UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Eliza Pennypacker, a professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Penn State who twice served as its department head, was presented with the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) 2022 Outstanding Administrator Award on March 18 at the organization’s annual conference in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico.
The award recognizes those landscape architecture faculty members who are responsible for outstanding administrative accomplishments or excellence in academic administration during their tenure as an administrator.
Pennypacker, who started at Penn State in 1982 as an instructor and moved up the academic ranks to full professor in 1996, served as the head of the Department of Landscape Architecture from 1994 to 2000 and again from 2014 to 2020.
Prior to Pennypacker stepping down in 2020, the department’s professional bachelor of landscape architecture program established itself as one of the best in the country, consistently placing in the top three in the annual DesignIntelligence rankings. The professional master of landscape architecture program also benefited from Pennypacker’s tutelage, ranking in the top 10 nationally among graduate programs.
During her combined 13 years at the helm, Pennypacker was responsible for leading the establishment of the required semester abroad for undergraduate landscape architecture students and rethinking the curricula of the department’s two professional degree programs to focus on flexibility, opportunity and affordability.
As department head, she taught the first-year seminar as an opportunity both to welcome and get to know incoming undergraduate students, and to introduce students to the issues, challenges and ideas of contemporary landscape architecture.
She also assisted in the establishment of two endowed research centers within the Stuckeman School: the Hamer Center for Community Design and the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing.
One of Pennypacker’s most recent initiatives was guiding what has become known as the MG2V project in 2019. Penn State President Eric Barron tasked Pennypacker’s department with leading the study of a 356-acre University-owned, environmentally sensitive piece of land in State College, Pennsylvania, with the intent of establishing strong environmental protection and public passive recreation access. The process included important community engagement through online surveys and face-to-face sessions and led to a conceptual framework for the site that addresses priorities shared by town and gown.
She held numerous other leadership roles during her tenure including serving as the landscape architecture department’s education abroad coordinator from 2008 to 2012 and its graduate program coordinator from 2003-2008.
Pennypacker also served as the inaugural director of the Division of Campus Planning and Design at Penn State during a period of extensive growth and improvement of the University’s Physical Plant. Projects to which Pennypacker contributed include the transformation of a parking lot into a new sub-campus area that comprises the Business Building, Forestry Building and Berkey Creamery; the development of the Arboretum at Penn State, the Westgate Building and the Stuckeman Family Building; and the expansion of the Shortlidge Mall with the Chemistry and Life Sciences Buildings.
“This is such a well-deserved recognition for Eliza,” said Roxi Thoren, who succeeded Pennypacker as the head of the Department of Landscape Architecture in 2021. “She has been incredibly effective as a leader, a mentor and a scholar, and has stamped the department with her vision and creativity. I feel incredibly honored to follow her as department head.”
CELA is comprised of nearly all the programs of higher learning in landscape architecture in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Its mission is to encourage, support and further education in the field of landscape architecture specifically related to teaching, research, scholarship and public service.