Jala Makhzoumi

Professor of Landscape Architecture, Associate faculty, American University of Beirut, Jala advocates an expansive, developmental landscape approach to mediate community needs with ecosystem health, biodiversity protection and landscape heritage conservation. Her professional and academic expertise include postwar recovery, energy efficient site planning, landscape heritage conservation and sustainable urban greening. She served as ecological landscape consultant for the master plan of Damascus 2030, strategic development framework for Baghdad, Iraq, and Sidon. She is co-founder and president of the Lebanese Landscape Association and senior fellow, the Cambridge Center for Landscape and People. Her publications include Ecological Landscape Design and Planning: the Mediterranean context, co-author Pungetti (Spon, 1999), The Right to Landscape, contesting landscape and human rights, co-editors Egoz and Pungetti (Ashgate, 2012) and Horizon 101 (Dar Qonboz, 2010) a reflective collection of paintings and prose on landscape and identity. In 2013 Jala established UNIT44 with A Jabr, a Lebanon based design and planning practice. Jala studied architecture in Baghdad, completed her master in Environmental Design at Yale University and PhD in landscape architecture from Sheffield University.

• Affiliate Faculty, American University of Beirut
• PhD, Sheffield University
• Masters, Yale University 
• Urban Greening: greening cities and conserving biodiversity
• Energy Efficient Landscape: ecological design and master planning 
• Landscape Heritage Conservation: development and local identity 
• Post-war Recovery: community inclusive development 
• Rural Landscapes: participatory development and heritage protection