1. Tell us a little about your career trajectory since you graduated from UT.
I graduated in the spring of 2022, and after a summer road trip I took a position as a Research Associate at Auburn University in Alabama, where I have been working since August of 2022.
I graduated in the spring of 2022, and after a summer road trip I took a position as a Research Associate at Auburn University in Alabama, where I have been working since August of 2022.
2. Tell us a bit about your current firm and projects or type of work you are doing.
At Auburn I work on three different grant projects that Professor Rob Holmes is directing this year primarily in the Gulf of Mexico. The central portion of my work is working with The Dredge Research Collaborative’s initiative with EWN. The project is part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering With Nature® (EWN) program. Our team works with coastal engineers, landscape architects, EWN, and the USACE districts. We collaborate to study an area’s coastal landscape, the social and ecological systems, and infrastructure to improve specific ecosystem functioning in the new age of climate crisis.
At Auburn I work on three different grant projects that Professor Rob Holmes is directing this year primarily in the Gulf of Mexico. The central portion of my work is working with The Dredge Research Collaborative’s initiative with EWN. The project is part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering With Nature® (EWN) program. Our team works with coastal engineers, landscape architects, EWN, and the USACE districts. We collaborate to study an area’s coastal landscape, the social and ecological systems, and infrastructure to improve specific ecosystem functioning in the new age of climate crisis.
The second grant I work on is a NOAA grant where we are exploring the socio-ecological impacts of sea level rise of Fort Morgan peninsula in Alabama.
And the third grant, which allowed me to co-teach a studio course with MLA students here at Auburn, is funded through the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics. This grant sponsors multi-disciplinary collaboration between departments at multiple universities in the Gulf Coast region.
The Dredge Research Collaborative will continue working with EWN in the Great Lakes, and our team in Auburn will continue work in the Gulf in the coming year.
3. Why did you join your present firm?
I did not have a clear picture when I started, or even at the end of school of exactly where I wanted to work, but I really liked my time in the MLA program and being surrounded by peers, professors, and ideas. I wanted to continue to be in an academic setting and explore the possibility of teaching. I also wanted to participate in design research, discuss design research, and work on meaningful projects and this position allowed me to do all of that.
4. Do you have any advice for future landscape architecture students?
Design school can feel difficult and frustrating, especially at the beginning when you’re learning new tools and ways of seeing the world so my advice would be to approach it with some lightness and experimentation, but also to really go all in. The opportunities and the facilities (the Fab Lab, the learning environment of the A&A, the landscapes, and places in and around Knoxville) are all one of a kind so if you’re committing to graduate school soak it all up!
5. Any fond memories of your time at UTK that you would like to share?
I have a lot of fond memories of spending late hours figuring things out, talking about drawings, and laughing with my cohort and friends from the 5+1 program. I loved the feeling of making and of learning and of working out how to articulate my ideas more clearly … working with a studio partner in my third year, being a student worker at the Fab Lab, my final MLP presentation, taking a studio trip to Arizona… all these were great, but the friendships I still have with folks from the program were and are important to me, and are still influential on my work.