As part of our ongoing support of ASLA, we ran our second Emerging Professionals Giveaway this year. The winner received complimentary registration to ASLA 2025 in New Orleans, LA, hotel accommodations, and a cash prize towards conference-related expenses. We proudly introduce the 2025 Emerging Professionals Giveaway winner, Brenda Palacios Rodriguez!
Meet Brenda
Brenda describes herself as "a community collaborator, storyteller, and emerging designer and planner, and I am passionate about supporting diverse projects that harmonize with the natural environment and celebrate cultural heritage." As a first-generation college student, she found that combining environmental studies and art allowed her to merge a love for the green, outdoor environment with creativity shared with others. Brenda continues to dedicate her passion to "designing spaces that uplift ecological and cultural landscapes that forever honor the living legacy of community stories."
Road to Landscape Design
Brenda is a first‑generation Mayan‑heritage graduate (class of 2024) from UNC‑Chapel Hill. Growing up, her Mayan heritage instilled an early love for nature’s calming and reflective power. At UNC, Brenda pursued a double major in Environmental Studies and Studio Art, blending her passion for creative expression with her commitment to green space and community wellness.
As one of the inaugural recipients of UNC’s Blue Sky Scholarship, she was able to participate in a study abroad program. While in northern Spain, Brenda took art classes and hiked the Camino de Santiago, realizing the trip was transformative, which allowed her to deepen her understanding of nature and design in a cultural context. At UNC, she also produced the documentary Creative Roots: Qatanum Expressions, uplifting Indigenous creativity in her family’s Awakatek community in Guatemala, supported by a fellowship in Studio Art.
Today, Brenda works as a landscape planner and designer with Design Workshop, where she brings her passion for thoughtful, inclusive outdoor spaces to life, focusing on resiliency, wellness, and connectivity to nature in public and communal landscapes.
Trip to ASLA 2025
As for ASLA 2025, Brenda shares she "is excited to connect with others who are advancing landscape architecture through equity, storytelling, and cross-cultural learning. I look forward to connecting with designers and diverse perspectives throughout the conference that helps center Indigenous knowledge, community-rooted design, and climate-resilient practices." She is thrilled to attend and will also be Tournesol's VIP at the Game Changers event during the ASLA.
Stop by the Tournesol booth #1113 and meet Brenda at ASLA 2025 in New Orleans, LA.
