by Amy Wagenfeld, Affil. ASLA, PhD
On Sunday, October 12, 2025, the Children’s Outdoor Environments Professional Practice Network (COE PPN) hosted an engaging session with two of our very own leadership team members, Sarah Williams, ASLA, PLA, CPSI, and Chad Kennedy, FASLA, PLA, LEED AP. They shared their respective thoughts on strategies for overcoming challenges when building lively and creative outdoor play environments.
Following an invitation for attendees to sign a congratulatory banner for Chad, who was inducted into the ASLA Council of Fellows on Sunday evening, Sarah led off the conversation. Sarah is the Senior Director of the Native Plant Habitat for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). Did you know that NWF is the largest private, nonprofit, member-supported conservation organization in the United States, with over 7 million members? Take a look at their website for more information.
Sarah’s talk, “Designing Nature Play Spaces for Communities at Scale: The Interplay of a National Home Builder and a Nonprofit,” began with an invitation to recall a memorable play experience in nature from childhood. This was the perfect place to build the case for bringing more (lots more) nature into children’s lives, today and in the future. The benefits extend beyond childhood development and wellbeing to include fostering connections with nature and on a non-human scale, to benefitting wildlife, such as monarch butterflies and bees during a time of climate and biodiversity crisis (and beyond).