Speaker Series:

Jean Yang

Jean Yang is a landscape designer, urban planner, and educator focused on design-driven, equity-focused, and benefits-based landscapes. Using her interdisciplinary skills to negotiate between city policy, community need, economic feasibility, and aesthetic experience, Yang was instrumental in developing plans for Destination Crenshaw, the Upper LA River and Tributaries Plan, and the LA County Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan with Studio-MLA. Her work has received the 2021 Azure Award for Urban Design Vision, the 2019 APA National Planning Award, the 2020 Southern California ASLA Quality of Life Honor Award, and the 2020 Southern California Development Forum Award.

Yang holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Southern California, a Master of Planning from the University of California Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Government from Cornell University. She is currently a Spatial Justice fellow at the University of Oregon College of Design. Jean will discuss ways that community engagement can evolve beyond a standardized public process. This talk will include an overview of the “classic” public engagement process and showcase examples of empowering community-based engagement techniques.