The annual election for 2025-2026 ASLA President-Elect will be open May 7 through June 7, 2024.

All Full, Associate, Student, and International members in good professional standing will be eligible to vote and will receive a paper and/or email ballot to participate.

The candidates this year are Jeanne Lukenda, FASLA, and Bradley McCauley, ASLA. Here is your chance to familiarize yourself with the candidates’ goals and biographies. Additionally, over the next three issues of LAND, the candidates will respond to questions related to the future of the profession and the Society.

ASLA has partnered with Survey & Ballot Systems to administer the 2024 election. To ensure your election email arrives safely in your inbox on or around May 7, 2024, simply add the following email address as an approved sender: noreply@directvote.net. If you have any questions, contact Curt Millay.

Jeanne Lukenda, FASLA

Jeanne Lukenda, FASLA

Our community’s collective power remains an invaluable source of inspiration for Jeanne Lukenda, FASLA. Deeply engaged in professional work and service leadership, Jeanne harnesses the value of our expertise and the voice of our members to elevate, influence, and advance the role of landscape architecture and our national organization. She is committed to cultivating strong relationships to ensure every member has ASLA as their foundational partner, from their student days through career-building and beyond. Jeanne motivates and empowers others to do the same.

A career-long Boston Chapter volunteer, she understands how chapters are critical in shaping landscape architecture by leveraging the passion of members. She has served as Federal Advocacy Day Representative, Public Awareness Representative, Professional Awards Juror, and Mentor, and is a Co-Founder of the annual publication Fieldbook. Twice elected to the Board of Trustees, she supported national initiatives on the Board Performance Task Force and Leadership Development Committee, working to increase accountability, diversity, and representation across ASLA.

In 2019, Jeanne was elected ASLA Vice President of Public Relations and Communications and served on LAM’s Editorial Advisory Committee. In support of ASLA’s current Strategic Plan, she is a member of the Frameworks Task Force (which works in conjunction with the Presidents Council on the branding and communications of landscape architecture to the public), member of the ASLA.org and LAM.org Websites Task Force (which leads the redevelopment and redesign of our two websites), and Founder and Co-Chair of the Task Force on Gender Equity (a groundbreaking initiative transforming workplace equity through leadership in management, practice, and service).

Jeanne graduated from the University of Guelph School of Landscape Architecture, and currently serves on its Alumni Board. She has received local, national, and international recognition for her work and leadership. Most recently, ASLA’s Council of Fellows elevated her to the 2023 Class for service. Additionally, AIA honored Jeanne as a Co-Founder of its Women’s Leadership Summit, an annual nation-wide gathering of women in design. In recognition of this visionary Summit leadership and her advocacy of landscape architects among allied professionals, she was awarded the Architects Foundation inaugural national INSPIRE Award.

Goals and Directions Statement
 
“Put yourself in the game, but you’ll have to be prepared if you’re going to be at the table.”
- Michelle Obama

Meet the Moment

With increasing pace and frequency, landscape architecture and landscape architects are in the spotlight as convenors, facilitators, and change makers in the most pressing local and global conversations, with climate action, equity, and representation at the forefront. With pride, confidence, and healthy anxiousness, our whole community continues to come together to meet this moment.

Intentionality

Our ASLA membership is a mosaic of talent, curiosity, aspiration, and inspiration, increasingly willing to step right up and into today’s unique challenges. We must continue to equip ourselves with and support one another in the fact-finding, skill-building, and bravery required to keep moving forward, with intentionality.

Leadership

The undeniable collective expertise of our Center for Landscape Architecture’s professional staff, in combination with our Executive Committee volunteers who prioritize accountability to membership, places us in a position of great strength from which to now ask more of ourselves. Our upcoming opportunity to participate in the re-evaluation and updating of our Strategic Plan challenges us to bring a portion of our membership in from the sidelines. Leadership is not about having the answers but rather about being willing to pose the difficult questions.

Courageous Ask

Our Society continues to work diligently at identifying and addressing our collective needs, celebrating and optimizing chapter uniqueness, and being responsive to individual requests. However, for our profession to advance as quickly and robustly as the demands of our humanity and our planet necessitate, we must now take it upon our collective selves to prioritize support for those members struggling to find their place amongst us. The relevance and impact of our Society and our profession will continue to grow only if we hold space for members to ask for help. Together, we can close these gaps if we embrace and cultivate this “courageous ask” culture and stand alongside one another until this very important work is done.

Whatever your challenge, we see you, and honor you and your experiences.

Together, we must now meet this moment too.

Bradley McCauley, ASLA

Bradley McCauley, ASLA

Meet Brad McCauley, a passionate advocate for landscape architecture, who has spent the last 17 years putting people first and making a difference in the profession. A dedicated member of ASLA, Brad has tirelessly served the profession on local, regional, and national stages. This service has resulted in increased membership, advocacy for STEM designation, and a broader awareness of the profession.

As a practitioner, Brad has led the team at site design group for the past decade as the Managing Principal. The recognition of awards throughout the Midwest and on a national level has been a testimony to Brad’s leadership. More important has been the steady and managed growth of the firm from ten professionals in 2012 to over sixty professionals today, including full-time employees in Tokyo, Brazil, and an entire team based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Brad’s commitment to inclusive recruiting, hiring, and retention has transformed the culture of the firm to meet today’s market demands and leadership expectations. Under his guidance, the firm’s $2 billion portfolio reflects his commitment to design excellence improving the quality of life for all. For him, good design is not a luxury; it's a right that should be accessible to everyone.

Brad extends his leadership to various organizations, including The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s Stewardship Council and his Alma Mater’s Department of Landscape Architecture Resource Committee at the University of Illinois. His involvement in local and regional consortiums, panels, and publications showcases his dedication to the broader profession.

Within ASLA, Brad has played a pivotal role in steering the organization toward bold achievements. His contributions as Vice President of Membership led to strategic program revamps that fostered membership growth. Brad's advocacy efforts span a wide spectrum, from representing business owners and students to international practitioners, municipal members, and women in the field.

In his home state, Illinois, Brad's impact has been transformative. As the Chapter President during the 2015 Annual Meeting in Chicago, he later took on the role of Chapter Trustee. Brad's most noteworthy accomplishment was leading a dedicated five-year charge that successfully reclaimed licensure in Illinois, leaving a lasting legacy for the profession.

Goals and Directions Statement
 
Over the past few years, ASLA has made significant strides with initiatives such as the 2020 Racial Equity Plan, the 2022-2024 Strategic Plan, and the 2022 Climate Action Plan. Now, as we stand at the threshold of a new strategic plan and a need to grow, we have a unique opportunity to focus on collaboration, strategic scaling, and inclusivity that will elevate the profession and the lives of practicing Landscape Architects.

Collaboration
 
ASLA stands alongside organizations like TCLF, LAF, CELA, and CLARB, each pursuing unique missions. Initiatives like STEM Certification that will catapult enrollment come out of necessity and our educators locking arms with the society to push something major forward. A focus on collaborative growth, leveraging our collective energies to avoid duplicating efforts and maximizing our impact, is the only way forward. Together, we can create a more cohesive and powerful force, advancing the goals and missions of landscape architecture on a unified front that increases visibility.

Scale

To ensure the continued success of landscape architecture, we must focus on scaling up our profession with keen attention to our youth and our member firms. Further locking arms with our educators will create the pipeline of students and practitioners needed to carry out our mission and ensure those students get jobs. Focusing on providing resources and a platform for sharing successes amongst firms, which are by far small businesses led by individuals with no formal business training, will not only enhance the business skills of our members but will bolster the success and overall growth of the profession.

Diversity and Inclusivity
 
Diversity is not merely a checkbox; it is the essence of our strength. We need to champion diversity in all its forms, acknowledging differences in age, practice types, geographic locations, and parental status. We are missing opportunities with women, people of color, non-member licensed LAs, and government employees. Creating a truly inclusive society will make us more accessible and our members more profitable. We are a diverse community bound by our shared passion for landscape architecture, and by fostering inclusivity, we will create an environment where everyone can thrive.