Brie Hensold is an urban planner, co-founder and principal of Agency Landscape + Planning. With a passion for understanding and improving communities and places, Brie brings a systems-based approach that celebrates diverse perspectives. She has extensive experience developing creative and meaningful community engagement processes. Brie’s work encompasses multiple scales, from downtown plans to citywide park systems to resilience strategies. Her work has received awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Architects, among others. She is a Design Critic in the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design where she also leads an executive education class in resilient cities. Download CV. 

Kate Tooke, a landscape architect and principal of Agency Landscape + Planning, has focused her career on the intersection of community and public space. She leverages a diverse background as an educator, an engineer and a landscape architect into a practice unabashedly passionate about connecting people to the urban environment. Kate’s listening-oriented approach to project leadership as well as her strategic thinking, design eye, and technical acumen have been instrumental in the success of diverse projects ranging from master planning to site-scale work and extending coast to coast. She is a prominent national voice in the movement towards contextual adventure playgrounds.

Jill Allen Dixon is a planner with a focus on the intersection of park/landscape planning, climate resilience, and public engagement. She has a passion for collaborating with communities to implement strategies that increase equitable access to parks and that grow greener, more resilient cities. Common to her work is a focus on bringing together diverse constituents to identify shared visions for places and open spaces. Jill believes that asking meaningful questions, providing accessible information, and listening carefully to responses will lead to creative ideas that advance multiple objectives.

Allen Penniman weaves urban planning, design, and real estate development into the equitable revitalization of distressed urban communities. He is a Senior Urban Planner at Agency and a Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design. Allen previously served for seven years in the public sector in Detroit, MI, where he led planning for a transformative neighborhood reinvestment program that restored disinvested neighborhoods into complete communities, and in Providence, RI, where he managed a successful campaign to downsize an urban freeway and conducted a vision plan for sustaining an industrial and arts district in the face of gentrification pressure. Allen is a solutionary who loves forging implementation pathways so community can thrive in place. On Saturdays, you'll find Allen either neck deep in a DIY project or rooting for his obscure and floundering, but beloved, English soccer club.

Liz Cormack is an urban planner and experience designer with a background in product design. Liz worked previously with the City of Kansas City, MO and the City of Boston, MA where she led the redesign of the community engagement platform at the Mayor’s Office of Housing. Prior to work in the public sector, Liz was a Senior UX Designer at Sonos, and her work in technology has spanned game design, indoor agriculture, and connected devices. She recently retired after ten years on the Board of the Transformative Culture Project, a nonprofit working to connect young artists with creative careers. Outside of work, you can find Liz hiking, skiing, and attempting to implement all of Priya Parker’s principles in ‘The Art of Gathering’ at dinner parties.

Jamaica Reese-Julien is an urban planner and designer working in Philadelphia. She holds a dual degree in City Planning and Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, with a concentration in Housing, Community, and Economic Development. Jamaica is passionate about designing spaces and systems that center community expertise. Her volunteer work with community organizations in Philadelphia focuses on housing stability and grassroots governance over public space. Before joining Agency, she worked as an architectural designer on several public libraries throughout New England. On the weekends, Jamaica can be found exploring the city with her dog, Junie, and attempting to finish craft projects.

Matt Khinda is an urban planner and designer based in Brooklyn, NY. His approach to planning is equally analytical and aspirational, helping communities and city leaders pursue bold ideas within practical constraints. Prior to Agency, Matt worked with the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design to bring big projects to small towns across the U.S., and led public sector innovation projects as a civic designer in the New York City Mayor’s Office. In 2020, he was awarded the Forefront Fellowship for emerging leaders in urban planning and policy by the Urban Design Forum. Matt received a Master of Urban Planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and an undergraduate degree in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. Outside of work, he loves to play pick-up soccer and basketball in New York City’s many parks.

Jiaqi Wang is a landscape designer who is passionate about creating inviting, functional, and sustainable public spaces. A graduate of the University of Virginia’s Master of Landscape Architecture program, Jiaqi believes that landscape design is a socio-ecological practice that closely relates to community engagement. Before joining Agency, he worked on several award-winning residential projects in Virginia and contributed to the success of various public realm projects in Missouri, including institutional landscapes, playscapes, botanical gardens, and waterfront parks. Outside of work, Jiaqi enjoys hiking, biking, watching old movies, and spending time with friends.

Yiyang Li is a landscape/urban designer passionate about the social and political dynamics in urban space. Before Agency, she had a brief adventure in property development and strategic consulting to disentangle how urban development reproduces or dismantles inequities. She is glad to join a team that shares her belief in inclusive planning and thoughtful design. Yiyang recently graduated with a Master in Landscape Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design. Originally from China, she enjoys spicy food and great films, and can be found relaxing near the water during her spare time.

As a landscape designer, Berit Schurke believes in the power of a dynamic and diverse socioecological network to ensure the health and joy of individuals and communities. She is passionate about crafting adaptive, accessible, and productive spaces for humans and non-humans. She strives to infuse this passion in both her professional work and personal endeavors, including ongoing research on climate adaptive infrastructure design in the Arctic, funded by Harvard’s Penny White Project Fund. Berit holds a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from Carleton College and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In her spare time, Berit can be found mountain biking, skiing, or running in the woods with her furball, Uli.

Arisa Shibusawa Lohmeier is a landscape designer who believes public space can help us deepen our personal and collective kinship with nature. Growing up between Chicago, Boston, Honolulu, and Providence, Arisa is passionate about the power of design to nurture one's sense of belonging to place and community. Arisa holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from Brown University. Outside of work, Arisa enjoys learning Chinese, eating ice cream, and spending time on the couch with her cat Mabel.

Corey Watanabe is a landscape designer and graduate of the Master of Landscape Architecture program at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he was named the University’s 2024 Olmsted Scholar and received the MIG Scholarship for Equitable and Inclusive Environments. As an artist, maker, and designer, he firmly believes in the power of landscape to uplift marginalized voices, shed light on silenced histories, and dismantle systemic barriers within our built environment. His research focuses on reframing cultural perceptions of “invasive species” and the histories of Asian American vernacular landscapes. Outside of the studio, Corey enjoys nerding out about plants on hikes, surfing, and making textile art.

Alyssa Taylor is a landscape designer with a Master of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Humanities from Whitman College. Across academic disciplines, Alyssa aims to elevate the perspectives of small, gentle, and often-overlooked human and non-human beings. With prior experience in environmental conservation, she is passionate about designing outdoor spaces that are resilient in the face of climate change and accessible to all. In her free time, Alyssa enjoys running, collaging, and reading fantasy novels with her cat, Percy.

Kazia Rodrigo is a landscape designer and urban planner with a passion for approaching complex technical problems with solutions rooted in values of interconnectedness and mutual respect between human and non-human communities. With a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning from Toronto Metropolitan University, Kazia leverages her background to collaborate meaningfully with diverse communities and foster inclusive decision-making processes. Her personal research focuses on the exploration of language and stories as tools for opposing predominant colonial narratives of landscapes, rooted in the traditional ecological knowledge of Indigenous Filipino communities. Kazia also enjoys cooking complex meals, reading, and exploring her new city on foot.

Eleanor Ryan is a graphic designer and graduate of Rhode Island School of Design where they majored in graphic design and minored in Nature, Culture, and Sustainability Studies. Their degree project at RISD focused on wetland environments of Rhode Island and creating a safeguard against rising water levels in a shifting climate. Eleanor’s nature-inspired and engagement-centered design work addresses community needs through the lens of sustainable land use and stewardship. In their free time, they enjoy painting and sewing, and they often can be seen scootering around the streets of Boston.

Gabriella Carmona is an urban planning intern and a current master’s student of Urban and Regional Planning at UCLA. She holds a bachelor’s degree in History and Political Science from Williams College. Gabriella leverages urban design and policy as an opportunity to combat social and economic injustice — from democratizing data that brings to light spatial disparities to empowering citizens with the tools to redesign their neighborhoods. In her spare time, she loves rock climbing, biking, and hanging out with her cat, Pebbles.

Overseeing Omnes’ operations, Sheila M. Fuentes is a researcher, writer, and strategic organizer with a perspective centered in understanding the lived experiences of individuals and communities. She is a leader in planning and publication work, informing projects through skilled research, public engagement, and thoughtful analysis. Sheila comes from a background in academic publishing and non-profit development, having won and managed major grants and funding awards from a diversity of foundations and government agencies. Prior to joining Omnes, she also led the launch and curation of a gallery featuring artworks concerning land and landscape in Philadelphia’s Old City design district. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Nonfiction Writing from Hunter College, City University of New York.

Sara Harmon is a landscape designer based in the Philadelphia area whose practice is rooted in a desire to bring light into the lives of others. A plant and history nerd, she revels in the details that bring spaces to life. Her experience ranges from small-scale courtyards to a regional vision of the future of Appalachia under the Green New Deal, and she has worked on public and private projects through all phases of design on both coasts. Sara believes a designer’s most important contribution is the creation with communities of beautiful, functional spaces that help address socio-economic issues while providing moments of joy to those who experience them. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, and is certified as a Certified Playground Safety Inspector. Outside of work, Sara enjoys doing DIY projects around the house, going for walks in cemeteries, and gardening.