Adele Ashkar

Adele Ashkar, Associate Professor Emerita, retired from GW on August 31, 2020. Read more about her contributions to the College in the newsletter story, "CPS Bids Associate Dean Adele Ashkar A Fond Farewell," (09/07/2020).

As the former Associate Dean for Academic Excellence, Adele Ashkar was responsible for the academic standards at CPS. She worked closely with CPS Program Directors to maintain their programs at the forefront of academic knowledge and quality of education. Her portfolio included the CPS Center for Student Engagement and the office of Alumni Relations.

As Director of GW’s Landscape Design Program until 2015, Professor Ashkar launched a new Graduate Certificate and master’s degree in Sustainable Landscapes, bringing that program to the cutting edge of sustainable design methodology and practice, and making it the premier graduate program in Landscape Design. The program is specifically designed to meet the needs of career-changers and working adults, with intensive face-to-face and hybrid online courses that are tailored to fit into their busy schedules. Professor Ashkar currently teaches core design studio courses and advises faculty and students in the program. GW’s Sustainable Landscapes program, as part of Team Capitol DC, competed in the Department of Energy’s biennial Solar Decathlon 2013, a competition among University teams to build and operate a zero-energy home. The award-winning team distinguished itself by including the garden areas in a holistic sustainable design that delighted visitors and juries.

Professor Ashkar is very active in the academic and campus-wide efforts towards sustainability, serving on cross-disciplinary faculty committees on Sustainability and Sustainable Food initiatives and advising the Grounds Management Team on green campus initiatives. She is part of an interdisciplinary faculty team that teaches the undergraduate course Introduction to Sustainability, which is the foundational course in GW’s undergraduate Minor in Sustainability.

Prior to joining GW’s Landscape Design program, Professor Ashkar practiced landscape architecture at the Office of Dan Kiley in Charlotte, VT, then at the multidisciplinary design firm HOK, Inc., in New York City and Washington, DC, where she managed large design and installation projects. She is author of Someday in the Park with George: National Ideas Competition for the Washington Monument Grounds (Carter 2012) and Time:Space. Landscape Architecture in the Nation’s Capital (Donning 2010). She is a frequent speaker at conferences and events on sustainable design, and has served as design studio critic for Master of Landscape Architecture programs at Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland. Professor Ashkar holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. She has recently been inducted as Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.