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Conway Alums Making a World of Difference
Conway’s 700+ graduates work in a wide range of fields related to ecological design and planning, often building on their prior education and experiences. What sets them apart from others in their fields is a profound appreciation for sustainability and an ability to see and design parts within a larger landscape context. Their fields include:
• Landscape design + build • Gardening + horticulture • Ecological restoration • Landscape architecture • Government • Stormwater management • Education • Agriculture + food systems • Municipal + regional planning • Conservation + land trusts • Arts + graphic design • Forestry • Nonprofit management • Writing • Permaculture • Energy • Architecture • International development
Our master’s degree program provides an exposure to these and other topics, with which graduates have gone on to pursue a wide variety of careers.
On these pages you will find out about a few Conway graduates and what they are doing.
RESTORATION ECOLOGY: SETH WILKINSON ’99
Seth has restored globally-rare sandplain grasslands, implemented innovative bioengineering projects for coastal stabilization, and created critical nesting habitat for Massachusetts’ most imperiled population of threatened diamondback terrapin turtles. In collaboration with land trusts, conservation commissions, Massachusetts Audubon, and private landowners, his company (Wilkinson Ecological Design) has completed hundreds of ecological restoration projects on Cape Cod and the Islands, proving that restored habitats can also become elegantly beautiful landscapes.
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING: GOVE DEPUY ’02
“I loved my Conway experience and have found that the ‘usewhat-you-have-to-get-where-you-want-to-go’ mentality at Conway has led me through more than a few tough design challenges in Indonesia.” Gove cofounded a small environmental consulting firm in Bali that links international efforts to local knowledge and services. “The interest has been incredible,” he says, “and Conway was a key step in getting me here. I chose Conway over larger universities because it seemed to offer the opportunity to explore ‘out of the box’ solutions. The Conway approach to designing with natural landscapes can serve as a positive model for anyone working in design and planning.”
COMMUNITY PLANNING: LIZ KELLY ’14
Liz is Planner/Designer for Resilience Planning & Design LLC, a small ecological design and community planning firm in New Hampshire. She works with towns and cities, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individual property owners, focusing on multi-functional planning and design solutions that provide a range of benefits for clients from protecting and increasing green infrastructure networks, to creating a high-quality, resilient built environment, to increasing social capital. The foundation of her work is place based and directly informed by the communities the firm serves. Liz also teaches Community Planning and Permaculture courses at Plymouth State University. REGENERATIVE FRAMEWORKS: ABRAH DRESDALE ‘10
Abrah is a social designer, consultant and educator. She has developed new courses for Food Systems and Farm programs at UMass Amherst, The Omega Institute and Greenfield Community College. She has helped to create and catalyze numerous networks and initiatives focused on systemic change, from local food sovereignty to regional climate justice and prison food justice.
WATER SYSTEMS CONSULTING: AMANDA PEBLER ’18
Amanda works for a water engineering firm. Most of her work involves strategic communications around regional recycled water projects. She has also been able to assist in the landscape design of a water utility entrance and sign. She has been managing the design of educational materials on stormwater pollution prevention that will be distributed across the State of Oregon.
LANDSCAPE DESIGN: JENNA WEBSTER ’09
Jenna Webster is a landscape designer with Larry Weaner Landscape Associates. Since joining LWLA in 2009, she has been involved with master plans for residential projects small and large as well as meadow and habitat plans for public sites. She also co-curates the annual conference series through LWLA’s affiliate New Directions in the American Landscape (NDAL) and is an instructor in the Mt. Cuba Center Certificate Program.
THE CONWAY CURRICULUM
On the path to earning an accredited Master of Science in Ecological Design, Conway students complete a mix of projects, class time, and field work. Pages 5-9 provide an overview of the Conway curriculum. Page 5 shows the full year’s calendar and a typical week’s schedule. Pages 6 and 7 describe how Conway tackles a new set of projects—at different scales—in each of the program’s three terms. Page 8 offers more depth into how the Conway faculty integrate real projects with classroom learning, while page 9 shows examples of the field work we do each year.
