A Conversation with SuLin Kotowicz, FASLA

Conducted May 10, 2024

The NY-Upstate chapter was particularly delighted to host SuLin Kotowicz, our current National ASLA President, at our annual Awards Dinner last month. Since then, Anita Bueno, the chapter DEI Chair, got a chance to catch up and get to know her a little better. Here is an excerpt from that conversation:

Hello and thank you for carving out some space for this conversation! Nice to see you again. So, what’s been going on?

Since last we spoke it's been busy as usual! A few main things:

I was incredibly honored to be asked by my alma mater, Ball State University, to be the

commencement speaker for the College of Architecture and Planning's commencement, and so that happened last weekend [May 4]. I got to go back and see the campus, and the department of landscape architecture had set up many opportunities for me to meet with students, graduates and undergraduates.

The commencement speech was for the entirety of the college, so that includes architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and development, construction management, environmental design, interior design and Historic Preservation. It was such an honor and I had some of the graduates let me know that my words were very impactful for them. Really amazing!

I was also in Vermont. I just got back from the VTASLA Awards ceremony. They hold theirs every other year. I was the first ASLA president to be back in person since the pandemic, so that was great. I also was honored to visit a couple of firms, which I appreciated.

Now I have the extreme honor of starting to make calls to our Fellows-elect for ASLA,

so that's pretty humbling. These individuals who have been elected to be elevated are amazing people, so what an honor that is to be able to make these calls.

In light of you being the first woman of color that's the ASLA president and it being Asian-American and Pacific Islander month, I don't know if you've done any specific events, or have you had talks or speeches that you've done that highlight how you feel about what that might mean to you. I would love for you to think of this as a platform for voicing your thoughts specific to that.

There have been so many extraordinary influential amazing women and BIPOC landscape architects who have come before me, and will certainly follow, so I think that we can certainly celebrate them as well. In preparing for my commencement speech, I was researching ASLA, and Darwina Neal, our first woman ASLA president, was elected 40 years ago this year. It's only been 40 years since we as an organization have really started to prioritize diversity in our leadership. In that time there haven't been that many [women presidents]; I’m the thirteenth. So, I really celebrate that we can have diverse perspectives and voices at the table, and especially in this influential role where we are providing a platform for the future, [to show] that there is a place for BIPOC peoples, and especially women BIPOC people in leadership, in the industry, in the construction industry, in STEM… we could say in so many ways.

I place less of an emphasis on celebrating me as the first woman of color as president, but that now this important step has been made. For it to not be such a rarity for the profession, there has to be a first. I guess that's my humble approach. I'm really grateful for the opportunity and hope that I can represent well and be a good role model to others.

When I was in Pennsylvania / Delaware, I was excited to attend a session where they were talking about different ways that the chapter has been able to provide K-12 introduction to the profession. One was a partnership between a firm and a nonprofit organization called ACLAMO who provides after school services for the Latino Community in Pennsylvania. I was just blown away by what they had been able to accomplish with this program. The executive director was part of the presentation, and she said “kids can't Be what they can't See.” Yes, and I'm sitting back like, can that be? Is that real? That statement was so impactful to me. The idea kids can't be what they can't see is very interesting to me.

I am an international adoptee from Korea, and I grew up with adoptive parents who are white. I have a brother who's also adopted from Korea, and we grew up in a very small town. So, I feel I may have a different perspective because of that. I didn't have a BIPOC community that I was part of, or the culture, or things that I think are formative for young people, or even just a support system in that way. So, I don't know… did I see myself in anything when I was younger? How do kids get the idea that they want to be a veterinarian? Tons of kids want to be a vet. Is it something they see on TV, or that you read about in books? I'm curious about these things in light of this impactful idea.

ASLA was running [a program] last month for World landscape architecture month for all the chapters, offering children's books written by Landscape Architects, [who are] members of ASLA [as a way] to introduce landscape architecture to younger people. I love those books and that's exciting to me. This is a way that kids can see themselves in this profession that is so impactful for the whole world.

A comment that I made to the graduates in my commencement speech was the idea that maybe this is an impactful way that they can give back… by becoming role models for young people so that they can see themselves in the new emerging landscape architectural professionals.

It is not just how you can see yourself as a kid, but also what the expectations other people have of you. I don't know what that might have been like for you growing up because of the circumstances that you were in. You were in a white community and you looked different. I don't know if you were treated different because you looked different. People maybe asked you different questions like “but where are you really from?” which they wouldn't ask your white friend or your neighbor. Which kind of frames your self-image and what you're capable of.

The experience I had growing up, the environment which I grew up in, I think that I am sensitive to words and how words have power. I did get asked “Where are you from? No, where are you from really?” or the comment from kids, like “you should just go home (meaning, out of the USA).” I guess that gave me a sensitivity to words and how they can affect me and others.

This was something I talked about in the commencement speech too. The idea that the words “foreign” or “outsider,” have very similar negative connotations to me, and I have discovered that I feel more comfortable saying “international” and using positive words along those lines. There's a lot of ways that words can be informative, but there are also ways that they cannot be helpful. I think that was something that has [evolved as] a result of that environment. There is innate power of words to either include or exclude, and words matter. There's a power to that.

I think things that are important to me as I've been approaching my time as president was human connection, the idea that I'm this conduit to National ASLA and showing that there's a human face that goes along with this position. People can talk to me and ask questions, so I can follow up on things that are important. I'm actively listening and hearing what people are telling me is important to them, important to their membership, important to how they practice, important to community, because that's something that I've been very focused on… this idea of community. ASLA is community to me. We have many Affinity groups that have been emerging, and how wonderful that is, that everybody can find a place within this massive organization where they can see themselves, be themselves, and just be comfortable and welcomed and part of the community.

I've also been trying to incorporate the idea of mental health awareness. May is mental health awareness month and how important it is that we can talk about these things and not feel like we have to keep them hidden. It's okay to not be okay. It's okay to have issues, and it's okay to talk to people, and if you need medication to regulate, that's okay.

In a way, I feel my presidency has already been a success in that I heard from one of the graduates, thanking me for coming and talking about mental health specifically because it was so integral to their experience through school. For them, hearing that other people go through hard times gave them the courage to believe that they would really be able to make it in the profession. That is a win.

There are other ways I hope that my leadership will be impactful that I'm not seeing yet, and maybe we won't see for years to come, but any way that I can help promote the profession and really emphasize the importance of DEI in our community and beyond, I feel is success.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us today. Until next time…

Thank you for listening.