ASLA announced today the inaugural class of the Women of Color Licensure Advancement Program. 

The program, which launched in February 2022, is designed to support women of color in their pursuit of landscape architecture licensure and provide mentorship opportunities that position women for success. The program aims to increase racial and gender diversity within the profession and was inspired by ASLA’s Racial Equity Plan of Action, which was released in 2020.

The first class of the program includes 10 women who are among the most statistically underrepresented groups in the profession of landscape architecture. The class includes women based in Hawai‘i, California, Washington, Texas, Tennessee, Ohio, and Florida who are involved in private and public practice and landscape architectural education.

The first class includes: 

• Diana Alcantara Ortiz, ASLA, Landscape Architectural Assistant 1,
  San Francisco Public Works, Bureau of Landscape Architecture, San Francisco, CA 
• Jessica Colvin, Assoc. ASLA, Assistant Campus Landscape Architect,
  University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 
• Alexandria Dial, Designer, Studio Outside, Dallas, TX
• Ana Cristina Garcia, ASLA, Associate, GGN, Seattle, WA 
• Adriana Garcia, ASLA, Senior Designer, SALT Landscape Architects, Long Beach, CA 
• Yamile Garcia, ASLA, Designer, Rialto Studio, Austin, TX 
• Maci Nelson, Assoc.ASLA, Landscape Designer at DERU LA and
  Adjunct Professor at Kent State University, Cleveland, OH 
• Angelica Rockquemore, ASLA, Site Planner/Landscape Designer, Honolulu, HI 
• Jameka Smith, ASLA, Landscape Architect, City of Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL 
• Shuangwen Yang, Assoc. ASLA, Landscape Designer, Catalyst Design Group, Nashville, TN 

The program will provide each of the 10 women with a personalized experience that provides up to $3,500 to cover the cost of sections of the Landscape Architectural Registration Exam (LARE), along with exam preparation courses, resources, and mentorship from a licensed landscape architect.

“ASLA is committed to achieving a diverse profession that is welcoming and accessible to all. We are proud to take this first step to lift up women of color in our landscape architecture community, by providing them with the support network they need to achieve licensure,”said Eugenia Martin, FASLA, President of ASLA. 

“We are honored to partner with these 10 dynamic women who seek to overcome obstacles, advance their own careers, and contribute to the communities they serve,” said Torey Carter-Conneen, ASLA CEO. “We look forward to learning from them how to best grow our equity programs and resources and make our community even more inclusive.” 

ASLA supports and defends licensure for several important reasons. Licensure protects public health, safety, and welfare and signifies a level of professional competency that oftentimes leads to achieving greater career and business success.

A recent report by The Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing found that among highly complex, technical fields, such as landscape architecture, a license narrows the gender-driven wage gap by about a third and the race-driven wage gap by about half.

The ASLA Women of Color Licensure Advancement Program was initiated with a generous $100,000 donation by former ASLA President Wendy Miller, FASLA, and James Barefoot; Marq Truscott, FASLA; Rachel Ragatz Truscott, ASLA; and CLARB.