2011 Candidate Profiles

NCASLA 2011 Election Candidate Profiles

PRESIDENT-ELECT
Two Candidates

Ed Johnson, RLA, ASLA
Ed Johnson is the Safe Routes to School Coordinator for NCDOT.  He has worked several years in the related fields of landscape architecture, transportation engineering and grants administration. While working in these different but related fields, he has had the opportunity to contribute to many different projects and experiences. These include the design and construction of various transportation facilities as well as the design, construction and management of local and regional greenways, open spaces and parks.  Ed is a graduate of Florida A&M University in Landscape Design and Management and has a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the North Carolina State University College of Design.  He is also an active member of the American Society of Landscape Architects in the North Carolina Chapter, serving on its Executive Committee for two terms as Secretary as well as having served as Triangle Section Chair from 1999-2003.  Ed is a registered Landscape Architect in North Carolina.

Tom Low, AIA CNU LEED AICP ASLA
Thomas Low is an ASLA member, a registered architect, a certified planner, an accredited new urbanist, and LEED certified. He is the Director of DPZ Charlotte and a partner in the firm of Miami-based Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, Architects and Town Planners. Mr. Low is directing numerous projects winning awards from several organizations including the American Institute of Architects, the Sierra Club, the National Association of Homebuilders, and the Environmental Protection Agency for Smart Growth Achievement. He also leads the research initiative on Light Imprint Design, combining ecologically sensitive rain-water management techniques with place-based design principles, including the publication of the Light Imprint Handbook: Integrating Sustainability and Community Design. Mr. Low has received grants he used to complete research on landscape architect and town planner John Nolen, producing the book Civic By Design: John Nolen's Lessons and New Urbanism. Additional research includes early twentieth-century town centers, and the transect-based form-based code, all of which are crucial components of his principles and practice. In response to the issues of overcrowding in schools and overuse of “mobile” classrooms, Low has launched the Katrina-Inspired Learning Cottage Initiative to create better designed, economically viable school campuses integrated with villages where children can live, learn, and play. Mr. Low makes presentations, conducts workshops, and participates in webinars for the Congress for the New Urbanism, the American Institute of Architects, the American Planning Association, The Environmental Protection Agency, the Sierra Club, New Partners for Smart Growth, the Institute for Classical Architecture and Classical America, the National Town Builders Association, the United States Green Building Council, the Form-based Code Institute, and many grass roots, regional planning and civic organizations. As a visiting professor, he teaches and lectures at many universities including at the University of Miami, the University of North Carolina Charlotte, the College of Charleston, Clemson University, North Carolina State University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Savannah College of Art and Design, the University of Connecticut, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Notre Dame. He serves the boards including the Congress for the New Urbanism Carolinas, Sustain Charlotte, the North Carolina American Planning Association, and is Chair of the Charlotte Region Civic By Design Forum. The mission of the Civic By Design Forum is to elevate the quality of our region’s built environment and to promote public participation in the creation of a more beautiful and functional region for all. Civic By Design achieves this mission by engaging and uniting businesses, non-profits, academic institutions, municipal governments, and citizens through civic design. This is a free and open to the public forum in its seventh year of activity.

 

TRUSTEE
Two Candidates

Matt Langston, ASLA, LEED AP BD+C
Matt Langston, ASLA has been a full member of the Society for 13 years.  Matt has served the North Carolina Chapter in various roles since 1995, including Coastal Section Chair, Member-at-large for both Communications and Legislative Affairs, and President.  He currently serves as Trustee and Legislative Affairs Chair for the state.

In 2001, Matt had the opportunity to serve the NC Chapter by coordinating efforts to defend the state’s landscape architecture practice act.  Efforts included managing information flow, coordination of landscape architects meeting with legislators in Raleigh, and coordination with sponsoring legislators to help develop language used in House and Senate bill language.  The collective efforts from across the state resulted in a strengthening of the practice act.

Following the legislative efforts, Matt has continued to serve the state, by serving in legislative affairs capacities within NCASLA, acting as treasurer for the NC Landscape Architects PAC, coordination with lobbyists, and by participating in an ongoing meeting with allied professions, which has allowed NCASLA to develop and maintain a relationship and lines of communication with the professional groups who had challenged the practice act in 2001.  A participant in multiple Licensure Summits and ASLA Lobby Days, he is also entering his third year on the ASLA Government Affairs Advisory Committee.

Since 2004, he has represented landscape architects on the Joint Professional Liaison Committee - a subcommittee of the NC Bar Association’s Construction Section, including architects, engineers, surveyors, general contractors, attorneys, and geologists.  Through this committee, Matt has worked to improve the stature of landscape architects as issues have arisen, including helping coordinate a challenge to a 2004 NC Bar decision which determined that design professionals could not represent property owners in quasi-judicial hearings.  In 2010, Matt worked with an offshoot of the committee, called the NC Recovery Coalition, to make a concerted effort to direct stimulus efforts to include design professionals. This effort also includes a joint legislative day including landscape architects, architect, engineers, and general contractors.

Matt has a BLA from the University of Georgia, which he received with honors, and in 2006, he co-founded Landworks Design Group, P.A., a multidisciplinary firm located in Charlotte, North Carolina.  He is licensed to practice in North Carolina.  In 2003, Matt received the NCASLA President’s Council Award, and in 2005, he received the Distinguished Associate Award from the HomeBuilders Association of Charlotte.  Matt and his wife Kelly have a daughter, Elise, and a son, Alec.

Lynn Raker, ASLA
Lynn Raker has been the Landscape Architect and Urban Design Planner for the City of Salisbury since 1996, following several years in private landscape architecture practice. She currently serves on the Board of the Land Trust for Central North Carolina and is an active Civitan member.

Lynn’s service with NCASLA began when she served as chapter Secretary from 1997-2000. She then served as President-elect In 2001 and as President in 2002. In 2006, she returned to the Executive Committee, serving for three years as the Member-at-Large Communications and editor of the NC Landscape Architecture Journal.

As NCASLA President-elect, Lynn chaired the planning for 2 conferences - Southport and Blowing Rock. During her term as chapter President, with a strong Executive Committee and other committed members, NCASLA clarified and strengthened the landscape architecture practice act as part of SB 914, and published the booklet Landscape Architecture in North Carolina, which was distributed to each NC state legislator during a NCASLA Legislative Day in Raleigh. In spring 2003, Lynn led an NCASLA Community Assistance Team (CAT) in Ocracoke, NC. A personal highlight of her service to the profession and the chapter was as recipient of the President’s Council Award in 2004.

The Trustee’s role is to represent the Chapter on the Society’s Board of Trustees. Following her term as NCASLA President and member of the Chapter President’s Council, Lynn was appointed by ASLA to serve as the Chair of the Chapter President’s Council (CPC). This experience provided broad insight into the structure of the Society. Along with her service as CPC Chair, she served on the national level on the ASLA Public Relations Committee, Legislative Committee and Chapter Initiatives Program (CIP) grant review committee, and the ASLA Leadership Development Committee. Each of these experiences contributed to her commitment to the professional organization and to her understanding of the relationship between the chapter and the national organization.

SECRETARY
One Candidate

Michael Mullis, ASLA
R. Michael Mullis has a passion for the profession of Landscape Architecture and is dedicated to continue to move Landscape Architecture forward.
 
Michael is the Owner and a Principal of Mullis Design Group, PLLC in Cary NC.  In Michael’s 16 plus years of experience he has served a wide variety of projects types and clients in North Carolina and across the nation in both the private and public sectors.  Starting his involvement with ASLA at the University of Georgia, Michael has been a full ASLA member since 1998.  Michael’s practice has taken him to many parts of the Nation…some more notable assignments included two years in Kona, Hawaii serving a large regional project as well as one year in Sacramento, California serving one of the largest infill projects in the Nation.  Before starting his own company, Michael served as Vice President for a National A&E firm were held the role of Production Manager for the Cary, Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Norcross, Atlanta, and Beaufort offices.  Michael is the Public Relations Chair for the Triangle section of ASLA, a member of US Green Building Council, and is a North Carolina & Georgia Licensed Landscape Architect.

MEMBER-AT-LARGE FOR COMMUNICATIONS
One Candidate

Leslie Morefield, Assoc. ASLA
Leslie Morefield is a recent graduate of the NC State Department of Landscape Architecture’s graduate program and is currently co-instructing the NC State LAR 2011 design-build studio.  She is interested in design problems spanning multiple scales, from master planning to detailed construction design and implementation.   Specific interests include urban ecological issues related to biodiversity, integrated urban food systems, Low Impact Development (LID) stormwater management strategies, and ecological education through landscape experience.

COASTAL SECTION CHAIR
One Candidate

Tim Clark, ASLA
Timothy Clark is a registered Landscape Architect and an active member of ASLA. He attended West Virginia University where he received a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture. During his years there, he was the recipient of the Dean’s List award on multiple occasions, and even received the ASLA Certificate of Honor for excellence in the study of Landscape Architecture. Since his years in college he has had the pleasure of working with some of the most talented Landscape Architects with companies like Cline Design Associates, Haden Stanziale, LACC International and others. Currently he resides with LACC, a small Landscape Architecture firm specializing in high-end residential and resorts, who in recent years is stepping outside that realm to explore campus planning, commercial, recreation and more.
 
Tim has been involved with a plethora of projects including: office, hotel, retail, single family and multi-family residential, mixed-use, educational, streetscape, and parks and recreation. The project scopes vary from inventory and analysis, conceptual design, construction documents, zoning and regulatory approvals, master planning and more. Tim is extremely detail oriented, has in depth knowledge of construction and is an innovative designer who communicates through strong hand and computer graphics. Other prominent skills include experience with GIS and expert production software knowledge and technical abilities. On a personal note, he enjoys an active lifestyle through, biking, camping, volleyball and weight training.
 
Though Tim is a new member of ASLA, even as a non-member he has participated with the NCASLA Coastal Chapter through attending regular section meetings, attended input sessions on City of Wilmington standards and even aided Howard Capps, current Member-at-Large for Public Relations, with preparing a presentation in support of a bike lane on the proposed Skyway Bridge. Tim has reached out to NC State’s Landscape Architecture program in support of a student mentor initiative as well. He looks forward to ramping up his community and ASLA involvement as the Coastal Section Chair.

MOUNTAIN SECTION CHAIR
One Candidate

Drake Fowler, ASLA, LEED AP
Drake Fowler has a passion for continuing to help move Landscape Architecture forward in North Carolina. Drake is an Associate with Design Workshop and during his seven years with DW has held the role of Operations Manager for both the Asheville and Denver Offices. Starting his involvement with ASLA at Michigan State Drake was elected to be the National Student Representative to the ASLA Board of Trustees. Drake has previously served as the North Carolina Mountain Section chair and during his tenure he spearheaded the organization of the Tri-state Conference held in Asheville. Drake currently is a board member of the North Carolina Arboretum Society.  He also regularly participates in the Asheville Bicycle Taskforce and the Asheville Design Center. Drake is a North Carolina Licensed Landscape Architect and is also a LEED Associated Professional.

Last Updated on Friday, 02 March 2012 23:35