School of Planning, Design and Construction

Greetings, MSU Landscape Architecture Alumni!

I am honored to begin serving a two-year term as the President of the LAAAB as the oldest landscape architecture degree program 125! We are entering an exciting year and time under the leadership of Dr. Jun-Hyun Kim and Dr. Ming-Han Li.  I am pleased to give you an update on the many exciting things that the MSU LAAAB is doing to support the growing Landscape Architecture program, the students, faculty, and school.

2021-2023 Board Recognitions
First I would like to recognize and thank the outgoing Board Members Cheryl Zuellig, Vanessa Warren, Deb Guenther and Liz Dafoe for their service and for leaving the new board in a such strong position. Under Cheryl’ Zuellig’s leadership the board continued student support in person and hybrid through challenging times. The Finance Committee, led by Tim Britain created an ambitious fundraising plan and priorities. 

Cheryl and the executive committee (Vanessa, Tim, and I) board members facilitated updates to the board’s purpose, committee structure and by laws and leaves us with a remarkably strong board. Deb Guenther and her committee members Scott Reinholt and Katy Hallgren led the nomination process. We have a full board of fifteen members representing impressive diversity in age, experience, geography, practice, gender, and race including five new members. We are pleased to welcome Bob Chipman with his tireless commitment back on board.

LAAAB Board Activities
In addition to leaders in private practice throughout the United States, the board has representatives with experience in local, state, and federal government, nonprofit community design center, and adjunct faculty positions in several institutions. We have new board members with strong administrative, leadership and fundraising expertise. The 2024-2025 LAAAB executive committee includes Tim Britain in the vice president role, Vicki McGhee as Treasurer and Katy Hallgren as Secretary. Committee leads include Josh Seyfried as event chair, Vicki McGhee as chair of finance and fundraising, Katy as chair of Communications and Scott Reinholt as chair of nominations. Refer to article Meet the LAAAB Board in this newsletter, for more details on the full board including five new members.

the MSU Program leadership, the Board and Committee Chairs have been working diligently on internal filing and communication systems, coordinating with the development office on fund and fundraising strategies, and planning a stellar 125th LAniversary event to celebrate the oldest program in the country.

LAnniversity Event
The Event Committee led by Josh Seyfried, with support from the Board and MSU leadership have are working diligently to line up a full day of activities, venues, speakers, and panelists for a memorable event. The event will be free due to generous sponsors including Landscape Forms and Polycor. Additional sponsorships are available. More information can be found in this newsletter 125th LAnniversary Celebration Article and The details of the registration process will be forthcoming. The full board will be meeting in person in East Lansing on July 20th to discuss our annual work plan and priorities. In addition, we will finalize the program and schedule for the 125th LAniversary Celebration to be held at the MSU Student Union on Friday October 6. Hold the date for an exciting multi event all day and evening program. Registration details will be forth coming to everyone on this newsletter mailing list. 

2023-2024 Priorities
We remain optimistic about the 2023/2024 school year.  Students are back on the campus and recovering from the Campus tragedy. Our dedicated board members will continue to focus on alumni and student outreach, student enrichment activities and fundraising.  We remain committed to helping students become our future leaders. Under the new Board’s leadership, there will be increased focus on student enrichment expected to include more interaction with students by Board Members and Alumni as mentors, presenters, and reviewers of work resumes, portfolios and potentially a digital “Place to Paper Library” of professional projects for student to reference. One of the first events will be a sketch workshop for students and alumni led by Bob Chipman and Danny October 6th. More details can be found in Bob’s article 125th LAnniversity Student and Alumni Sketch Crawl in this newsletter.

Last year we published a survey and learned Alumni are interested in engaging with students. We will be working to find opportunities for broad engagement throughout the school year and at the 125th event. The survey link LA Program Alumni Survey.is still active and alumni are encouraged to complete and forward to anyone you think might be interested in reengaging with the program, submitting posters, and/or attending the event and/or applying for the distinguished Alumni annual award. More information about the award can be found in Dr. Kim’s Update 

Opportunities to Connect
If you have not had a chance to connect with the Landscape Architecture program recently, I would encourage you to check out the program’s website (https://www.canr.msu.edu/spdc/programs/landscape_architecture/).

The Michigan State Landscape Architecture program is growing and gaining national recognition. We are soliciting greater Alumni engagement and support to ensure MSU continues to deliver top-tier graduate landscape architects. 

If you are in a position now to offer financial support or to volunteer your time, please let us know. If now is not opportune, please keep the LAAAB and the MSU LA program in mind going forward. Thank you for your continued interest.

If you would like to learn more about the Board and engagement opportunities or if you have any questions, I would be happy to contact you.  Please feel free to email me at President.MSUlaaab2023@gmail.com. To learn more about individual board members see the Meet the LAAAB members’ article. 

Go Green!