Thomas earns honor from landscape architects
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Elizabeth "Boo" Thomas is in excellent company these days.
As the 2009 recipient of the American Society of Landscape Architects’ Olmsted Medal, she has joined the ranks of former Sen. Gaylord Nelson, former Vice President Al Gore, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife Center, former President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and the Nature Conservancy, all former recipients of the medal.
Only a small group has been honored with the award, created in 1990 to honor individuals, organizations, agencies or programs for environmental leadership, vision and stewardship.
Thomas is well aware of the accomplishments of the former recipients, but what is most overwhelming to her is the fact that the medal is given in honor of Frederick Law Olmsted, considered the founder of American landscape architecture.
"He is the icon," Thomas said. "He is the most amazing figure in the world of landscape architecture. For my name to be associated with his in any way was inconceivable."
Thomas received the award as president and CEO of the Center for Planning Excellence, or CPEX, an organization that has been instrumental in revitalization efforts across Louisiana following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. CPEX facilitated the statewide Louisiana Speaks recovery process, which Thomas describes as "the largest regional planning effort and public participation process ever undertaken in the United States."
The organization, which was founded as an initiative of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, continues to lead comprehensive planning efforts throughout the state.
Thomas’ success in the field of community planning is quite an achievement for someone who didn’t even know that she wanted to study landscape architecture until she took an aptitude test at the age of 37.
At the time, Thomas and her husband, local orthopedist Dr. John Thomas, had three school-age children including one in the first grade. Thomas was involved with volunteer work at her children’s schools and through the Junior League of Baton Rouge and other community organizations.
The Thomases’ daughter, Julie, had just finished her sophomore year in high school, when she took an aptitude test given by the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation. The results indicated that her skills best fitted those of an architect.
"After Julie took the test, I said, ‘What about me? What should I be?’" Thomas said. She took the Johnson O’Connor test and had very similar results that indicated that she should be either an architect or a landscape architect.
So at 38, Thomas, who had an undergraduate degree in math education, entered graduate school in landscape architecture at LSU. She enrolled in a class in construction materials.
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