Simone Stark

After completing her undergraduate degree at FIU in 2005, Simone Stark decided to return to her alma mater in 2020 to pursue her Master of Landscape Architecture. She already had significant experience in the field, having started her own design-build business and acquiring expertise in landscape materials, design elements and entrepreneurship following a pivot after the 2008 recession.

Today, as the mother of two proud FIU Panthers pursuing their own undergraduate degrees - one in architecture and one in psychology - Simone is the Landscape Architecture Creative and Departmental Director at the Miami firm, Strang.

She has accomplished extraordinary things while at FIU, including starting her project, Silhouscapes, a platform created for plant species identification and visualization for a better understanding of landscape and environment. Among some of her additional recognitions, Simone was recognized as a 2022 National American Society of Landscape Architects Game Changer and one of the first students to present her partial thesis research to stakeholders at the first-ever Florida Wildlife Corridor Summit.

This year, she received the Daniel Zwier/Permaloc Innovation Scholarship from the Landscape Architecture Foundation.

Zion Sealy
Junior Account Manager
College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts