Equity, Justice, and Landscape [Webinar]

Sparked by the murders of Black Americans by police officers, rebellions in many cities have revealed systemic disparities in the living conditions of people based on race, class and gender. The built environment is going through a rapid re-examination of its role in enabling or inhibiting social equity and racial justice. How could this impact how landscape architects are taught and how they practice? How could we encode equity and justice into our work? In this interactive session, multidisciplinary panelists will offer insight into what equity and justice mean, especially when working in economically, socio-culturally, and ecologically unjust places. Participants will be invited to participate in visioning new strategies for equipping landscape architecture to meet these grand challenges.

Panelists
Fred Brown
Fred Brown is President and CEO of The Forbes Funds, a philanthropic organization focused on strengthening the management capacity and impact of community nonprofits in the Pittsburgh area. TFF is an Intermediary Foundation that serves 12 counties in SWPA, providing capacity-building support to nonprofit organizations in the human services and community development arenas. For 35 years, TFF has been an innovative leader addressing the needs of over 2,200 nonprofit organizations in the Pittsburgh region, specializing in fiscal management, strategic planning, back office support, mergers, acquisitions, and organizational sun setting.

Breeze Outlaw
Breeze Outlaw is a landscape designer at Sasaki in Watertown, Mass. whose work addresses the perceptual and physical connections of equitable and just access to public spaces. In zir work, zie explores frameworks of equity that emphasize place-keeping through black futurism, cultural expression, and natural systems. Breeze’s belief in design as a tool to empower people and reflect place has allowed zir to collaborate with community stakeholders, food producers, artists, organizers, and municipalities on projects that address challenges ranging from food access disparities, gentrification, and affirming spaces for black womxn. Breeze holds a Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture from North Carolina State University, is a recipient of an ASLA Certificate of Honor, ASLA Student Honor Award, and is a Landscape Architecture Foundation Olmsted Scholar. Zie is also the co-founder of Blackscapes, an initiative aimed at exploring the intersection of the black experience in the built environment.

Vernice Miller-Travis
Vernice Miller-Travis is Executive Vice President of The Metropolitan Group. In addition to being a co-founder of WeACT and a pioneer in the Environmental Justice Movement, she is an expert in multicultural engagement and organizational development with significant expertise in clean air and water, regulatory systems and environmental and urban planning. Vernice consults for federal and state agencies, foundations and nonprofits. Prior to becoming a consultant, she established the environmental justice program for NRDC and initiated the environmental justice grantmaking portfolio for the Ford Foundation. Vernice has extensive experience working with communities that have undergone economic disinvestment and environmental degradation by facilitating community-based planning and implementing community revitalization and sustainable redevelopment initiatives and projects. She has the proven ability to bring unlikely partners and diverse stakeholders from all sectors together and to help find shared goals and solutions. She is trained in environmental conflict mediation, alternative dispute resolution, and how to navigate longstanding racial, cultural and economic conflicts.

Moderator

Kofi Boone, ASLA
Kofi Boone, ASLA is a Professor of Landscape Architecture at NC State University in the College of Design. Kofi is a Detroit native and a graduate of the University of Michigan (BSNR 1992, MLA 1995). His work is in the overlap between landscape architecture and environmental justice with specializations in democratic design, digital media, and interpreting cultural landscapes. His teaching and professional work have earned numerous awards including student and professional ASLA awards. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Conservation Network as well as the Landscape Architecture Foundation where he is Vice President of Education. He is a frequent speaker at national conferences and events. His published work is broadly disseminated in peer-reviewed and popular media and he is a frequent contributor to Landscape Architecture Magazine.

Learning Objectives