Anya Domlesky named spring 2026 Lifchez Visiting Professor of Practice in Social Justice
The Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning has appointed Anya Domlesky to serve as Lifchez Visiting Professor of Practice in Social Justice in spring 2026. Domlesky will teach a graduate-level studio that engages with social and environmental justice across landscape scales and systems via an exploration of infrastructure, public space, and public realms of the East Bay.
The former director of research at SWA Group, Domlesky has extensive experience in infrastructure planning and urban design. Her work investigates the future of the built environment across scales, with a focus on urbanized landscape systems. She is a registered landscape architect in California, and has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and Boston Architectural College. Domlesky holds master’s degrees from Harvard GSD and McGill University.
“Anya Domlesky brings years of professional experience to our department. We are looking forward to engaging with her around themes of access, equity, and landscape infrastructure in downtown Oakland, where complex transit, urban, and environmental systems converge,“ says Richard L. Hindle, interim chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning. “We are deeply grateful for the support of the late Ray Lifchez, whose generosity continues to make a difference at CED and allows us to develop unique courses on social justice such as this one.”
A tribute to the work and teachings of alum and professor Raymond Lifchez (1932–2023), the Lifchez Professor of Practice in Social Justice honors the importance of design education around accessibility and disability justice. Recipients are asked to create courses involving student engagement with local communities. The endowed professorship rotates every two years among the college’s three departments.
In addition to teaching in the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, Domlesky will give a public lecture on her work to engage the entire college in a discourse around equitable infrastructure and redevelopment practices.