What area do you work in within the VPFA portfolio?
Campus Planning
What is your current position, and what are your job responsibilities?
Planning Associate - Historic Preservation
My job responsibilities include ensuring exterior campus projects align with our Campus Plan and supporting campus projects through historic preservation and landscape review. I also supervise our office’s student employees and interns.
What has been your career path; how did you end up in your current position?
I have a background in Psychology, Landscape Architecture, Planning, and Historic Preservation, all of which I feel I use in my current position. I started off thinking I would go into research Psychology, but then was drawn to Landscape Architecture and Planning. While working for a prominent PNW Landscape Architecture firm and becoming licensed to practice in Oregon, I served with a county Design Review Board near Portland and a local Parks and Recreation District Board, pulling me further into the public planning process. This really felt like it combined my background nicely.
When my family relocated to Eugene for my spouse’s work, I found a great role in Campus Planning at UO. I thought it was a good fit with my background, so I applied and got the job. That was six and a half years ago.
In Campus Planning, I use my experience in Landscape Architecture and Planning, looking at outdoor spaces, doing project review, and writing planning policy. Our office has frequent public engagement events, where sometimes I can draw on my psychology skills. I used to staff the Campus Planning Committee (CPC) and in recent years I have been transitioning more into historic preservation and project review. That was something I have been further trained in since being at the UO, which has been great. It feels like it’s been full circle and I get to use all the skills I trained in and gain more.
Please share some insight into what your job involves.
Recently, I worked on a Conserving Black Modernism grant for McKenzie Hall, for which we received funding from the National Trust for Historic Preservation African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, with generous support from the Getty Institute. This allowed us to partner with an architecture firm to develop an historic preservation and interpretation plan for McKenzie Hall here on campus. That project has fully engaged all my background and experience. From historic preservation research and documentation of the building and landscape, project review, working with student employees, to public engagement with stakeholder groups, the work has been all encompassing. It has been an interesting and robust project, enabling development of my professional goals and allowing me to use my breadth of experience, which is one of the great things about working at the UO. This project presented a unique opportunity to contribute in a way that is not typically encountered in my field. I really appreciate being able to explore different projects in my current position.
What advice do you have for someone thinking of applying to the UO?
My advice would be “Don’t second guess yourself.” If you are looking at a position and you think your background and skills align with at least 80% of what the job is seeking, go for it!
Not everything has to perfectly line up; it’s likely your new job will provide training. Keep in mind that people at the UO will want to know you as much as you want to know them—so make that effort as well.
Share a little about yourself:
I am raising four amazing humans who are very close in age, which takes up a lot of my free time. As they are getting older, things are getting a little easier.
I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, which I think contributed to my sense of strength and perseverance. I was born there and didn’t grow up in the “Lower 48”, so it created very different experiences for me, from sub-zero winters with no daylight to amazing summers with endless daylight. You really get used to handling extremes there. There is also a large connection to the indigenous population there. I briefly attended the University of Alaska Anchorage where the connections to and recognition of native Alaskan culture is prevalent. It helps you remember that there are many different vantage points to see things.
Favorite Food
Eugene has so many great foodie places to check out, and I'm always happy if guacamole is involved!
(August 2026)