2026 Class of Fellows: Jessica Canfield, PLA, FASLA, Prairie Gateway Chapter
Kansas State University; Manhattan, Kansas
Jessica Canfield, PLA, ASLA, is an internationally recognized scholar and educator whose work has transformed how landscape architecture measures, understands, and communicates its impact. As an associate professor at Kansas State University, she has spent more than 15 years advancing evidence-based design, making complex ideas about landscape performance accessible, practical, and widely used across academia and professional practice. Canfield's most influential contribution is her leadership in developing tools and methods to evaluate landscape performance. As a research fellow with the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF), she helped pioneer early case studies and later authored Evaluating Landscape Performance: A Guidebook for Metrics and Methods Selection-now a foundational resource downloaded thousands of times and used by practitioners, educators, and agencies worldwide. Her ongoing research continues to expand how the profession measures environmental, social, and economic outcomes. Equally impactful is her innovative teaching, which bridges research and real-world application. Through award-winning studios and one of the nation's first dedicated courses on landscape performance, she has trained more than 100 students to apply data-driven design in practice. Her students' work-ranging from urban forestry plans to equity-focused park design-has informed community projects, secured grant funding, and earned national recognition. Canfield's leadership extends across the profession through major roles with CELA, LAF, and ASLA, where she helps shape research, education, and accreditation standards. She has also advanced critical conversations around equity and career pathways in academia. By turning research into actionable knowledge and empowering the next generation of designers, Jessica Canfield has profoundly strengthened the discipline's ability to design, evaluate, and advocate for high-performing landscapes.
As seen in LASN magazine, October 2026.
