Meet the 2019 National Olmsted Scholar and Finalists: The Graduates

The Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Olmsted Scholars Program is the premier leadership award program for landscape architecture students. The program honors students with exceptional leadership potential who are using ideas, influence, communication, service, and leadership to advance sustainable design and foster human and societal benefits.

Here, we showcase the 2019 graduate winner and finalists, who were announced in April after being selected from a group of 49 graduate students nominated by their faculty. The winner receives $25,000, and each finalist receives $5,000.

They are among the 86 LAF Olmsted Scholars named in 2019 and will be honored on November 14-15 in San Diego at a luncheon and at LAF's 34th Annual Benefit.

National Olmsted Scholar Areti Athanasopoulos of the University of Colorado-Denver

Areti discusses her work promoting quality of life for refugees through community gardens and community design interventions. Areti plans to continue engaging in research and activism using landscape architecture to support the health and welfare of refugees.

National Olmsted Scholar Finalist Fatema Maswood of the University of Washington

Fatema discusses her research at the confluence of the climate crisis, historic hydrologic structures, and political ecology in Tunis, Tunisia.

National Olmsted Scholar Finalist Grace Mitchell Tada of the University of California, Berkeley

Grace discusses her research on cultural landscapes and specific projects focused on migrants and climate change.

National Olmsted Scholar Finalist Jennifer Lauer of SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Jennifer received her MLA in May 2019 and previously received a BA in environmental studies from Allegheny College, where she was awarded a faculty prize for best interdisciplinary research project for her work connecting people in transitional shelter to ecologically sustainable food options. She brings an academic and professional background in art, social science, and horticulture to her design practice, with a particular emphasis on design as a catalyst for socio-ecological healing, connection, and reciprocity. Jennifer hopes to achieve a research and design role working with landscape architects to creatively reveal multiple narratives affecting significant cultural landscapes.