2026 ASLA Design Academy for K–12 Educators

Planting Seeds for the Next Generation

July 13-16, ASLA welcomed 20 K-12 educators from 14 states to the inaugural 2026 ASLA Design Academy for K-12 Educators-an immersive, four-day professional learning experience at the ASLA Center for Landscape Architecture in Washington, D.C.

The Academy opened with a simple but powerful question: How can the places around us help us imagine a better future? Through that lens, educators spanning 1st through 12th grade explored how a park, schoolyard, green roof, or neighborhood street can be more than a backdrop for daily life-it can cool a hot day, welcome a gathering, restore habitat, hold rainwater, and create the conditions for people to meet, listen, and belong.

Guided by landscape architects, designers, educators, and storytellers-including Jennifer Nitzky, FASLA; Miranda Mote, Ph.D., ASLA; David Rubin, FASLA; Gabriela Canamar, ASLA; Ashley Feitel; Kendra Hyson, ASLA; and Baldev Lamba, ASLA-participants experienced the built environment firsthand and translated those experiences into interdisciplinary lessons connecting landscape architecture to history, science, arts, and humanities.

Educators visited several Washington, D.C., sites throughout the week:

• ASLA Center for Landscape Architecture
• Franklin Park
• Capitol Hill Day School
• SmithGroup office and rooftop
• National Building Museum, includingThe Playgroundsummer installation

The week closed with a powerful moment of peer learning: each educator shared the lesson plans they developed during the Academy, creating a collective resource that every participant leaves with. Grounded in real landscapes and firsthand experience, these lessons are designed to be used immediately, giving teachers a running start for the school year and a foundation to build on for years to come.

Together, these 20 educators reach approximately 4,500 students annually-multiplying the Academy's impact far beyond Washington, D.C. and planting seeds for the profession's next generation.

Through ASLA's Career Discovery efforts, the Design Academy helps educators introduce students to landscape architecture as a creative, collaborative profession-one that designs healthier, more equitable, and more resilient communities for generations to come.

The 2026 Design Academy was made possible through the generosity of the ASLA Fund and sponsors:

• Confluence
• Donnelly Partners
• Grissim Metz Andriese Associates, Inc., in memory of John N. Grissim, FASLA
• Michael Thomasgard

Their support made it possible to bring educators from across the country together for this experience-and to send them home with the tools, connections, and inspiration to shape the next generation of environmental stewards, designers, and landscape architects.

2026 ASLA Design Academy | Image 1: Teachers reviewing the Capitol Hill Day School design drawings with Gabriela Canamar, ASLA, LandDesign. Image 2: Academy participants on the Smithgroup office roof with Kendra Hyson, ASLA.