Change is said to be the only constant. Yet DPLA students, faculty, and staff are consistent in advancing the Wisconsin Idea.

After about 60 years in Agriculture Hall studio spaces, this summer, the LA programs are moving to the Environmental Services building at 30 E. Campus Mall. A huge thanks to everyone behind executing this over the last 18 months. The next step will be moving the entire department, Earth Partnership, Urban and Regional planning, and Landscape Architecture into the fourth floor of Helen C White during 2026. Even those changes may not be able to accommodate the growth in the BLA program. For the first time in at least 20 years, we will not be able to accept every applicant into the program, and yet, our new cohorts will be 30 students. I'm thrilled for our efforts on this matter, but also cognizant that our growth (the LUS has almost 100 majors, and the Geodesign certificate launches this Fall) is also due to students seeing the need for the thoughtful, professional training we provide. The future of cities, spaces, and our planet hinge on emerging professionals, able to articulate the lessons, we convey in the circumstances they will manage decades from now.

The DPLA had its first unified graduation event a few weeks ago, please see photos from that below. Students are attending state and national conferences, earning research grants, awards, and honors, and need your support. Please see in this newsletter more photos and prominent student activities.

Two clicks away! Please support us!

Our applied and basic research, in Wisconsin, across the U.S., and in different parts of the world generates opportunities students leverage for learning and, at the same time, produces benefits for communities in the spirit of the Wisconsin Idea. Whether food systems, transportation, water or ecological restoration, housing, or health, our Labs advance the common good of people and planet. Your donations of time, money, and skills help drive us FORWARD. We are grateful for every good thought you have for us, and we welcome every suggestion you have – see the note from PLAAC in this issue. I’m proud of our graduates, new and old, and I’m thankful for what you do on behalf of the Wisconsin Idea - - Let us know how you’re doing and what you’re up to!



A BIG thanks to Jenna Shoosmith, Camilla Soechtig, Majiedah Pasha and all the colleagues who contributed to completing this newsletter!

 Hope your summer is a delight. Forward!

Alfonso Morales, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Chair

Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture

Congratulations to the Class of 2023!

This May, the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture welcomed six Landscape & Urban Studies students, fifteen Landscape Architecture students, and eighteen Masters of Urban and Regional Planning students into our alumni community. Celebrations were held at Music Hall for graduates and their loved ones. We're excited for all of you as you start this new chapter!

Student Spotlight: DPLA Team Players

Aside from explaining one element of what makes soccer such an endearing spectacle, it also helped explain how I came to planning. Despite having no intentions of becoming a planner until recently, hindsight would show that I have been occupying myself with maps, plans, and spaces for as long as I can remember. Soccer has certainly been a part of this – cultivating an instinct for predicting movement across space – but so too have digital and tabletop strategy games, principally by rewarding one’s patience and precision.

It makes sense, then, that I found a home in geography and planning, particularly when it comes to making maps and optimizing the use of urban spaces. These fields have also integrated (or allowed me to incorporate) my interests in the environment, culture, and philosophy. While I have not decided yet on the form of planning work I will pursue, I fully intend to involve such topics in any work I contribute to.

This is also the case with my third year here at UW Madison, as I conclude my graduate studies and take on a leadership role with the Wisconsin Student Planning Association (our departmental grad student organization). Insofar as planners are tasked with protecting and enhancing the canvases of urban life, we must know both what and who we are working with, as well as how to cooperate in building a vision for the future. I hope to grow – in both myself and others – these various competencies, and wherewithal to orchestrate them all at once, that good planning requires. A team sport if ever there were one."

Hollyn Gaffner

Hollyn Gaffner, an incoming junior, is double majoring in Landscape and Urban Studies and Sociology with a certificate in Public Policy. She was recently appointed as co-president of the Wisconsin Undergraduate Planning Association (WUPA) for the 2023-2024 school year. This summer, she will be interning with the City of Madison Parks Department for their Parks Alive! Program. In this position, she will be responsible for planning and coordinating Summer Parks department programs across the City of Madison. 

A Message from PLAAC

We have constituted the Planning and Landscape Alumnae Advisory Council! The message bears repeating because we support DPLA, now five years old. You can see the PLAAC membership and bylaws here.

In short, we have two missions, first, we work together to increase the visibility of DPLA, especially in recruiting new students to the five DPLA degree programs (BLA, MS-URPL, PhD-URPL, MS-LA, and LUS – Landscape and Urban Studies, BS or BA). Second, we advise and support DPLA by listening to reports from the Chair, making suggestions based on what we learn, and raising funds to support internships, scholarships, and department activities.

All alumni should be on the lookout for messages from the PLAAC! Here’s to a great Summer and ON Wisconsin!

Staff & Faculty Spotlight:

Making Waves & Riding Airwaves

This May, Professor Edna Ledesma spoke with Wisconsin Public Radio about what the future of cities should look like. What problems might they face in the future? And what needs to be done to make them more sustainable and resilient?

Put in your earbuds and listen to the conversation here.

Tune In:

What Should the Future of Cities Look Like?

Squeezed In & Pushed Out

Last month, DPLA Assistant Professor Revel Sims and School of Human Ecology Assistant Professor Carolina Sarmiento published a research article about housing insecurity and displacement in the City of Santa Ana, California. The project is grounded in four years of data and explores the dual existence of eviction-based displacement and overcrowding.

You can read the article here.

On May 18, DPLA teaching faculty and outreach program manager Nathan Larson joined scholars and staff at Mendota Community School to celebrate the 5th annual Wisconsin School Garden Day with special guests Governor Tony Evers, Representative Samba Baldeh, MMSD Superintendent Carlton Jenkins and Board President Nichelle Nichols, and additional Wisconsin School Garden Network partners. Larson—who co-founded the Wisconsin School Garden Network in 2016 and helped to establish Wisconsin School Garden Day in 2019—teaches LA 375 Mindfulness in Restorative Environments, a community-based learning course in partnership with Mendota Community School. To hear more about this course and partnership, tune into the following GridgeFridge episode from the Morgridge Center for Public Service featuring Larson and DPLA alum Madison Yurubi.

Totally Radish!

5th Annual Wisconsin School Garden Day

Dog Days of Summer:

Students Help to Design Dog Park

A couple of our BLA students, Henry Hichsliff and Keegan Ripley, recently kicked off a new service project with the City of Cottage Grove. The students are helping design a new community dog park that is grounded in sustainability. More to come over the next couple months. Special shout out to DPLA faculty member James Steiner for helping to move this project forward.

Changing the World through Earth Partnership

In the spirt of the Wisconsin Idea, Earth Partnership (EP) has supported community development initiatives in different parts of the United States, Puerto Rico, and Latin America for over 30 years. Our initiatives include Latino Earth Partnership, Global EP, and Indigenous Arts and Sciences. Since joining the Department of Planning and landscape Architecture, EP is involving UW-Madison students in restoration-based education and ecological restoration with communities participating in Indigenous Arts and Sciences and Latino Earth Partnership. Recent highlights include:

• An ongoing collaboration with the University of Puerto Rico and Vida Marina with co-leading a Latino Earth Partnership Mangrove Restoration Workshop in Aguadilla in May 2023. The workshop was well attended with a combination of teachers, community members, high school students and college students. Participants enjoyed sharing knowledge and learning from each other. Teachers spoke of the benefits of having EP curriculum that is tactile for engaging diverse student learners. Participating teachers noted that school districts want STEM teaching “yet they have no STEM curricula”. A university student participated because he wants to “take action to address local problems and learn how to involve his peers in restoration”. The workshop concluded with practicing hands-on mangrove restoration to revitalize an mangrove ecosystem devastated by Hurricane Maria. Thanks to funding by National Fish and Wildlife Foundation community leaders, educators and students are reviving critical habitat for many species of animals and plants and protecting their communities against powerful future storms. 

• The land grant institutions in Wisconsin–Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University (LCOOU), College of Menominee Nation (CMN) and UW-Madison–jointly offered a summer field course (Indigenous Field-based Learning for Land Stewardship) hosted by Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University (LCOOU). Faculty from LCOOU (Natural Sciences and Life Science and Water Resources) , CMN (Aquaculture Nutrition) and UW-Madison (Forest and Wildlife Ecology, Data Science Institute, and DPLA Earth Partnership) led students in this immersive course learning about agriculture, forestry, wildlife, Tribal sovereignty and natural resources on Tribal lands. In 2022, CMN hosted the inaugural Interinstitutional course, followed by LCOOU in 2023. In 2024, UW-Madison will be the host institution. The 2023 field course included seventeen students who learned directly from tribal foresters about sustainable forest practices and the role of data to inform resource management and from tribal Conservation staff about wild rice research and protecting cultural sites. They also learned about the LCO Fish Hatchery and were excited to help remove snapping and painted turtles from the fish ponds. Students also planted a pollinator garden at the LCO farm. Dawn White a member of LCO and Treaty Resource Specialist at Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission shared how the terms for natural resource management is evolving from “management to stewardship to relationship”.

 The following offers student’s perspectives of their experiences:

“After this course, I have a much greater appreciation for all of the different factors and conflicting perspectives that go into making land management decisions. I also have a better sense of the paths one can take to end up in a career in land relationships.”



“The time spent with other students is what will stick with me the most. I learned a lot about Native perspectives on land management, culture, language, and politics. It was especially important that some of this knowledge was coming from my peers, which was very powerful.”

Coming up are 3 IAS Educator Institutes in Lac Courte Oreilles, Lac du Flambeau, and Ho-Chunk lands and 6 youth programs in Lac Courte Oreilles, Lac du Flambeau, Ho-Chunk, Bad River, Red Cliff and Menominee.

Student Organizations

WSPA Visit to APA Conference:

Notes from WSPA Alumni Liaison Brian Wiedenfeld

"While we planners take our planning seriously, it was only fitting that the things you can’t plan for were bookends to our trip to Philadelphia for the National Planning Conference earlier this month. Tornado warnings and severe thunderstorms may have caused headaches with flight delays, but considering this we remained Badger Tough! With the support of alumni donations and a UW Associated Students of Madison travel grant, we were able to bring 8 students out to the annual conference this year. During the three-day event, we heard presentations on a range of topics - affordable housing in transit oriented development, GIS, planning for equity, climate resilience - you name it, they had it! When we weren’t in presentation sessions, we took to the town touring historical sites, set out to become Philly foodies (Philly Cheesesteaks are our new favorite food), and hung out in our cute AirBnB just outside of the downtown area. A major highlight for me personally was meeting planners from across the globe, while reconnecting with old buddies though various networking events. The value of this networking for sharing knowledge, building relationships, or forging future career opportunities was truly immeasurable. I’m excited for future planning events like this one and am grateful for the chance to attend!"

About WUPA

The Wisconsin Undergraduate Planning Association (WUPA) is a social and professional organization for UW–Madison Landscape and Urban Studies majors and is also open to other undergraduate students. WUPA provides opportunities for students to engage in social events, professional development, and making deeper connections with department faculty. The organization serves as a great place for building community within a new and growing major. Additionally, WUPA is excited to announce the creation of “The Wisconsin Urbanist,” a journal that will highlight and share student work. All interested undergraduate students are welcome to attend WUPA meetings, which are held regularly during the fall and spring semesters. 

Innovations in Curriculum

Certificate in Collaborative and Integrative Design of the Built and Natural Environment

The Certificate in Integrative Design of Built and Natural Environments focuses on an exciting trans-disciplinary design approach that relies on design processes and thinking and integrates spatial data technologies to effectively and efficiently inventory, represent, analyze, evaluate, and communicate planning and design alternatives for landscapes, cities, and regions. Proactively co-designing and co-producing healthy places comprehends, plans, and acts on social and environmental information and, therefore, a diverse suite of cross-college elective courses address social and environmental considerations through stakeholder engagement, environmental justice/policy, and conservation/management. The certificate emphasize collaborations among the design professions (landscape architects, planners, engineers, and scientists and humanists from various disciplines), and community members. This collaborative process will help prepare students to work in interdisciplinary teams and to appreciate diverse perspectives and values while addressing complex problems.

By its very nature, the certificate emphasizes the inclusion of the diverse perspectives and needs of the people, of the place, or the stakeholders for whom designs are created. Social, cultural, ecological, and economic concerns vary within and between built and natural environments and geography. Therefore, elective coursework for this certificate includes courses in American Indian Studies, Community and Environmental Sociology, Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, and Public Affairs that will offer students opportunities and learning activities to engage in diversity with respect to perspectives, theories, practices, and populations different from themselves. The curriculum is designed to appreciate these differences, while realizing the ever increasing need to balance environmental impacts with the commonalities of human needs.

The certificate includes a strong focus on sustainable development and the core courses and many of the elective courses in the certificate curriculum address the university's sustainability initiative. Through its content and administration, the certificate will enhance efforts to create a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community in keeping with department and campus initiatives.

Architecture Certificate

A new undergraduate certificate program in architecture will be launched at UW-Madison in the Fall 2023 semester. The mission of the Certificate in Architecture is to provide UW-Madison students an opportunity to explore theories and practices of architecture, and the design and meaning of the built environment within socio-political, historical, cultural, and ecological contexts. The certificate requires 15 credits of coursework to complete and all undergraduate students in good academic standing are eligible to apply.

The certificate requirements create collaborative opportunities for students in engineering, architecture (from UW-Milwaukee), art history, interior architecture (Design Studies), and planning and landscape architecture (DPLA). For example, the certificate offers opportunities for engineering students to take courses in art history with students from art history and other majors. Similarly, art history students have opportunities to take courses in engineering, and so on. These cross-college educational opportunities are rare within established curriculum requirements and offer rich experiences for understanding the perspectives, theories, and practices of those in different professions.

The Certificate in Architecture is a collaboration of several UW-Madison departments and UW-Milwaukee’s Department of Architecture. The faculty representatives of the UW-Madison departments are:

• Greg Harrington, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Anna Andrzejewski, Professor, Art History
• Michael Cheadle, Assistant Teaching Professor, Mechanical Engineering
• Uchita Vaid, Assistant Professor, Design Studies
• Edna Ely-Ledesma, Assistant Professor, Planning & Landscape Architecture

More information can be found on the certificate’s Guide page here.

Geodesign Collaborative

Esri provides GIS-related software applications to UW-Madison under an academic license. The Geodesign Collaborative in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture manages the Esri licenses for UW-Madison campus for participating departments and units. This includes issuing single use licenses for ArcGIS Desktop and concurrent licenses for ArcGIS Pro each year, and procuring and distributing licenses for applications that are not included in our academic license e.g., ArcGIS StreetMap Premium and ArcGIS Drone2Map Advanced. In addition, the Geodesign Collaborative offers troubleshooting and technical assistance, in cooperation with the GIS helpdesk email system, and, if necessary, initiates technical assistance tickets with Esri personnel. 

Making Headlines

Creek Cleanup

This Spring, Water Resources Management students and DPLA's Geodesign Collaborative worked together to assist with Koshkenong Creek cleanup efforts. Read more here.

Engineering the

Urban Future

Moubarak Jeje, a graduate of UW-Madison's Electrical Computer Engineering program, found connections between his field and the field of planning after taking the Urban and Regional Planning course, Welcome to Your Urban Future.

Read more about Jeje's interdisciplinary work here.

Badger Talks

Planning Law

DPLA professor, Dr. Brian Ohm recently gave a talk at a shareholder’s meeting for Clark Dietz Inc. in Fontana to 70 guests on the topic of Wisconsin’s planning landmarks. This event allowed for the sharing of work, research, and expertise - the goal of the Wisconsin Idea!

You can listen to Dr. Ohm's talk here.

Change at all Levels

Recent DPLA graduate Mia Chapman discusses her involvement and passion for housing policy. She notes how change happens at all levels - from grassroots efforts to federal legislation. The full article is available here.

The DPLA team is experiencing some changes this year. Sam Dennis, Jacob (Jay) Blue, and Brian Ohm have all contributed to the campus community for decades. Jay is resigning and returning to full-time private practice, while Sam and Brian are kicking off their retirement. We wish them the very best - May their next chapter be filled with new adventures.

DPLA is also adding several new members to the team. Please join us in welcoming Nathan Larson, Wenwen Cheng, Anna Bierbrauer, and Gaylan Williams to our DPLA faculty and Majiedah Pasha to our DPLA staff!

Brian Ohm

At the recent investiture ceremony for UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers stated that the job of UW is to “inspire the next leaders, the next big ideas, the next policy solutions that will help people make their lives better, to make sure our government works, and it works well.” This statement captures the contributions of Professor Brian Ohm who will retire from the Department in February. Brian joined the faculty in 1994 as the state specialist for UW Extension in planning and land use law. Since that time, he has given more than 420 presentations at conferences, workshops, and seminars and written more than 300 publications aimed at helping people understand how land use planning works in Wisconsin and beyond. Through the years he responded to over a thousand inquiries from planners, lawyers, government officials and citizens seeking to improve their communities. He helped draft laws that have changed the practice of local government planning in Wisconsin and served on numerous state, local, and nonprofit boards, commissions, committees, and task forces on a variety of policy solutions. Brian also taught courses on campus in planning law and regional planning to hundreds of graduate and law students.

Gaylan Williams

The benefits produced by urban landscapes, designed with integrated blue-green infrastructure for combating the negative effects of climate change, lead Dr. Williams’ research and advocacy work. His current work focuses on aspects of urban forestry, quantifying the ecological services provided by various tree species to inform design decisions.

Gaylan Williams is a professional landscape architect, licensed arborist, and LEED^® accredited professional. He has practiced for nearly two decades mainly working on climate adaptation and hazard mitigation projects in southern cities like Atlanta, Houston, and New Orleans. With a balance of theoretical knowledge and practical experience, Williams places sustainability metrics as a critical component in his approach to resilience-oriented site design and city planning. Williams believes that blue-green infrastructure is fundamental to modern urban landscape development; therefore, he continuously implements low impact development strategies in all his project work and lesson plans.

Williams holds degrees in landscape architecture (BLA) as well as urban design (MSAUD) from Louisiana State University and Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively. Williams also received a doctoral degree (PhD) in urban forestry from Southern University in 2022.

Wenwen Cheng

Wenwen Cheng investigates how landscape can be modified through climatically responsive and sustainable landscape design to provide people, especially socially vulnerable populations, with resilient, equitable, and healthy living environments on multiple scales. Her research has been funded by NASA and she’s excited to bring an inclusive spirit of partnership to relationships in Wisconsin, and beyond.

Nathan Larson

Anna Bierbrauer

Anna Bierbrauer is interested in understanding how power dynamics, cultural values, and changing climates challenge current values and management of urban and regional landscapes. Her research agenda relates equity and urban vegetation patterns to cultural values, towards landscape stewardship practices and new ecological understandings of our changing climate. She’s excited to connect with potential collaborators on and off-campus.

Majiedah Pasha

DPLA is honored to welcome Majiedah Pasha to our team! As the new Department Administrator, Majiedah will play a central role in DPLA operations. She has an extensive history working for the University, so we are excited to have her on board.

City Planner and Music Representative:

Angela Puerta

Angela Puerta is a certified Urban Planner for the Department of Planning & Community & Economic Development at the City of Madison. She joined the City as an AASPIRE intern in 2014 and has been a full-time employee since early 2016. Angela is fluent in Spanish and holds a bachelor's degree in Architecture from her native country of Colombia, as well as a Master's Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Angela's primary planning focus areas include community engagement, urban design, and cultural planning. With her diverse skill set and expertise, she has made significant contributions to various planning projects and initiatives at the City of Madison.

In recent years, Angela has been actively promoting the integration of music into the planning field, recognizing its potential not only as a tool for community engagement but also as a catalyst for urban growth. She firmly believes that music is a critical component of city planning, contributing to the creation of vibrant, inclusive, and livable communities.

In addition to her work as an urban planner, Angela is an accomplished professional musician. She currently serves as the overseer of music-related projects for the Madison Arts Commission and is an integral member of the Greater Madison Music City (GMMC) team. In her capacity as Music Representative, Angela has spearheaded the implementation of various recommendations from the Music Tourism and Recovery plan, including the creation of an Interactive Cultural Calendar grant and Outdoor Music guide, as well as providing informational materials aimed at providing musicians with a clear understanding of City programs and policies.

Angela is a board member of the Arts and Planning Division of the American Planning Association, where she represents the City at the national level. Being part of this board got her to participate during the National Planning Conference 2023 in Philadelphia. In a session titled "An Unconventional Path of Career Twists and Turns," Angela collaborated with other city planners to discuss the importance of music in the planning field. She shared her insights on the significance of pursuing one's passion through city planning, emphasizing the role that music can play in this pursuit. To illustrate the intersection between music and planning, Angela opened the session with a song, using it as a powerful tool to build awareness and spark discussion.

As part of her regular duties as a City Planner, Angela has co-led complex planning processes such as the Northeast Area Plan and South Madison Plan. This involves developing a project scope, work plan, public participation plan, project timeline, among other management tasks. Angela's expertise in building relationships between City staff and community members has been an invaluable asset in ensuring successful outcomes for these planning processes.



Outside of her professional life, Angela enjoys practicing music and maintaining an active lifestyle. She recently completed the Madison Marathon, a testament to her discipline and determination. Angela's commitment to personal wellness underscores her dedication to creating healthy, and vibrant communities

Keep in Touch 

Alumni Notes — Share your story! Submit a professional or personal update online at any time by emailing info@dpla.wisc.edu. Your update may just end up in our next printed issue!

Support for Students — Thank you for supporting the department over the past year. If you're in a position to help our current students, please consider contributing to the department: https://dpla.wisc.edu/support/

Visit Us — If you plan to be in Madison this year, please let us know! We'd be happy to help arrange a visit, conversation with students, campus tour, or other activities that suit you.