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2025 Candidate Kat Superfisky

Kat Superfisky (CV)
Urban Ecologist
City of Los Angeles

Candidate for: Member of the Board of Professional Certification

Kat Superfisky is an urban ecologist, artist, and educator who devotes their days, nights and dreams to transforming urban areas into more habitable places for people, plants and other animals. After obtaining a Master of Landscape Architecture, Master of Science in Conservation Ecology and Teaching Certificate from the University of Michigan in 2013, Superfisky moved 2,300 miles across the country for the Los Angeles (LA) River. Superfisky sees LA—and its river—as the perfect laboratory to explore how to transform urban areas into more “symbiotic cities.” 

Prior to transplanting in LA, Superfisky oversaw ecosystem management efforts for close to 25,000 acres of parkland in Metropolitan Detroit, and worked for the University of Michigan developing an interactive environmental education program about sustainability in the built environment by using a LEED-rated building on campus as a living laboratory.

In LA, Superfisky spearheaded ecological planning and design efforts at Studio-MLA (a landscape architecture and urban design firm), founded a nonprofit movement called Grown in LA (which aims to plant seeds, power people, and transform a city), and was appointed in 2019 as the City of Los Angeles’ first Urban Ecologist. 

Additionally, Superfisky has shared their systems-based perspective and practice with academia since 2009–developing and delivering courses at institutions like the University of Michigan, University of California – Los Angeles, University of Southern California, and California State Polytechnic University – Pomona. 

Superfisky is a former Doris Duke Conservation Fellow, and currently serves on the LA Urban Center’s Executive Oversight Team, Board of Directors for California ReLeaf, Advisory Board for City Plants, and on the Expert Council for LA’s Biodiversity Index. Superfisky was appointed to the Ecological Society of America’s Board of Professional Certification for one term already, and would like to continue serving the ESA community in this role for a second term.

How would you support ESA’s mission, including the career aspirations and full inclusion of all ecologists?

I would be extremely pleased to continue supporting ESA’s mission and community by being re-elected for a second term to serve on ESA’s Board of Professional Certification (BPC). As someone who was initially hesitant to apply for certification with ESA (since I was working as an “urban ecologist” in a landscape architecture firm at the time, and was uncertain as to whether my experience would be seen as “credible” ecology), I was drawn to serve as a member of the BPC, and am committed to continuing to assist the BPC and ESA with ensuring that certification includes a diversity of ecologists and career paths. I have thoroughly enjoyed participating as a panelist and/or speaker on ESA webinars, career panels, and at annual conferences, and I look forward to continuing to engage with the ESA community in these capacities in the future, and hopefully also as a member of the BPC, so that I can help to continue ensuring that the requirements for certification are inclusive of various sectors, educational backgrounds, and experiences.