ASLA Report Highlights Strategies to Increase Diversity in the Landscape Architecture Profession

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has launched its ASLA Diversity SuperSummit 2017 Report, which highlights strategies and action items to increase diversity in the landscape architecture profession.  

The takeaways in the report will serve as accountability for ASLA and as an actionable guide for its newly created career discovery and diversity position for the upcoming year. It can also serve as a guide for other organizations pursuing the same goal. Here is a summary of the full report. 

In 2013, ASLA convened its first Diversity Summit with the goal of developing a better understanding of why landscape architecture is failing to attract a more diverse profile. Each summit has brought together a group of landscape architects who identify as African American or Latino to develop strategies that address diversity issues in the field.

Five years later, the 2017 Diversity SuperSummit convened the largest group of attendees to date, with 23 returning and six new participants, at the ASLA Center for Landscape Architecture in Washington, D.C. Participants evaluated goals from previous summits, developed focus areas for four key diversity initiatives to guide ASLA’s work plan in the coming year and discussed the future of the Diversity Summit.

ASLA is excited to share those conversations in the ASLA Diversity SuperSummit 2017 Report.

In addition to the SuperSummit Report, ASLA has also launched the Diversity Summit webpage.
 
It provides resources from the past five years of diversity summits including handouts, videos, presentations, news articles and summit reports. Focus items and resources will continue to be established and evaluated as ASLA plans future summits.

Planning will begin soon for the 2018 Diversity Summit, and ASLA will launch a call for letters of interest in early 2018 for potential participants. Be sure to check back to the webpage for information on how to apply.