Cynthia teaches in the architecture, landscape architecture and environmental design programs. She has practiced landscape architecture in British Columbia and taught landscape architecture at the University of Oregon and the University of British Columbia. She is a registered Landscape Architect in British Columbia and a Fellow of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, and the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Her work focuses on sustainable urban design, green systems, the public realm, and tools for urban design. With Ronald Kellett, she co-directs the elementslab, a research group in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and housed in the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability. The lab creates new knowledge, processes and tools for effective, creative integration of urban form and environment. We emphasize methods of measured visualization for urban design to elevate urban sustainability. The work contributes to the development of urban design policy, tools, indicators, guidelines and community prototypes.