2025 Fellows: Carmine Russo Jr., FASLA, Ohio Chapter

REALM Collaborative, Columbus, OH
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Throughout his twenty-year career, Carmine Russo has proven himself to be an exceptional leader through his selfless efforts to advance the image and awareness of the profession in the state of Ohio and across the nation. Beginning as a student committee member of ASLA with LABash, Carmine held key positions within ASLA, including Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President of Communications, President-Elect, President, Past President, and Vice President of Legislative Affairs. Through these elected roles, Carmine demonstrated a deep commitment to advancing ASLA's mission and championing the profession. As the Ohio Chapter's VP of Legislative Affairs and Chapter liaison to the state licensure board, Carmine was instrumental in the creation and success of the first ever CLARB/ASLA Joint licensure summit which was held in Columbus. He has worked to maintain licensure in Ohio, improve the cooperation between the licensure board and chapter, improve state and local government agency regulations to include landscape architects, defeat unfair taxes on services, establish lien rights for services, and create and maintain better communications with state legislature and state agencies. Due to Carmine's exceptional service, the chapter was awarded the 2018 ASLA Chapter of the Year Advocacy Award. In addition, Carmine volunteers with other community and sustainability efforts, notably, the Columbus Neighborhood Design Center and US Green Building Council-Ohio, as well as presenting and sharing his knowledge at many universities and community organizations. He is a co-founding principal of REALM Collaborative, which has quickly become a recognized force in landscape architecture, urban design, and community engagement with institutional and public and private sector clients in the US and abroad.