Congratulations to the CELA Fellow Class of 2025

Eugene Bressler

North Carolina State University

For 55 years, Gene Bressler has exhibited outstanding academic leadership, mentoring, and service. He holds a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University (1970), and the BLA degree from the SUNY College of Forestry and Environmental Science (1968). Almost 70% of Gene’s career was spent in academia—22 years as an administrator in two CELA-member schools plus 14 years as a faculty member in a third. 



He is a tireless advocate and cheerleader for others, supporting and securing faculty recognition and resources. In 2007, he became a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and, in 2006, was recognized with CELA’s Outstanding Administrator Award. In recognition of his devotion to the Department, upon his retirement, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning faculty and alumni established the Eugene H. Bressler Landscape Architecture Faculty Endowment in his name.

Byoung-Suk Kweon

University of Maryland

Dr. Byoung-Suk Kweon is a Professor in the Landscape Architecture Program at the University of Maryland. She has been a devoted landscape architecture educator since 1999 beginning at Texas A&M. Prior to her professorial roles, she was a designer in private practice and a research assistant and teaching assistant at the University of Illinois. Notably, Dr. Kweon was the first Korean-born female educator to accept a tenure-track teaching position in Landscape Architecture in the United States. She was also the first female Landscape Architect to be promoted to Full Professor at the University of Maryland, a program that is now 30 years old. 

Dr. Kweon is a well-regarded scholar whose work focuses on the interactions between physical environments and people’s well-being. She is widely published and with over 3,000 citations, she is one of the most frequently referenced landscape architecture professors in North America. Throughout her career, Dr. Kweon has actively contributed her time to support the CELA mission, including serving as the co-editor for Landscape Research Record for six years. She has also consistently served as a reviewer for and presenter at CELA’s annual conference. Dr. Kweon’s contributions have also been previously recognized by CELA including receipt of the Excellence in Service-Learning award in 2022, the Outstanding Communication Award in 2012, and a CELA national award of recognition in teaching, research, and service in 2007.

Caroline Lavoie

Utah State University

With more than 28 years of academic experience, Professor Lavoie has demonstrated exemplary dedication to landscape architecture in her teaching, research, and service to the landscape architecture profession and the CELA. Lavoie is a Professor of Landscape Architecture at Utah State University. In her academic career, Lavoie received numerous awards and accolades for her research and creative scholarship. She has over 15 national and international awards including three Fulbright scholarship awards to Australia, Argentina, and Azerbaijan. Lavoie has also received multiple recognitions including CELA 2019 Excellence in Design Studio Teaching at Senior Level, and CELA 2000 Award of Recognition for Research at Junior Level.

Perhaps Professor Lavoie's most significant contribution to the field of Landscape Architecture is her art and design work, which she has presented and exhibited both nationally and internationally. The overarching theme of her body of work focuses on reconnecting people with their landscape particularly waterways and watersheds. Professor Lavoie produced, set up, installed, and curated 18 art shows and exhibitions during her academic career. That is equivalent to one national or international art exhibition every other year. The body of work produced through drawings, painting, photography, and multimedia has garnered the highest level of media articles, reviews, accolades, prizes, and recognitions, including invitations for Solo-Art Shows both nationally and internationally.  

Galen Newman

Texas A&M University

Galen Newman, FASLA, is Professor and Department Head of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning (LAUP) at Texas A&M University (TAMU) and the Youngblood Endowed Professor of Residential Land Development. Dr. Newman's research interests include urban regeneration, community resilience, land use science, spatial analytics, and landscape performance. He is also PI of both the TAMU Superfund Center and TAMU Center for Environmental Research’s Community Engagement Cores. Dr. Newman is also co-editor of the Journal of Planning Education and Research (JPER).

He received a BS in Environmental Design, a Master of Landscape Architecture, and a Master of Community Planning from Auburn University, before completing a PhD in Planning, Design and the Built Environment from Clemson University. He worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Clemson for one year before becoming Assistant Professor at TAMU, where he was promoted to Associate and then Full Professor. Before becoming Department Head at TAMU, Dr. Newman served in numerous administrative roles including Director of the Center for Housing and Urban Development (CHUD), Associate Department Head, Coordinator of the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Program, Coordinator of the Bachelor of Science in Urban Planning Program, Associate Director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, and Community Resilience Lead for the Institute for Sustainable Communities. Outside of TAMU, he has served in influential leadership positions such as various roles for the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA), being a member of the Landscape Architecture Foundation Board of Directors, and on the awards jury for the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Professional Awards for two years.

Catherine Seavitt Nordenson

University of Pennsylvania

Catherine Seavitt Nordenson has contributed new knowledge to the academy and the profession of landscape architecture for over 25 years. She is widely recognized as a valued educator, innovative researcher, and inspired advocate for expanding the influence and scope of the landscape architectural profession. Her research on design adaptation to sea level rise in urban coastal environments, as well as novel landscape restoration practices given the dynamics of climate change, has made a significant impact on the design fields. Her many books, essays, and journal publications present her brilliant explorations of political power, environmental activism, and public health, particularly as these intersect with the design of equitable public space.

Seavitt currently serves a tenured Professor and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design, where she holds the Martin and Margy Meyerson Chair of Urbanism. At the University of Pennsylvania, Seavitt is also the co-executive director of The Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology and the creative director of the award-winning LA+ Journal. A registered architect and landscape architect, she is a graduate of the Cooper Union and Princeton University, a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and Graham Foundation grants for research in Brazil.

William (Chip) Winslow

Texas A&M University

William P. “Chip” Winslow, III has been a professor of landscape architecture for 42 years with a commitment to excellence in teaching that goes back even further with his instructional activities as a student Teaching Assistant. Winslow joined the Texas A&M University (TAMU) faculty six years ago, in 2018, as Professor of Practice, after spending the majority of his academic career at Kansas State University (KSU) where he was a tenured Professor and is now Professor Emeritus. He is also a licensed landscape architect (LA) and has been since 1981. He was also a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in 2003.

Winslow has had a very storied and impressive professional and academic career at KSU and TAMU. Specifically, his academic work across both universities related to teaching LA construction and site engineering classes, as well as his roles in LAAB and CLARB, primarily through his service on accreditation visiting teams for LA programs and his pursuits to increase licensure standards and obtainment standards in the LA profession which have been significantly impactful to academia and the profession at large, as well as CELA and many allied organizations. He has taught 9 different courses in 6 years at TAMU and has taught 30 different courses in his entire career. 

Kurt Culbertson

Emeritus Chair/CEO, Design Workshop

Kurt Culbertson, PhD, FASLA, has been a leader, a mentor, an award-winning practitioner, and a visionary landscape architect with 44 years of experience, leading design teams across a broad range of domestic and international initiatives. As the emeritus Chair/CEO of one of the most prestigious landscape architecture firms, Design Workshop (2008 ASLA Firm-of-the-Year), he has led numerous sustainable development projects and inspired, mentored, and challenged hundreds of practitioners, interns, academics, and students to engage innovative planning and design that promotes social, economic, ecological, and aesthetic benefits to the communities served. 

Although he is engaged as a full-time practitioner, he has regularly participated in professional and academic conferences with presentations advocating scholarship and research agendas promoting effective innovation and advancement of the profession and discipline of landscape architecture. He has served as a featured guest speaker, visiting critic, studio instructor and charrette facilitator at numerous landscape architecture programs in the USA and abroad. His experience as a Fulbright Scholar (in 1998) and his recent earning of his PhD (in 2018) demonstrates his personal commitment to lifelong learning and the integration of his passions as both a practitioner and a scholar. A visionary for catalytic change, through Kurt’s leadership, the firm’s Faculty in Residence program has advanced research into practice with the support of faculty scholars. His 2016 recognition by the ASLA with the Society’s highest award – The ASLA Medal, is a strong confirmation of the respect and regard that practitioners and educators have for him.