2024 Class of Fellows, Karen Cesare, FASLA, Arizona Chapter

Novak Environmental, Tucson, AZ

Arizona Chapter - Category: Service

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Arizona Chapter - Category: Service

Karen Cesare has devoted her career to service, elevating the profession most notably in the areas of water conservation, sustainability, civic engagement, and the recognition of landscape architecture as a STEM discipline. She is an elected member of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, which serves three counties and 80 percent of the state population, where she helps set policy around the critical issue of water in the west. An early adopter and promoter of a water conservation ethic she designed and helped build the first Xeriscape Demonstration Garden in Tucson as a volunteer in the late 1980s. Her interest in water issues led to her appointment to Tucson's Citizen's Water Advisory Committee, which she chaired for several years. Cesare has been heavily involved with career discovery activities, volunteering for over ten years for Arizona Science Olympiad, which helped lead to landscape architecture being recognized as a STEM discipline regionally, aligning with ASLA's position. In 2007, then Governor Napolitano appointed Cesare to the multidisciplinary State Board of Technical Registration, where she served for three years - two as chair - and represented Arizona on CLARB. During Cesare's term as chapter president, she led the successful fight to save licensure in Arizona. Her many contributions garnered Cesare "Landscape Architect of the Year" in 2018 by the Arizona Chapter. She was also recognized with a Women of Influence "Lifetime Achievement" award in 2019 by Tucson Local Media.