WASLA Board of DirectorsEffective November 2023 Committee DescriptionThe Board of Directors administers the Washington Chapter of ASLA including chapter events, conferences, finances, membership and advocacy. Tasks and GoalsThe main tasks & goals of the Board of Directors include:
Board of Directors PositionsPRESIDENT Role:
President: Michael Faulkner, ASLA
As a landscape architect with 20 years of experience designing public spaces, I have seen firsthand the power of collaboration and advocacy to improve the health, equity, and resiliency of our communities. This has included donating my time alongside community non-profits to design, build and fund community gardens and gathering spaces which have helped to improve the overall health and well-being of the surrounding neighborhoods. During these past couple of years as a WASLA board member, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed mentoring and working alongside students and emerging professionals as their creativity, optimism, and commitment to sustainability is advancing our profession in inspiring ways. I look forward to building upon these experiences by continuing to serve WASLA and the landscape architecture community in the years to come. Past President: Nicholas Zurlini, ASLA Nicholas is a 2019 graduate from the University of Washington, who received a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree and Minor in Architecture.At the University, he served as Co-President for the University of Washington Student Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architecture and discovered one of his greater passions exists in community outreach and engagement. He sought out ways to improve communication between students and faculty, connect his peers with professionals, and engage the community around him. Nicholas hopes to integrate these passions into his career, and engage the profession with new typologies and frameworks of youth outreach and mentorship, that can better inform design thinking and build future generations of landscape architects. Role:
Treasurer: Su Wanqin, ASLA
Growing up in a populated City along the Chinese coast, she has always been fascinated with how humans and the environment drive the transformation of each other. Her passion as a landscape architect is to create designs that speak to the nature of the site, as well as provide amenities for local communities to enjoy. Currently, she is a member of the City of Redmond Design Review Board, and a Co-leader for Magnuson Park Children’s Garden Design Committee. She is interested in financial aspects of the practice and sees the treasurer position as an opportunity to hone her skills and be a leader. SECRETARY Role:
Secretary: Zach Thomas, ASLA Zack is a Landscape Architect who loves design leadership, collaboration, and proactive management. He brings these values to his role at Board & Vellum where he centers his approach on unraveling the complexities of each project’s design, permitting, construction, and sustainability goals. Zack delights in working at the neighborhood scale — designing beautiful, usable, and ecologically minded solutions that engage and enrich — but also loves the unique challenges and opportunity for intimate detail of a single-family residential landscape. Zack holds Master’s degrees in Ecology and Landscape Architecture. With over 20 years of project experience, Zack has led projects of varying scope and scales including parks, urban design, commercial work, art coordination, education, mobility planning, and private gardens. His projects include high-profile and award-winning designs, such as the first Living Building project in Washington State. TRUSTEE Role:
Trustee: Tim Slazinik, ASLA  A Senior Associate and Senior Landscape Architect at GGLO in Seattle, I have dedicated many years to ASLA both on the National and State Levels. As a Past President of the Washington Chapter, I have helped to guide and plan for the chapter, including state conferences, awards ceremonies, and many other local and statewide events and functions. I have since had the honor of serving as the Chair of the Chapter Presidents Council at National ASLA. Prior to moving to Washington State, I also served as President of the St. Louis Chapter of ASLA, and in many other roles within that chapter. As a licensed Landscape Architect with over 18 years in the industry, I have worked in both the private and public sectors. My work ranges from Corporate Headquarters to Local Parks, and from Urban Streetscapes to Rooftop Amenities. My involvement with ASLA and the relationships I’ve created within ASLA have helped to guide my career path and make impactful connections over many years. I feel the time is right that I step up to serve our profession and state professional community again but seeking the trustee position within WASLA. I look forward to focusing on the many issues that affect and threaten our profession, as well as helping us capitalize on the many unique opportunities we have to make change around us.
MEMBERS-AT-LARGE Role:
Members-at-Large: Statewide Member-at-Large: Cresha Wee, ASLA 
Cresha Wee is a landscape architect with 7 years of experience focusing on habitat restoration and public access. She grew up in a Detroit metro-area suburb, where she worked at a civil and environmental engineering consulting firm before moving to Seattle and beginning work at Anchor QEA in 2019. Cresha participates in all phases of a variety of public and private projects, from preparing concepts and drafting permit applications, to completing final design documents and providing construction oversight. She specializes in designing around environmentally sensitive issues, including restoring shorelines and habitats across Washington. Cresha has had the privilege of working on multidisciplinary teams while collaborating with engineers, planners, geologists, and archaeologists. Her experience emphasizes the importance of landscape architects as leaders, and she welcomes the opportunity to elevate her leadership and skillset to the next level by representing WASLA’s Statewide Member at Large position.
Eastern Washington Member-at-Large: Michael Sanchez, ASLA
I’m a registered landscape architect with more than 25 years of experience spread over the western states of California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. I’m also an assistant professor of practice in landscape architecture at Washington State University. My practice career spans the design typologies of commercial, mixed-use and urban design including green stormwater infrastructure; hospitality and resort design; civic, cultural and institutional projects such as educational and medical facilities, museums as well as regional and local parks and open space design; and many housing and community development projects, both affordable and market rate. Creating community and a sense of place at a local scale, through excellent design using the processes of community engagement is a passion of mine. My teaching focuses on all design phases (conceptual, design development, construction documentation and construction administration), beginning with foundational drawing, but particularly in site engineering, storm water management, construction technology and documentation at Washington State University’s School of Design and Construction. I advise our student chapter of NAMLA (National Association of Minorities in Landscape Architecture) and as part of meeting our university’s land grant mission, I co-direct our school’s Rural Communities Design Initiative (RCDI), a university/community partnership with a passion and concern for using the design of the built and natural environment to improve the quality of life for underrepresented populations and compromised landscapes in the Pacific Northwest. I look forward to this role, representing WASLA and the Eastern side of our state, especially in developing professional relationships, creating networks between academia and practice, and connecting students with practitioners in this amazing profession of landscape architecture!
Western Washington Member-at-Large:Rhiannon Neuville
I graduated from the University of Washington and have been working in Landscape Architecture for 3 years. I have experience working on projects in tight urban spaces, expansive campus restoration, and transportation infrastructure. These varied projects match my varied interests and I hope to continue to gain knowledge across this ever-expanding field. One area that I am particularly interested in is community driven design and I hope to find more opportunities for this in the future. Outside of work, I serve on the University of Washington PAC, where I just finished a two year role as co-chair. I am discovering a love of west coast swing dancing and cycling. This past year I have found a lot of joy in gravel bike packing and cyclocross racing. I look forward to serving as the Western Washington Member at Large and growing the connection between the PAC and WASLA. I think it is incredibly important that we have good channels between current practitioners and future generations of Landscape Architects and I am honored to be a representative for those connections. For more information please contact WASLA at Phone: 360-867-8820; Email: [email protected] |
As our profession continues to evolve and faces growing challenges, I’m excited to see how our creative and collaborative nature will step towards further addressing issues such as climate change and inequality. I believe that landscape architecture is a diverse and powerful profession that can bring us together in new and exciting ways while reconnecting us with the natural ecosystem.
As a landscape architect with 5 years of experience, Su has worked in the San Francisco Bay Area, New Orleans, Shanghai, and Southeast China, before arriving in Seattle in 2017.
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