannon Sinclair’s work focuses on complex urban systems across multiple scales. She uses data-driven strategies to better understand and enhance the relationship between people, buildings, systems and the public realm. Rhiannon has considerable experience communicating information to broad audiences to promote strong community exchange and empowerment within a planning process. In her work, she finds that the role of this type of exchange and master plan facilitation contribute to plans that are visionary, comprehensive, and implementable.