About

I grew up in a blue-collar family. My dad was in the pipefitters and welders' union. Nobody in my world talked about money, professional strategy, or how to negotiate a salary. Even graduate school didn't mention those things, so I had to figure it out alone. Let me clarify that this was during the early days on wide spread internet, adobe, CAD usage in design professions. I had an option to do all my projects in my "Technical" class on mylar by hand. Needless to say, there were fewer resources then than now, but I think folks are still concerned about being honest. And that's not just design. 

My career. I started by professional career as an intern with Denver's Parks and Planning team. While I had my own personal project that identified encroachment, provided resources for audobon certification, and improvements to Operations & Maintenance (O&M), from discussions I was having with the permanent staff left me knowing I wanted a designer's job first - not a project management overseeing another firm's work. 

I spent ten years at OLIN working on an amazing diverse set of projects. Many times staff get pigeoned holed into something leadership thinks you like and/or are good at, but I was proactive in expressing my goals for project type/scale exposure. Even when they did the opposite of my expressed goals, each project resulted in great leaps and bounds in growth. Depending on the project, they each held their own. I worked directly with Laurie Olin on a residential courtyard 2 blocks from the office, and managed larger scale projects in the office like the Apple Campus 2 project and the Alexandria Waterfront. Despite the efforts to staff me on local projects, those are regional for OLIN so I was open to opportunities that presented themselves, even though I wasn't actively looking at the time. 

After my second child, an opportunity at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) opened up. I learned about it from a friend, and after I joined, within the first 3 months, all three of my direct line of supervisors resigned - literally all the way up to the President. This is where I developed a deeper understanding of the role the Chair of the Board plays at a non-profit organization. As the only licensed landscape architect on staff, I supported a diversity of community based greening implementations that ranged from Pop Up Garden design/permit/bid/build to community gardens and agriculture resource centers. The opportunity included understanding non-profit leadership skills like grant applications and managements, endowment and funding of core mission based programs, how it was to interface with a Board of Directors and how they are really the boss of the organization. As I approached the end of my time at PHS, my superiors were started to redirect the role I supported at the office and it wasn't a direction I was interested in, so I started looking for other opportunities. 

After a senior leader at Philadelphia Parks & Recreation team retired after decades, I applied for that and started at the City in July 2022. For 2 years my portfolio consisted of planning, property and historic preservation projects along with trails, Water Department collaborations and non-profit partnerships including their capital improvement projects. When Commissioner Susan Slawson joined the department as Commissioner in 2024, she promoted me to Deputy Commissioner of Planning, Property & Strategic Engagement for Philadelphia Parks & Recreation. I can say that she is my most favorite boss I've had throughout my career. The diversity of topics that come across my radar during a week could create a whole season of the comedy show Parks & Rec. 

While I was at PHS, I connected with many of the universities as a representative of a non-traditional greening organization in Philly. During those chats, more professional based discussion topics emerged that students had a greater interest in. Throughout my career, I've always been interested in mentoring and paying my lessons learned forward so we all go further faster. This aspect will most likely be a future branch of my career because not only do I have a passion for it, I think that students and emerging designers have a hunger for those honest and direct conversations.

Each chapter gave me something irreplaceable and cost me something I didn't anticipate.

This site, and the book behind it, exist because the information that would have changed my early career never seemed available for someone like me - a blue collar, first gen graduate - but there should be. So, here's hoping I can bridge that gap of knowledge.