Publications
Biography
Liz currently manages a portfolio of work to foster climate justice in Louisiana. The program includes investments and activities to build people power, advance just policies, and cultivate new narratives in support of economic opportunity, environmental justice, and equitable development statewide. Existing in the tension between the world as it is and the world as it could be, she has the capacity to both dream and implement. She is committed to rooting out injustice and bringing about healthy, just and vibrant communities. Her work on climate mitigation and adaptation has been featured on CNN, Bloomberg, and Politico as well as in local media.
Liz has always worked at the intersection of community, landscape, technology, investment, and regulation. Ranging from watershed management to individual building scale proposals, Liz designs and supports the development of strategies that consider relative sea level rise and climate impacts across populated coastal ecosystems. With a background in architecture and experience in landscape and urban design, her design and implementation proficiencies range from fabrication and construction detailing to community engagement, ecological design, and future planning.
Within the Synthetic Mudscapes project, Liz led a cohort of civil engineers, urban planners, coastal scientists, landscape architects, economists, and social scientists in the design of land building strategies for reduced storm surge exposure within a populated core. This proposal provided basin-specific design of ecological infrastructure, an integrated monitoring system, and policies for public use, investment, and management based on ecosystem health. As co-director of Inhabiting Risk: Insurable Alternatives for a Changing Environment, Liz devised a dual framework incorporating technically credible risk data and incentivized design responses from residents. Her perspective at the intersection of fields offers the potential to collaborate to develop replicable and scalable practices within a geography necessarily advancing action to address climate change.
The Tactical Extreme Scenario Trial visualizes coastal Louisiana in the year 2100; projecting industrial and demographic trends according to land change, TEST examines infrastructural requirements within a proactive retreat scenario where efforts to adapt in place have been unsuccessful. Her efforts to address coastal land change have appeared in Phase 1 of the Changing Course Competition led by Moffatt & Nichol, winner of 2013 AIA New York Urban Design Award Resilient Water Infrastructure with Terreform ONE, and the joint Coastal Sustainability Studio and Louisiana Sea Grant funded Grand Isle Studio.
Liz has held a range of academic positions, having taught within the School of Architecture at Louisiana State University, the Department of Architecture and Landscape within the University of Greenwich in London, London College of Contemporary Art, and Birmingham City University.