Landscape Architecture

Landscape Architecture Professional Advisory Board

The  Landscape Architecture Professional Advisory Board  is committed to assisting the Cal Poly Pomona Department of Landscape Architecture in being a Department of excellence, diversity, and innovation.

The   LAPAB  will strive to be a conduit for communications between the profession, alumni, students, and faculty; provide a forum for curriculum review and input; and continually work with the Department to provide an educational environment benefiting the professional community through teaching, research, and service.

The Landscape Architecture Professional Advisory Board will:

  • Be in regular communication with the faculty, students, alumni, and state professional organizations.
  • Promote internal and external recognition for the Department's programs and the profession of Landscape Architecture.
  • Provide input concerning the profession's needs to the Department on a regular basis.
  • Connect the program with its alumni and the local professional community.
  • Provide mentoring assistance for students and alumni as needed.
  • Assist with fundraising initiatives.
  • Be involved in studio juries, critiques, and other student learning initiatives when interested.

It is the hope and goal of the Landscape Architecture Professional Advisory Board to continually raise the quality and status of Landscape Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona as well as its reputation in the professional and intellectual community. 

The LAPAB is comprised of local landscape architecture professionals, including graduates of the undergraduate and masters programs.  The LAPAB was founded in 2011.

Robert Borthwick, ASLA

BGB Design Group

After two years of architecture studies at East Los Angeles College, Bob enrolled at Cal Poly Pomona in 1966. He graduated with a BSLA in 1969. Bob worked with prominent offices for ten years, and established his own practice in 1979. His firm has been involved in many significant projects, including the Avalon Waterfront and the San Clemente Beach Trail. Additionally, he has been active in pro-bono environmental work for over four decades, and was awarded the ASLA Public Stewardship Award in 2016. He has also taught design classes at Saddleback College and UCI-Extension for a total of eighteen years.

Natalie Ashlock

Lifescapes International, Inc.

Bio coming soon

Robert Cardoza, FASLA

NUVIS Landscape Arch. & Planning

It is truly fulfilling to serve on the LAPAB with other practitioners in the field of landscape architecture. My goal is to inspire students, inspire staff and inspire alumni to represent our profession and elevate the practice of landscape architecture. The LAPAB provides the perfect environment to achieve this goal. LAPAB members are a resource to students and the department for exploring workplace opportunities, preparing portfolios, and establishing connections with alumni and the practice of landscape architecture. Students need to sufficiently prepare themselves to meet the challenges facing them upon graduation. LAPAB members help nurture confidence in students to take positive positions in leadership from the get-go toward sustaining and improving our environment at many levels; local, community, regional, state, national and global. Members mentor students and develop their presentation skills, enabling them to execute theories with implementable solutions which include graphics, technical communication abilities, and construction drawings.

Rob Sawyer, ASLA

Land Concern, LTD.

Bio coming soon

Claire Latané

Mia Lehrer + Associates

Bio coming soon

Clarissa Chung

Rios Clementi Hale Studios

A big part of professional development post college and advancement in career is through the help of peers, a solid mentorship, and connection with the industry at large. Your personal talent only takes you so far and the time one has to develop enough knowledge and skill during school is not enough. That is why a personal and direct connection to as many resources is so important.

Although I did work very far and was able to excel in my responsibilities as a student, without the mentorship I received from my professor, who is now the Chair of this department, and the mentorship and continuous friendship I received and continue to receive through another professor who is now a fellow professional peer, I would have not been where I am today. Education and mentorship is key to raising new leadership and excelling the profession at large and that is why I have been with the LAPAB for three years now. As landscape evolves and is about constant change, the profession of Landscape Architecture should be about constant evolution and the strive for excellence and that can only occur through a synergy of new thought, a deep understanding of history, how to take advantage of the rapid advancement of the available technology at hand, and the wisdom one gets through simple work and life experience. The LAPAB does just that as it connects the "old" and "young", the educator and the practitioner, the experienced and the unexperienced, the creative and the pragmatic.

Woody Dike, ASLA

Woodward Dike Associates

Bio coming soon

Alan Clarke, FASLA

Tongg, Clarke, & McCelvey Inc.

Bio coming soon

Bob Perry, FASLA

Perry & Associates Collaborative

Bio coming soon

Pamela Galera, ASLA

City of Anaheim/Community Services

Pamela Galera received her undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture from Cal Poly Pomona in 1992 and licensed in the State of California in 1993. She received a Master's in Public Administration from Cal State Fullerton in 1997 and is currently the Principal Park Planner for the City of Anaheim. Pamela has skillfully designed and executed multidisciplinary projects including community centers, libraries, golf courses, parks, open spaces, trails and bikeways. She believes strongly that a well-designed, integrated and meaningful public environment is essential to the wellbeing of all residents. She has promoted future practitioners through local emerging professional and mentoring programs, especially through Cal Poly Pomona.

Scott Ashlock

Placeworks

Bio coming soon

Jim Pickel, ASLA

MIG (retired)

Bachelor of Science, Landscape Architecture, Cal Poly University, Pomona, (CA 4385). Past principal of MIG, Inc., (retired) Jim is a licensed landscape architect in California and Texas with 39 years' experience in park and recreation planning and design, master planning, community facilitation, urban design and construction administration. Jim served on the City of Yorba Planning Commission for 15 years and the City's Parks and Recreation Commission for 6 years. Jim currently serves on the Executive Board of the Southern California Chapter of ASLA and the Executive Board of the California Council of ASLA.

Attending Cal Poly Pomona's School of Environmental Design was an incredible learning experience. The teaching staff of design professionals brought landscape architecture and the design profession to life. It allowed me many opportunities in the design field, most importantly, understanding how landscape architecture improves quality of life for those we serve.

Serving on the Cal Poly Pomona Landscape Architecture Professional Advisory Board has been a rewarding experience and way of giving back to the design school, the professors and the profession.

Hugo Curiel

City of Fullerton / Parks Director

Bio coming soon

Liz Hurst

Inland Empire Utilities Agency

Bio coming soon

Sara Abed

2014 BSLA CPP grad

Areas of Interest: Community organizing / social justice

Judy Mercado

2011 BSLA CPP grad

Areas of Interest: LEED, GIS, water issues

Michael Oguro

2010 BSLA CPP grad

Bio coming soon

Andy Wilcox

Chair Dept. of LA, Cal Poly Pomona

Andrew Wilcox is a Professor of Landscape Architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. At Cal Poly Pomona he is the undergraduate program coordinator and teaches design studios at all levels with an emphasis on interdisciplinary practice and urbanism.