The Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) Academy of Fellows inducted four members during the 2022 CELA Conference, Evolving Norms: Adapting Scholarship to Disruptive Phenomena on Friday, March 18, 2022, in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico. The CELA Academy of Fellows welcomed Professors Meg Calkins, Katya Crawford, Allan W. Shearer, and Ashley Steffens to its membership. They were inducted by Terry Clements, FCELA, the Chair of the CELA Academy of Fellows.
The Academy of Fellows recognizes outstanding landscape architecture educators who advance the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture’s mission. Membership in the Academy of Fellows represents the highest level of achievement within the CELA membership and honors a faculty member’s accomplishments in teaching, scholarship and/or creative activity, and service.
Meg Calkins is a Professor and Head of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at North Carolina State University. Professor Calkins has taught design, construction, and theory for over twenty years. Her signature courses include design studios in urban design and landscape architecture, including housing and community design, site design, and foundation design studios.
Calkins’ scholarship focuses on the environmental and human health impacts of site construction materials. She wrote the book “Materials for Sustainable Sites: A Complete Guide to the Selection, Evaluation and Use of Sustainable Construction Materials” in 2009 and is currently working on the second edition. As one of the founding members of the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES), Calkins has taken an active leadership role in development and implementation of the Standard since 2003.
Katya Crawford is an Associate Professor and Chair of the School of Architecture and Planning at The University of New Mexico and the Associate Dean for Student Excellence and Equity. Professor Crawford has extensive engagement with CELA serving as President, Past President, and President-Elect (2015-2018), Treasurer (2013-2015), and Regional Director (2011-2012).
Professor Crawford is an award-winning international scholar. She has placed in juried international competitions and local competitions and has had numerous exhibitions. Her landscape installation, “Foxes in the Garden” (with Susan Frye, 2012), won France’s Chaumont-sur-Loire International Garden Festival. Crawford is also well-known for her sustained efforts of collaboration. Such collaborations include “Bridging Vision and Action: The New Landscape Declaration,” with Jie Hu, Xiong Li, Rui Yang and Kongjian Yu (CELA 2017, Beijing, China). Katya strives to link studio objectives to community needs. Her students’ work serves as visualization and graphic example of design ideas that have received community input. The student work is publicly displayed and often used to move forward or enhance funding sources to implement the community’s needs.
Dr. Allan W. Shearer is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Technology at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Architecture. He is recipient of University of Texas School of Architecture’s Outstanding Teacher Award for studio instruction.
Dr. Shearer teaches graduate level landscape planning and design studios and courses that bridge the Landscape Architecture and the school’s other planning and design programs. He has co-authored several books including, “Land Use Scenarios: Environmental Consequences of Change.” At the community level, Dr. Shearer was instrumental in conceiving, organizing, and getting built the Waterloo Greenway — a 1.5-mile park system with the power to bring the entire Austin community together. Once complete, the 35 acres of connected green space will be home to a wild array of natural and cultural destinations.
Ashley Steffens is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Georgia and was recently appointed as the first female Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the College of Environment and Design. Steffens served a three-year term as CELA President and played an important role in strategic planning forums that yielded CELA’s new strategic map, vision, and mission statements.
Professor Steffens holds the Crowley Professor of Urban Planning and Design and was recently awarded to serve as a UGA Women’s Leadership Fellow. Since 1995, Professor Steffens has taught courses in the College of Environment and Design primarily in the undergraduate program. All her courses are required in the BLA program. In support of graduate level education, she has served as thesis chair or advisor on over 40 graduate thesis and Independent Studies projects. Her pedagogical approach in design studios informs her research and became the foundation of her published book, “Computer Graphics for Landscape Architects, an Introduction.” Steffens is most proud of her initiative, the CELA Global Investiture Fund, providing funding for environmental and socially equitable decision making for the organization of the CELA annual conference.