Kansas State University

Landscape architecture faculty, students, alumni participate in national conference

Submitted by Thom Jackson

Kansas State University landscape architecture faculty, students and alumni from the College of Architecture, Planning & Design will join landscape architecture professionals and educators from across the U.S. for the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture 2021 annual conference, 100 + 1 | Resilience, March 17-19.

Those participating at the conference include the following:

MM Lekhon Alam, doctoral student, with Lee Skabelund, associate professor, and other K-State colleagues presenting "Climate change mitigation potential of green roofs: Quantifying urban heat island indicators and a green roof's capacity to sequester carbon in the Flint Hills Ecoregion."

Jessica Canfield, associate professor; with Sara Hadavi, assistant professor; Tim Keane, professor; and colleagues from the University of Nebraska and University of Oklahoma presenting "Grounding the Green New Deal: A multiscale approach."

Jaeyoung Ha, doctoral student, with Hyung Jin Kim, associate professor, presenting "The effect of green space biodiversity on psychological restoration by the visual and auditory exposure."

Hadavi, with her multi-institutional research team, presenting "Transfer of vacant lot ownership to residents and their improved level of condition-care predict crime reduction."

Katie Kingery-Page, professor and associate dean, presenting "The Post-Herbicide Landscape Era: an ethical framework for future practice."

Jeremy Merrill, Master of Landscape Architecture '09 and Ph.D. '14, assistant professor at Ball State University, presenting "Analysis of Subset Measures of the Figural Torrance Test of Creative Thinking in Beginning Design Students" — major professor Stephanie Rolley — and "How the #@^% Do I Teach Design to Neurodivergent College Students?"

Thomas Schneider, Master of Landscape Architecture postbaccalaureate third-year, with Hadavi, presenting "Design of a Community Energy Park as a Solution to Energy Insecurity in the Context of Climate Change."

Skabelund with Allyssa Decker, doctoral student and instructor at Dickinson College; Priyasha Shrestha, Master of Landscape Architecture '19; site designer at SJC; MM Lekhon Alam; Mary Beth Kirkham, university distinguished professor of agronomy; Trisha Moore, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering; and Timothy Todd, instructor of plant pathology, presenting "Methods for examining plant growth, substrate moisture content, and other variables on an experimental green roof in the Great Plains, USA."

Jane Futrell Winslow, Master of Landscape Architecture '10, assistant professor and faculty fellow, Center for Health Systems and Design, at Texas A&M University presenting "Cultural ecosystem service benefits at the intersection of cultural landscape heritage conservation and land stewardship." Winner of the Outstanding Paper Award.

Stephanie Rolley, professor and department head serves as chair of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Academy of Fellows. She will introduce and moderate discussion for keynote presenter Billy Fleming and will induct the new Fellows during the Awards Ceremony.

Two landscape architecture faculty serve as track chairs for the council: Jon Hunt, associate professor of communication and visualization, and Canfield. They provided leadership in the review and selection of abstracts for the conference.

The Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture is composed of virtually all the programs of higher learning in landscape architecture in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. There also are individual and institutional members from many other parts of the world who belong to the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture family. All members of the faculties from these institutions are invited to participate in the council as are others who possess an interest in the academic practice of landscape architecture.