by Dan Li, Student ASLA
The ASLA 2018 Diversity Summit report, summary, and videos of the presentations are all available online.
Read the ASLA 2018 Diversity Summit Report
Since 2013, the American Society of Landscape Architects has convened an annual Diversity Summit with the goal of developing a deeper understanding of how landscape architecture can better represent the communities and people it serves. For the 2018 Diversity Summit, five professionals from the 2017 Diversity SuperSummit were invited back, and nine new participants were selected from the Call for Letters of Interest to add valuable input to discussions and resource development.
On June 22-24, ASLA hosted the 2018 Diversity Summit at the ASLA Center for Landscape Architecture in Washington, D.C. The goals of the 2018 Diversity Summit were to review benchmarks prioritized from the 2017 Diversity SuperSummit and to create opportunities for participants to research and workshop resources for ASLA’s career discovery and diversity program. Throughout the weekend, participants offered ideas and suggestions for the development of two resources that can assist professionals in implementing diversity and inclusion practices into business strategies and help ASLA National and ASLA Chapters create programs to reach youth and communities.
ASLA is excited to share those conversations in the ASLA 2018 Diversity Summit Report. The summaries in the report and the survey results from the summit participants will serve as an actionable guide for the ASLA Career Discovery and Diversity manager position for the upcoming year. For a two-page summary of the full report, check out the ASLA 2018 Diversity Summit Summary.
The videos of two presentations in the ASLA 2018 Diversity Summit can be found on the Diversity Summit webpage. The two presentations are:
- “Review of 2017-2018 Work Plan and 2017 Diversity SuperSummit Priority Survey” presented by Shawn Balon, ASLA;
- “The Color of Landscape Architecture” presented by Richard Jones, ASLA, President of Mahan Rykiel Associates.
The Diversity Summit webpage provides resources from the past six years of Diversity Summits including handouts, videos, presentations, news articles, and reports. Focus items and resources will continue to be established and evaluated as ASLA plans future summits.
Scenes from the 2018 Diversity Summit
Dan Li, Student ASLA, Ph.D. Candidate of Architecture and Design Research at Virginia Tech, is the education programs summer intern at the American Society of Landscape Architects.