The Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) recently announced the 2026-2027 cohort of the LAF Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership. The program started in 2016 to catalyze transformational leadership among landscape architecture professionals. This ninth cohort of LAF Fellows includes one senior-level professional, two mid-career professionals, and three recent LAF Olmstead scholars.

 

The LAF Olmstead scholars joining the cohort this year are Marybeth Campeau for her project: Climate Responsive Conservation: Should We Help Plants and Animals Outrun Extinction?, Robert Col??n for his project: Designing Leadership: Actualizing Nature-Based Resilience in the Land Between Two Waters, and Davey Friday for his Corridors of Legacy. They will each receive $5,000 to further their ideas in preparation for future partnership, fellowship, and funding opportunities.

The mid-career and senior-level professionals will receive $25,000 and will dedicate 12 weeks of the upcoming year to their proposed project. Liska Chan, Ilana Cohen, and Catherine De Almeida, PLA are the professionals who are also joining the cohort this year. Chan is joining for her project, The Politics of Surface: Feminist Approaches to Fashion, Landscape, and Spatial Practice. Cohen is joining for her project, A Roadmap to Reuse: Case Studies in Circular Landscape Policy and Logistics, and De Almeida is joining for her work, Design with Waste: Towards Regenerative Futures.

Over the course of the year, three-day residencies occur where the fellows work on their proposed projects, reinforced by critiques, discussions, mentorship, and explorations of transformational leadership. In May 2026, the 2026-2027 fellowship year will officially begin, concluding in May/June 2027 with a final symposium to showcase the work that was done during the year.