CEW+ celebrates Christina’s commitments to Indigenous communities and environmental justice and names her a Margaret Dow Towsley Scholar.

Christina N. Contreras is currently pursuing a graduate degree in landscape architecture and coursework in environmental justice. Christina is devoted to the design of landscapes and places because she cares deeply about communities and the planet and recognizes the tremendous power that the built environment has on our lives and ecosystems. She employs research, design, and community involvement to prioritize equitable outcomes in urban planning and landscape design processes. 

Christina is passionate about reinforcing unique expression of identity and community in the landscape and respects the value and importance of community-authored projects. Christina is particularly interested in creating opportunities for people to connect with generations past and future through places and plants in the landscape. Through her work, she explores mutually beneficial symbiotic relationships between humans and land. She holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from University of Colorado Denver, and a Bachelor of Science in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University. Christina is the Principal and Founder of Living Ecology Studio, an urban planning and landscape design consulting practice that collaborates with communities to shape the landscape and to connect with land, nature, and each other.

Christina is a proud new mother of a beautiful daughter. She is committed to practicing landscape architecture and celebrating Indigenous ways of knowing to honor her family that came before her and her family that will come after her. She is celebrated at U-M for her “dynamism, intellect, and passion” as well as her potential to “push the profession forward.”

CEW+ celebrates Christina’s commitments to Indigenous communities and environmental justice and names her a Margaret Dow Towsley Scholar.