UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Kelleann Foster, a Penn State landscape architecture faculty member since 1989, has been appointed director of the Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and associate dean of the College of Arts and Architecture at the University for a two-year term. Since fall 2013, she has served as interim director of the school, which also includes the college’s graphic design program.
Foster, a Penn State alumna with a bachelor of science degree in landscape architecture, is currently the lead faculty for the online geodesign graduate programs at the University. Within the Department of Landscape Architecture, she previously served as assistant department head (2001-08) and interim department head (2009-11).
Foster, who holds a master of landscape architecture degree from the University of Massachusetts, has 30 years of professional practice experience as a landscape architect and has received numerous awards in her field, including the Presidential Award of Excellence from the Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) for her book, "Becoming a Landscape Architect: A Guide to Careers in Design," originally published in 2010 by John Wiley & Sons with a Chinese version published in 2014. She also has received Merit Awards from the chapter for the State College Borough Design Guide and the Land Use Management Program, which was completed for 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, a leading advocate for responsible and efficient land use. The 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania group is a client of the Visual Interactive Communications Group (VICgroup), of which Foster was a managing partner from 1996 to 2013. In addition, she was honored with the Distinguished Service Award from the ASLA Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter for leadership in the authoring and production of a CD on landscape architecture schools in Pennsylvania.
Foster has published extensively and presented papers and lectures at meetings around the world. During a recent sabbatical, based at Esri’s World Headquarters in Redlands, Calif., she researched how Penn State’s new online geodesign programs could most effectively engage students in a collaborative, virtual studio environment. Her search resulted in the creation of three new graduate programs: a geodesign option in the MGIS degree, a graduate certificate in geodesign and a Master of Professional Studies in geodesign, all offered online through Penn State’s World Campus.
Before joining the Penn State faculty, Foster taught at Temple University and worked at landscape architecture firms McCloskey and Faber P.C. and Sullivan Associates P.C. in the Philadelphia area. Other leadership roles include serving as chair of the Penn State University Tree Commission for 16 years, through which she established the Campus Heritage Tree Program. Outside Penn State, she was a board member and former president of ClearWater Conservancy, a land trust and natural resource conservation organization in central Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, American Planning Association and American Society of Landscape Architects.