Donna became a member of the OALA in 1985 and member of the College of Fellows of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects in 2003. She is a past president of the OALA (1998-2000) and has served on various committees over the past many years. She began her career at Dillon Consulting where she worked with a broad spectrum of professionals in engineering, planning, land development and design leading many waterfront and tourism projects across Ontario. She joined a predecessor firm of The Planning Partnership in 1991 and became a partner in 1993. Over the past 25 years, Donna has led complex projects focused on campuses, waterfronts, new communities, city centres, parks and urban corridors across Ontario, as well as in British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and in Texas and Cleveland in the US. Donna led award-winning projects including Yellowknife Harbour Plan, Transit Corridors Planning Study for Houston, Downtown Moves – Transforming Ottawa’s Streets, and the Brantford Waterfront Master Plan. Donna pioneered an open and collaborative way of involving stakeholders in physical planning projects that she’s implemented for the firm’s projects over the past three decades. Donna is the recipient of the 2014 Gold Facilitation Impact Award from the International Association of Facilitators for her work in designing and facilitating consultation for the York University Master Plan.
Donna has served on many design juries, led design competitions for HtO Park, the Bay Adelaide Centre, the Chemistry building courtyard at University of Toronto, and the gateway design for the Bloor Yorkville Business Association, and has taught courses in the landscape architecture programs at both the University of Toronto and University of Guelph. She is a member of Urban Land Institute’s Women’s Leadership Initiative.
