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School Greening through the Safe Clean Water Program
Room: 106
Time: 1:30pm – 2:30pm
This session will provide insight into the movement to incorporate nature-based stormrwater capture infrastructure in schoolyard greening projects within Los Angeles County. Using examples from the Upper Los Angeles River Watershed Area, this session will touch on how the Safe Clean Water Program can act as a nexus to green school campuses while also improving the quality of regional water supply. By including school districts in regional and municipal stormwater management, the Los Angeles region can move towards a more environmentally sustainable future. This conversation will include local and regional policy incentives, campus facilities design for stormwater BMPs and extreme heat.
Greener schools have been shown to improve student academic performance and recent policy initiatives have eleveted greener, less hardscaped schools as a priority to improve student learning and health outcomes. As the region encounters changes from climate change, the importance of transforming schools into neighborhood-centered green spaces is undeniable. However, funding remains a considerable limitation for districts wanting to convert their campuses from heat islands, to green oases.
The Los Angeles County Safe Clean Water Program presents an opportunity to incorporate climate resilient, nature based stormwater capture infrastructure in school greening projects. Understanding emerging opportunities to improve the environmental well-being of urban communities through nature based projects and the benefits as well as limitations of policy incentives of this type is crucial for parties working within our education systems.
Speakers:
Dustin Herrmann, Principal Scientist, TreePeople Policy & Research
Alejandro Fabian, Communications Coordinator, TreePeople Policy & Research
Simone Drucker, Senior Designer, Studio MLA
Matt Romero, Associate Principal, Studio MLA
Dr. Dustin L. Herrmann is currently the Principal Scientist and Director of the Research Program at the Southern California nonprofit organization TreePeople. His 15+ years of research is on many facets of social-ecological systems grounded in an educational training in urban ecosystem ecology. In his role at TreePeople, he leads projects that incorporate this scientific expertise with community engagement, environmental education, and environmental planning. The objective of the work is to improve social equity and climate resilience in greater Los Angeles through nature-based solutions. He brings specialized knowledge in field and data science around understanding urban ecosystems and extensive experience in multi-disciplinary and cross-organizational collaborations.
Simone Drucker is a designer with over 15 years of multi-disciplinary experience. Her passion for graphic design, studio arts, and California’s diverse ecosystems and plant communities brought her to landscape architecture. In her design work and research, she looks for opportunities to bring the influence of native ecosystems into programmed spaces, blurring the urban-wildland interface to enlighten, educate, and empower people. Simone has worked on designs for over a dozen LAUSD School Sites, which include Green Infrastructure strategies. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Art in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design and her Landscape Architecture Certificate from UCLA. She is based in our Los Angeles studio.
Matt Romero is a landscape designer inspired by creating transformative public places for community benefit. Matt embraces the potential for landscape architecture to offer environmental justice solutions while working with the community’s needs. He is interested in providing sustainable, impactful environments through socially and ecologically sensitive, community-driven design. Matt possesses attention to creative detail and a collaborative ethos that he brings to a variety of projects at Studio-MLA – from master planning and parks to K-12 and high education campuses.