SEDRD Welcomes Four New Faculty Members
We are thrilled to welcome four new faculty members as Assistant Professors in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development who started July 1, 2025!
Aaron Hernandez came to SEDRD as an Associate at the award-winning firm, Reed Hilderbrand, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has worked on a wide range of commissions including Washington DC's National Mall Tidal Basin Ideas Lab, US National Arboretum, the American Museum of Natural History, and the University of Maryland, among others. Merging his interest in language and landscape, Aaron has developed research that leverages design methods for visualizing and analyzing public policy. His work has been featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine, exhibited at the Toronto Biennial of Art, and has been awarded by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture and the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation.
Image: Aaron Hernandez
Heather Schibli comes to us from an ecological consulting firm (Dougan Ecology), which reimagines our (human) role in nature through ecological interpretation and design. Heather draws upon her deep affinity for the natural world to guide her design practice and consulting work. Since 2019, she has also been an administrator and ecology lead for the Network of Nature (formally CanPlant), which is a partnership with Canadian Geographic that is dedicated to supporting and restoring Canada’s unique biodiversity against the stresses of development, extraction, and climate change.
Image: Heather Schibli
Kearney Coupland completed her Ph.D. in Geography and Environmental Studies at the Wilfrid Laurier University. Her research interests are informed by her training in landscape architecture and explore how people experience and adapt to changing environments in response to conflict and climate change. She studies the social dimensions of climate mobility, including displacement and relocation, to slow and sudden-onset events in the Caribbean and the Arctic.
Image: Kearney Coupland
Mollie Kuchma is an experienced community planner with more than a decade of experience working with small, rural and medium-sized urban communities and Conservation Authorities in Ontario, specializing in land use planning, development and environmental review. She is a full member of the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) and a Registered Professional Planner (RPP) and has been qualified as an expert witness in land use planning on multiple occasions.
Image: Mollie Kuchma