Anastasia’s professors and colleagues described her as “articulate, thoughtful, and involved,” and she is recognized for her “deep listening on social justice and environmental racism.”

Anastasia Marie is guided by an interdisciplinary approach to environmental conservation and advocacy. Nature was a refuge to Anastasia through difficult circumstances in her childhood, and when she arrived at the University of Vermont as a McNair Scholar, she decided to study natural resources conservation. She persisted in earning her bachelor’s degree through chronic depression, and the experience ultimately led her to a new approach to environmental conservation—one that acknowledged a need for healing and incorporated her creative talents. Anastasia soon returned to school for music, earned a second bachelor’s degree, and opened a voice coaching and teaching business.

Now Anastasia is continuing her education and further bridging her interests as a master’s student in landscape architecture at U-M. Through her research-based creative work, Anastasia seeks to “design and facilitate connected and ecologically restorative spaces for wildlife” and develop ecological design interventions that facilitate restoration and healing in underserved or abandoned neighborhoods. Her work builds upon her previous experience both in  environmental conservation, conducting research on song dialects in Bobolinks, and as a long-time student and teacher-trainee of the Alexander Technique.

Anastasia’s professors and colleagues described her as “articulate, thoughtful, and involved,” and she is recognized for her “deep listening on social justice and environmental racism.” Anastasia has focused her work on reducing racial and economic disparity in Black communities; beyond her studies, she has given free voice lessons in predominantly Black neighborhoods and co-created and delivered two workshops for faculty in the Rubenstein School that used mind-body techniques to support educators in discussing racism in the classroom. Going forward, Anastasia intends to work as both a landscape architect and contemporary artist, leading creative, research-based, grassroots work with communities and developing spaces that function as a habitat both for biodiversity and for human healing.

CEW+ celebrates Anastasia’s persistence and vision for landscape architecture and names her the Joan P. Ireland Scholar.