Shannon Nichol of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, Bridget McNassar of Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center, and Polly Olsen of the Burke Museum, will discuss their roles in the development of this very special landscape. Through a dialogue, the three will reflect on important learnings, mistakes, and questions about how we move forward with a more inclusive practice of working with culturally and ecologically important native species in restoration and landscaped spaces.

Speakers: 

Polly Olsen, Tribal Liaison, polly@uw.edu 
An enrolled member of the Confederate Tribes of Yakama Nation, Polly Olsen (Yakama) has two decades of valuable, diverse employment in academia, healthcare, and museums. The combination of her professional and life experiences—along with her passion to serve American Indian, Alaska Native and Indigenous communities—has led Olsen to thrive in her current role at the Burke and at the University of Washington. Olsen earned a BA in Liberal Arts/Cultural Anthropology from the University of Washington. 

Shannon Nichol, FASLA, PLA, LEED AP 
Founding Principal, GGN
Shannon Nichol is a founding partner of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol. Her recent and current projects include India Basin Shoreline Park in San Francisco, the Burke Museum at the University of Washington in Seattle, and the Seattle Residence: Native Gardens. Shannon’s designs, including Millennium Park’s Lurie Garden, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Campus, and Boston’s North End Parks, are widely recognized for being deeply embedded in their neighborhoods and natural contexts. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects (Seattle). She and her partners received the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Architecture in 2011, and GGN is the recipient of the 2017 ASLA National Landscape Architecture Firm Award. 

Bridget McNassar, Native Plant Program Manager at Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center 
Bridget works at Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center, managing their Native Plant Program. Alongside a nursery operation growing thousands of native plants each year for restoration, landscaping, and retail sellers, Bridget works to create outreach and education opportunities aimed at promoting use of natives in various landscapes, and facilitating meaningful connections between people and native plants. Her formal education includes a B.S. in Biology from the University of Notre Dame and a M.S. in Natural Resources from University of Idaho.

This will be a Zoom webinar. Admission is free, but you must register to gain access to the Zoom meeting

To register, please go to our event web site: https://www.wnps.org/cps-events/calendar/835

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Public invited!