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College of Environment and Design

Ashley Steffens

Job Title: ASSOCIATE DEAN OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS and CROWLEY PROFESSOR IN URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN

Contact

Email: steffens@uga.edu
Phone: 706-542-0063
Street address: 111 Jackson Street Bulding
Head shot of Ashley Steffens

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EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science, University of North Carolina, Asheville, NC, 1991

Master of Landscape Architecture, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 1994

 

SCHOLARLY INTERESTS

Graphics

Women in Leadership

Community Design and Health

 

RECOGNITION

Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, Academy of Fellows, 2022.

CED Crowley Professor of Urban Planning and Design, 2021.

UGA Women’s Leadership Fellow, 2021.

CELA President’s Award, 2021.

UGA Career Center Career Development recognition, 2019.

UGA Office of Global Engagement, Dedicato a Cortona Italy award, 2019.

CED Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award, 2018.

UGA Focus on Faculty, 2018.

UGA Center for Teaching and Learning’s Teacher of the Week Award, 2015.

 

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Crowley Professor of Urban Planning and Design
CELA, Academy of Fellows
ASLA, Member

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA), President

CELA VP for Communication, Outreach, and Publications

CELA track co-chair

ASLA Committee on Education

Landscape Journal Managing Editor

Landscape Architect and Specifier News Associate Editor of Technology, Cortona Study Abroad Program (2007, 2015, 2018), UGA Costa Rica Study Abroad (2012)

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Biographical Information

Professor Ashley Steffens has more than 20 years of academic experience, demonstrating exemplary dedication to landscape architecture in her teaching, research, and service. Steffens is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Georgia. In the summer of 2020, she was appointed Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the College of Environment and Design. For 7 years, she held multiple leadership roles, elected offices, and service positions with the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture including track co-chair, managing editor for Landscape Journal, CELA Vice President of Communications, Outreach, and Publications followed by CELA President (2018-2021). She has been recognized as a UGA Women’s Leadership Fellow in 2021-2022 and was inducted into The Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, Academy of Fellows in 2022 for her significant contributions to teaching, research, and service.

Portfolio


Ashley Steffens on LinkedIn   |   Messages from the Associate Dean


Teaching

Professor Steffens is a dedicated educator who taught various courses including design studios, graduate research, manual and digital graphics communication, planting design and identification. She taught over 1,000 undergraduate and masters students in more than 15 different courses including study abroad programs to Cortona, Italy and Costa Rica, directed studies focusing on plethora of contemporary issues in landscape architecture, and served as chair and committee member for over 40 graduate thesis.

Professor Steffens’ innovative course development is grounded by her research on pedagogy striving to deliver education based on personal engagement, experience, and shared cultural values. Her research on graphic communication allows her to blend traditional graphic concepts with computer graphics and web platforms, and to incorporate new technologies such as tablet sketching to studio settings.

At the University of Georgia, Professor Steffens has been successful in securing grant funding to support her classroom and studio instruction including UGA service learning, Learning Technology, and Sustainability across Curriculum Faculty development grants. Professor Steffens outstanding performance as an educator was recognized and celebrated at University of Georgia. Among many accolades and recognitions, she was the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Teaching Innovation, Outstanding Junior Teaching Faculty Award, CED Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award, Cortona Study Abroad Faculty award, and UGA Career Center Career Development recognition.

Her student admirably wrote: 

“I love how you set up your class…..Your class demonstrations are so helpful and give me so much material to look back on moving forward in this major.”

Scholarship/creative activity

Professor Steffens is a prolific scholar and creative editor. She brilliantly blends her scholarship, creative activities with classroom instruction. Her research stems from deep understanding that excellence in design is contingent on communications skills. Her pedagogical approach in design studios informs her research and became the foundation of her published book titled Computer Graphics for Landscape Architects, an Introduction. Recently in 2018, her book chapter in Nadia Amoroso’s book In Representing Landscapes: Analogue, builds on her passion about design and graphics, and is titled “The Hand Graphics Experience.”

Professor Steffens has over 10 peer-reviewed published journal articles and conference proceedings, 25 professional articles and publications, 30 reports and bulletins, 15 creative contributions and consulting contracts, and over 12 exhibits, posters and invited presentations.

Professor Steffens has been successful in securing internal grants and external contracts to support her research. She has been involved in over $90,000 grant funding projects as a principal and co-principal investigator. Most recently, she secured a 1 million dollar contract for the revitalization of Mary Moss Waterfront Park in Brunswick, Georgia.

Additionally, Professor Steffens creative scholarship focuses on editorship of research and professional publications. As a Managing Editor of Landscape Journal, she worked closely with Dan Nadenciek and David Pitt overseeing the publication of seven journal issues. As Co-Editor of Landscape Research Record she directed the publication of three peer-reviewed issues. In addition, as Associate Editor of Technology for Landscape Architect and Specifier News, she directed the publication of over 40 articles and professional papers.

Service

Professor Steffens’ service record is truly outstanding reflecting a sincere passion for landscape architecture and her role as an educator. Her service engagements reflect dedication to her students, institution, as well as to the profession of landscape architecture. She has been actively involved with UGA student body serving as Faculty Advisor to the student chapter of ASLA and providing leadership in organizing and hosting a successful LABash conference. She has served as an external examiner of numerous tenure and promotion cases. She has led and participated in several Rosters of Visiting Evaluators (ROVE) member for the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board (LAAB) providing evaluation and insights into accreditation processes to numerous programs across the nation.

Professor Steffens has provided extensive service as a reviewer for national conferences as well as professional journals including: CELA, EDRA, Design Communication Association conference, the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, and Pearson Publications.  In addition to her outstanding creative work and service to landscape architecture scholarship (please see section on Research) and her excellent leadership with CELA (please see section on Engagement and Contributions to the CELA mission), Professor Steffens has taught different sections of the  Landscape Architecture Registration Exam (LARE), served as award juror for professional design competitions including EDSA Fellowship Awards, served for over 10 years as a reviewer for CELA conference abstract, paper, poster presentations, co-chairing the design education and pedagogy track (2 terms), and editor of full paper submissions for publication in Landscape Research Record.

engagement and contribution to the cela mission

Professor Steffens has one of the most impressive records of service to the CELA that I have seen in my 30 years of academic career. Throughout her professional career, she has not only contributed to the CELA through submitted papers and poster presentations, but also served as track co-chair for design education and pedagogy, abstract reviewer, and editor of paper submissions for publication in Landscape Research Record. With Dan Nadenicek, she served as a managing editor of Landscape Journal between 2014 and 2017 overseeing the publication of 7 journal issues.

In 2016, Professor Steffens was elected to the CELA Executive Committee as VP of Communication, Outreach and Publications, and in 2018 was elected to serve a three-year term as President. During her presidency, Professor Steffens was instrumental in leading efforts to determine the scale and scope needed for CELA’s new Executive Director and participated in the successful national search resulting in the hire of IMI Association Executives. She led the efforts of revising CELA’s By-laws after regaining lost tax status, as well as charging a task force with exploring future format of Landscape Journal. Steffens played an important role in two significant CELA strategic planning forums that yielded CELA’s new strategic map, vision and mission statements. She facilitated CELA’s effort to use new software as well as YouTube channel as modes of communication with the membership and community. Additionally, Steffens provided great leadership to CELA when Covid-19 outbreak resulted in the unprecedented need for alternatives to the in-person annual conference.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Hand Graphics, Computer Graphics, Technology, Portfolio and Professional Development, and Educational/Public Gardens and Parks

Selected Publications

Steffens, Ashley. “Design Education Resilience: CORONAVIRUS’s Impact and Beyond.” Design Intelligence Media Group, Q3. https://www.di-mediagroup.com/di-quarterly/design-education-resilience-coronavirus-impact-and-beyond/. 2020.

Steffens, Ashley. CELA Global Investiture Fund and Grant, https://thecela.org/global-investiture-fund-grant/, expected to raise ~$7,00-$10,000 per year for social and environmental actions for the CELA annual conference, 2020.

Computer Graphics for Landscape Architects

Steffens, Ashley. “The Hand Graphics Experience.” In Representing Landscapes: Analogue, edited by Nadia Amoroso, 2018.

Steffens, Ashley. ‘Evolving Graphics in Landscape Architecture: Professional Demands on Educational Institutions.’ International Journal of Higher Education and Human Development 3, no. 4: 26-30. 2017.

Steffens, Ashley. “Communicating Speculative and Creative Thinking.” In Design Communication Association, 2016.

Steffens, Ashley. “Tech Trends.” Landscape Architect and Specifier News 04, vol. 32: 14, 16. Http://www.landscapeonline.com/research/article-a.php?number=28349 . 2016

Calabria, Ashley and Jose Buitrago. Computer Graphics for Landscape Architects: An Introduction. 2008.

 

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