Allison Swanka is a Master of Landscape Architecture graduate of The Ohio State University, with an undergraduate degree in environmental science also from OSU. She is also a 2026 Landscape Architecture Foundation Olmsted Scholar.

Along the way, she has worked at the campus arboretum, helped run a non-profit, and done a lot of baking and hiking. She is interested in wastelands, ecological restoration, cultural landscapes, and the ways that we read, tell stories, and make meaning in the landscape. She is developing field methods for documenting and discussing novel hybrid ecosystems, working with the specific processes and relationships found in these landscapes.