Elizabeth began EKLA in 1994 in hopes of positively influencing the role of site design in community redevelopment. Her background in environmental psychology, design, education, construction and development gives her very strong analytic and communications skills that, in turn, enable her to work effectively with clients in both the public and private sectors to improve the quality of open space in communities.

Elizabeth has worked extensively with community development organizations in open space planning and design, including the Abyssinian Development Corporation in Manhattan, New Direction Local Development Corporation in Queens, Tenants United for Better Living, the tenants' rights organization of the Diego Beekman Houses in the Bronx, and Northwest Harlem Environmental Benefits Program Advisory Committee, for which she drafted the development template of the first natural systems-based open space conservancy for an urban area. Because the scope of her work, and her understanding of landscape architecture, is unusually broad, Elizabeth is asked often to lead public design forums. She has been a featured speaker on community redevelopment and urban design at the Cooper Hewitt Museum and the Harvard GSD.

Between 1984 and 1994, she taught landscape design, history and technical courses at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the New York Botanical Garden, and the City College School of Architecture and Environmental Sciences. She has been a guest critic at NJIT, NYBG, City College School of Architecture, Pratt Institute, Rutgers University, and Yale University School of Architecture. In 1998 she was a juror for the Van Alen Institute's "New York's Other River" design competition.

Her design work has been published in Architectural Record and Landscape Architecture. EKLA's work, under her direction, was exhibited in "Between Tradition and Memory: Constructed Shelters/Black Architects", and favorably mentioned in the AIA NY Chapter newsletter, Oculus. She was a 1998 Fellow of the Design Trust for Public Space; and received both the Robert J Eidlitz Fellowship in Architecture, and the E. Gorton Davis Fellowship in Landscape Architecture at Cornell University, in 1981.

Prior to founding EKLA, Elizabeth was project manager for the construction development of 77 two-family homes in Brooklyn under the New York City Housing Partnership Affordable Housing Program.

PROFESSIONAL REGISTRATION
Landscape Architecture New York State 001449

EDUCATION
Graduate Studies in Landscape Architecture 1978-1981
Master of Landscape Architecture Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
B. Science, Design and Environmental Analysis, Cornell University, 1978

PUBLIC SERVICE/FEATURED SPEAKING
- Central Park Conservancy, "Help! Design Frederick Douglass Circle" forum at the Cooper Hewitt Museum; Panelist for Urban Design.
- SOBRO, the New York City Department of Business Services and Citibank, Community Redevelopment Retreat,
- "Real Estate Development 101; " Urban Design Panelist
- Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment, Prospect Park, Brooklyn NY, Board Member 1997-2001
- Van Alen Institute, "Design Ideas for New York's Other River" Competition, 1998, Juror
- Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association, Design + Urbanism, and the Design Trust for Public Space, "Port Authority and Its Landscape" community design workshop, Facilitator.
- Artist-in-Residence Program, Roaring Brook School, Chappaqua, New York, Visiting Landscape Architect.
- National Gardens Club certification program, Lecturer.

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
- Design Trust for Public Space Research Fellow, 1997-1998
- "Designing for Security: Guidelines for the Art Commission of the City of New York"
- Robert J. Eidlitz Fellow in Architecture, College of Art, Architecture and Planning, Cornell University, 1981
- E. Gorton Davis Fellow in Landscape Architecture, Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture, Cornell University, 1981
- HUD Graduate Fellowship, 1978-1981, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
- SWA Group Design Intern, Sausalito, CA, 1979