Conference Speakers
Sadık C. Artunç
Sadık C. Artunç, FASLA, FCELA, PLA, PE, currently is a professor of landscape architecture. He served as the Head of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Mississippi State University from 2007 until 2024. Before his tenure at MSU, he taught in the Robert S. Reich School of Landscape Architecture at Louisiana State University from 2007 to 1981.
Sadık has a B.S. and M.S. in forestry and forest engineering from the University of Istanbul and an M.L.A. from the University of Michigan. He is a registered landscape architect in the U.S.A. and a registered forester and forest engineer in Türkiye. His teaching involves design implementation and construction, site planning and design, and regional planning and design. His professional consulting involves large-scale planning and design, focusing mostly on recreation and tourism, resource planning, and design implementation and construction.
Jenn Becker
Jenn Becker, ASLA, is an accomplished designer, 3D modeler and ran her own Digital 3D and drone studio at FLOW in Denver, Colorado. Jenn co-manages the digital studio with Daniel Tal, FASLA, at Confluence. Becker is acknowledged as Confluence’s AI expert with a continues mandate to study AI. Her tasks co-managing the digital studio and running point on AI include, managing thirteen drone pilots across nine offices, daily AI research and development, and providing a bi-monthly newsletter to firm leadership on AI results. Jenn attends AI conferences, meets with established and start up AI companies, and developers’ firm wide resources for the deployment of AI tools to staff. Jenn has co-presented on AI at the SketchUp Basecamp conference in Las Vegas in Nov 2024 and the SketchUp Summit in Denver in June 2024.
Rebecca Dunn Bryant
Staci L. Catron
Staci L. Catron, MHP is a library director, garden preservationist, author, bibliophile, researcher, archivist, and community collaborator passionate about botanical library collections as they hold the diverse and meaningful stories of the people and plants that have shaped the world. She believes that providing greater access to library and archival collections for researchers around the globe is vital to fostering an intricate understanding of the natural world and bringing awareness to the global environmental, social, and economic challenges in the twenty-first century.
Isaac Cohen
Isaac Cohen is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at Auburn University. He has two decades of experience working on all aspects of park and urban public space issues. He has spent this time working with communities around the country on the design of varied public spaces, advocacy and fundraising to build parks, and on engagement and research into critical issues impacting the use of public space. Most recently he was an Associate at Studio Outside Landscape Architecture in Dallas, TX where his projects ranging from built works to city scale planning and equitable development planning. His work has been awarded, published, and exhibited nationally and internationally.
Cohen’s design research addresses the connection between the contemporary practice of landscape architecture and the myriad uses — social, cultural, economic, and ecological — of public space. Demonstrating this commitment, he was recently recognized with an American Society of Landscape Architecture Honor Award for Research for his project Race and the Control of Public Parks with buildingcommunityWORKSHOP. This work asks challenging questions of the term public and for whom, when, and why we build parks and public spaces.
Kona A. Gray
As a firm leader with 30 years of experience in 30+ countries, Kona A. Gray’s (FASLA, PLA) global design and management sense has positively shaped many environments. Kona envisions welcoming places that promote community and vitality in diverse neighborhoods around the world. His portfolio ranges in multiple scales with emphasis on communities, parks, hospitality, urban public realms, mixed-use destinations, healthcare, and campus spaces. At EDSA, Kona’s award-winning projects are inspired by a passion for creative design solutions that solve meaningful global issues.
A Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), Kona currently serves as ASLA National President. He recently served as the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board ASLA Representative. Kona is a Past President of the Landscape Architecture Foundation and active Urban Land Institute member. Kona serves on the University of Miami Architecture School and Nova Southeastern University Business School Real Estate Advisory Boards as well as the University of Georgia School of Environment + Design Dean’s Council. He is a registered Landscape Architect holding a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia and Commercial Real Estate Certificate from Cornell University.
Francesca Gross
Francesca Gross works for Cawaco Resource Conservation and Development Council as an Environmental Specialist focusing on active management of natural resources to enhance the well-being of city residents, while prioritizing the needs of frontline communities. She is Program Manager for Cool Green Trees focusing on restoring health to Urban Heat Islands in Jefferson County.
Previously she spent 5 years building the new Urban Conservation program at The Nature Conservancy in Birmingham, Alabama on projects such as the Shades Creek Watershed Management Plan, prioritizing Healthy Greening and Stormwater Opportunities in the Birmingham, Alabama area using ArcGIS mapping tools, and design/build of 4 landscape prototypes to transform vacant urban land in Birmingham Alabama.
Her educational background includes a BA in Natural Resources from The Ohio State University College of Agriculture, and MS in Systems Ecology, Environmental Engineering Sciences from University of Florida, Gainesville, through the Howard T. Odum Center for Wetlands.
Frank Hu
Frank Hu, PLA is Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture, where he teaches studio in addition to courses in construction and graphic studies. His teaching and research explores advanced technologies in landscape visualization, digital media, and GIS. Prior to joining Auburn, Frank practiced for 8 years at Lamar Johnson Collaborative, based in St. Louis, Missouri, focusing on large scale urban design and public greenways. Hu’s research interest include Geospatial Modeling, GIS/LIDAR, Multispectral Imagery, Parametric Design, Remote Sensing, and Visualization. Hu holds a master’s in landscape architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a bachelor’s of science in architecture from Washington University in St. Louis.
Dennis Madsen
Dennis Madsen, AICP received his Masters in Architecture from Georgia Tech [Go Jackets!]and subsequently spent two decades working for private-sector architecture, urban design and community planning firms in Atlanta. His experience ranged from small-scale infill and mixed-use projects to public housing redevelopment efforts and master plans for major downtowns. In 2013, he joined the City of Huntsville as the Manager of Urban and Long-Range Planning, and he has since then been leading the award-winning comprehensive planning effort known as “The BIG Picture”. Dennis lives on Monte Sano with his wife Laura Lester (Huntsville High, class of ’86) and son Adlai (New Century High, class of '26).
Daniel Tal
Daniel Tal, RLA, FASLA, is a landscape architect, author, software developer, and lecturer. With over two decades of experience in the field, he is known for his expertise and passion for the industry. As the Digital Studio Manager for Confluence, Daniel, along with his co-manager Jenn Becker, leads the firm mandated AI research and development The Confluence Digital Studio has established itself as a hub of expertise on AI and its ongoing impact on landscape architecture. Confluence’s current AI comprehension is showcased in this unlisted YouTube video.
Daniel is the author of three books published by Wiley and Sons, including "SketchUp for Site Design," "Drones in Professional Practice," and "Rendering in SketchUp." Daniel is also the creator and owner of two software apps, PlaceMaker and UrbanPaint, which are used in SketchUp and Revit. These tools, which utilize AI data, were developed to optimize 3D modeling for AEC projects. Daniel regularly presents at national conferences on 3D modeling an AI, including the recent November 2024 SketchUp Basecamp in Las Vegas, and the upcoming Twin Stated Conference in February 2025. He operates a website offering free SketchUp tutorials and resources to students and attendees of his lecture events.
Despo Thoma
Despo Thoma, AICP, is the Director of Resilience at SCAPE, where she leads interdisciplinary teams to forge nature-based and community-centered strategies to address the climate change challenges we are increasingly facing, from flooding to extreme heat. Despo advocates for the role of planning and design in shaping environmental policy, and fostering equitable and resilient neighborhoods.
Despo led the development of resilience plans and adaptation projects in New York City, Boston, the Bay Area, Louisiana, and Southeast Asia, including Louisiana’s 2023 Coastal Master Plan, Massachusetts' ResilientCoasts Plan, Battery Park City’s North/West Resiliency Project in NYC, and Climate Ready Dorchester in Boston.
Despo holds a master’s in architecture and urban design from Columbia University, where she studied as a Fulbright Fellow, and a Master’s degree in Architecture from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. Despo is a 2021 Forefront Fellow of the Urban Design Forum.
Claudia West
Keynote Speaker
Claudia West is a leading voice in the emerging field of ecological planting design. Known for her passionate advocacy of plant-driven design, Claudia is a widely sought out speaker and consultant who applies the technologies of plant systems to bring essential natural functions back into our cities and towns. She has worked on all sides of the green industry—as a designer, a grower, installer, and land manager—grounding her innovative work in pragmatic solutions that address the realities of our urbanizing world. She is the co-author of the critically acclaimed book, Planting in a Post-Wild World.
Having grown up on a family-owned nursery, florist business, and design/build firm in eastern Germany, Claudia was propagating plants before she could walk. Her love of American native plants brought her to the U.S. where she worked at Blue Mount Nurseries in Maryland and immersed herself in the study of American flora and mid-Atlantic ecosystems. Claudia holds a Master’s Degree of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Her intense studies of plant habitats and the science of plant community-based design strategies at the renowned school for horticulture in Weihenstephan, Germany built a solid foundation for her current work. Before co-founding Phyto Studio, Claudia was ecological sales manager at North Creek Nurseries, a wholesale perennial grower in Landenberg, PA. Her work was focused on bridging the gap between growers, designers, and land managers as well as introducing more functional and beautiful ecological plants into the nursery trade.
Andrew Wright
Andrew Wright, RLA, is an Associate at SCAPE based in New Orleans. His approach to design is driven by his interest in the natural sciences, background in music, and experiences living in southeast Louisiana and New York. His work at SCAPE spans regional-scale planning and resilience efforts and site-scale design and implementation, and he has led and contributed to efforts such as the 2023 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan, Resilient Jacksonville, and the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail. In his work, Andrew seeks to uncover and recast narratives of place to build thriving, resilient landscapes and communities.
Andrew earned his Master of Landscape Architecture with a minor in Wetland Science and Management from Louisiana State University in 2020, where his research focused on the modeling, design, and management of coastal and fluvial landscapes. In addition to his MLA, Andrew holds a BFA in Music Performance from The New School and a Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Science from LSU. He was a 2019 LAF Olmsted Scholar. Before pursuing landscape architecture, Andrew worked in the music industry, where he managed marketing and promotion campaigns for major artists and album releases.