Faculty Updates

Our faculty are one of the greatest strengths of our program. Check out some brief highlights of what they’ve been up to this year!

David Anderson

David Anderson, alongside Jake Powell, was one of three presenters competitively selected by the USU Research Office to participate in the Research Landscapes program this year. The presentation, titled “Finding Our Sense of Place” Research Landscapes - Finding Our Sense of Place was broadcast on YouTube followed by a live Q&A session. At this year’s CELA conference Dave and Jake also presented about the potential for introductory Landscape Architecture courses to grow enrollment in Landscape Architecture programs. Dave leads the LAEP 1030 course, which in the 2020-21 school year was taught to nearly 1,200 USU students – nearly 25% of the entire USU Breadth Creative Arts (BCA) courses.

Brent Chamberlain

Brent Chamberlain, Ph.D. was recently promoted to Associate Professor and while excited about reaching this milestone, he has been particularly excited about filling the VIVID Lab (virtually of course) with well over a dozen students across all academic levels. Together we are creating VR worlds, conducting studies on storm surge risk, building solutions for integrating veriports (think lots of drones), and creating better places through design and planning.

Keith Christensen

Keith Christensen, Ph.D., PLA, was recently promoted to Professor after 12 years in LAEP. Keith currently serves as the LAEP Department Head. Recently, Keith conducted a national webinar on Creating Conditions of Possibility: Diverse, equitable and inclusive recreation space for individuals with disabilities. He continues to lead a major research effort to better understand and advocate for the role of the built environment in supporting individuals with disabilities’ community living and participation.

David Evans

David Evans’ past academic year began with a wildfire in August that destroyed his home in the mountains above the San Francisco Bay Area. Returning to Logan after the fire gave him a much deeper appreciation for the LAEP community and the meaningful work that we do. In LAEP 2720, the Dean’s Prize competition proved to be the best student work and most engaged jury debate in the history of the award. In LAEP 4910/6160, the Leadership and Communication class, delivered remotely for the first time, 20 alumni and practicing professional joined the class to share some of the lessons learned from their successful careers.

Daniella Hirschfeld

Daniella Hirschfeld, Ph.D. is currently leading an international team doing research into the use of climate science by planning practitioners. Her work on regional adaptive capacity was published in the Journal on Environmental Science & Policy and her work on site design for coastal climate adaptation will be published in November in the journal Coastal Management.

Todd Johnson

Todd Johnson focused on engaging in new ways after the disruption of the pandemic, using wall stories as a way of discovering and advancing creative solutions. These efforts were successful at sustaining “studio culture”. He also led students in the E-Studio, who won the Utah Real Estate Challenge and its $20,000 prize, and the Capstone Studio, who put forth a vision for Santaquin, UT to foster future agricultural business, protect scenery, connect, and revitalize its neighborhoods. He enjoys working with the amazing young men and women in these studios.

Caroline Lavoie

Caroline Lavoie, MLA, MPL, CSLA, professor in LAEP, co-led an online urban design studio Fall 2020 in Pune, India with Swati Sahasrabudhe, Department Head at BNCA, a College of Architecture for women. The studio won both a Utah ASLA Honor Award and an Award of Excellence. Caroline and Swati are currently writing an article “Education beyond Boundaries: Creating New Opportunities for Collaborative Learning,” about the online international studio experience, to be published in an upcoming issue on education for the Journal of Landscape Architecture - India.

Carlos Licon

Carlos Licon teaches undergraduate and graduate studios and courses in community planning and design. Starting this year, he is the Graduate Program Director, looking into applicants, programs curricula, and enrolled students’ academic interests and needs. Carlos also participates with other faculty in research collaborations in sustainability and inclusive planning.

Sean Michael

Sean Michael was on sabbatical during the 2020-2021 academic year. You can read about his experiences throughout the year on the next page.

Keunhyun Park

Keunhyun Park, Ph.D., spoke at the TEDxUSU 2021 event about the problems of empty neighborhood parks in the United States (https://youtu.be/SBkgi7fwHBA). Recently, he won two external grants through the UTRAC program (an annual research workshop by the Utah Department of Transportation and Utah Transit Authority). In those projects, he will explore 1) equity in public transit connections to regional parks and open spaces in Utah and 2) active transportation crashes (e.g., pedestrians, bicyclists) involving impaired road users, respectively.

Jake Powell

Jake Powell’s role as an LAEP Extension Specialist provides an opportunity to transfer the work of the LAEP Department to the individuals and communities of Utah. Jake has worked this year to develop three online Extension courses covering the landscape design process for residential homeowners, basic powers and duties for public planning commissioners and city councils, and a construction site storm water management training course. Jake continues to lead the Gateway and Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) Initiative’s effort to help gateway communities thrive amid explosive growth pressures. Jake was also awarded the USU’s 2020 New Extension Specialist of the Year award.

Ole Sleipness

Ole Sleipness earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. He was grateful to spend the 2020-2021 year on sabbatical. During his sabbatical, he explored rural resiliency and small communities in the Intermountain West whose main streets serve as state highways, while continuing to publish several papers with colleagues. As the pandemic has fueled urban migration into rural areas, accelerated remote work, and shifted the status quo, he looks forward to continuing productive research in this dynamic landscape. We look forward to hearing more about his sabbatical in next year’s issue of InSites.