the Neighborhood Design Center

Stories

February 21, 2026

Lessons from Chesapeake Bay Watershed Forum 2025

Micaela Ada and Jenny Smeltzer from our Landscape Design & Environmental Resilience team headed to Shepherdstown, WV, last year to present at the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay’s Watershed Forum 2025, and they came back inspired.

Their presentation highlighted the Stormwater Management & Green Infrastructure Design for High School Students Lesson Plans & Toolkit, which was piloted at Central High School in Spring 2024 in collaboration with IB Environmental Systems and Society teacher Ms. Anupama Mahajan.

Micaela and Jenny walked attendees through the full arc of the curriculum: the design process, community engagement strategies, maintenance considerations, and honest reflections on lessons learned along the way.

Read our takeaways from this conference.