Staff Changes

The Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) has been delighted to welcome two new team members to its staff this summer! Justin Westley joined LAF as Development Associate in June and Josh Blatt joined as Communications Associate in July.

Both the Associates are committed to LAF’s core vision of empowering the people who arrange and design our cities, communities, and all the spaces in them. Justin studied placemaking and the numerous roles that the creative sector can play in cities through the Arts Management graduate program at Carnegie Mellon University. Josh learned how to create, evaluate, and maintain equitable public spaces through the 4Cities Erasmus Mundus graduate program.

Justin recently joined us in Washington DC from Pittsburgh, where he built up experience in the nonprofit and public arts sectors by working to support fundraising and advancement initiatives at Creative Time and the Pittsburgh Festival Opera. Growing up in Northern Alabama and Tennessee make the rural trails of the Smokey Mountains and Appalachian foothills some of Justin's favorite landscapes.

Josh has a background in the nonprofit sector too. Previously, he worked to support public and media outreach at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and built grassroots support for bus rapid transit through an internship with RVA Rapid Transit. Josh also grew up with a smoky mountain view – although he loved the views in Los Angeles when they weren’t obscured by pollution.

LAF’s former Development Associate, Devin McCue, was with the foundation for three years. Already a published book author (The Star of the Telegram: The Cartoons of Harold Maples), Devin is now pursuing writing full-time. He continues to write his popular CultureCow column for his hometown news website, Sumnernewscow.com and regularly posts on his blog Mouthful of teeth.

After nearly a year and a half with LAF, Communications Associate Tommie-Lynne Hellwig has moved to RESOLVE, a DC-based nonprofit where she will support programs that seek to improve the social, environmental, and development contribution of the natural resource sector. Specifically, she will be focusing on Central Africa’s artisanal mining industry to increase responsible sourcing practices that support livelihoods and improve human rights and environmental standards at the site.

We wish Devin and Tommie-Lynne our best!