Rate My Professor Susan Mulley

Susan Mulley serves as Professor Emerita in the Department of Landscape Architecture, College of Environmental Design, at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona), where she advanced the field of Architecture and Design through her academic and research contributions. Joining the tenure-track faculty in 2007 as Assistant Professor, she received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2012, progressed to full Professor, and retired as Emerita in 2020. Her academic background includes a BA/BSc in History/Agriculture from the University of Guelph in 1987, an MA in History in 1995, an MLA in Landscape Architecture in 1998, and a PhD in Rural Studies in 2007, all earned at the University of Guelph.

Mulley's research focuses on coupled human and natural systems, where she initiated major projects addressing food security and urban agriculture, water-conserving behaviors and perceptions of low-water use landscapes, wildland-urban interface and rural-urban interface issues, social justice and the landscape of the Coachella Valley, and vernacular knowledge through public-participatory GIS. She pursued publicly-engaged scholarship via partnerships with the Trust for Public Lands on the Ventura River Parkway and Marks Ranch Historic Rancho projects, the State Coastal Conservancy on the Ormond Beach Wetland Restoration and Access Plan and the Santa Clara River Access Plan, the City of Escondido on the Escondido Creek Vision Plan, and the Santiago Creek Conservancy on the Santiago Creek Access Plan. In 2010, alongside Julianna Delgado, she co-founded the California Center for Land and Water Stewardship (CCLAWS), an interdisciplinary center promoting collaborative research, public outreach workshops, a certificate program in sustainability, and a GIS database on land and water stewardship in Southern California; the center received a $100,000 grant from the CLASS Fund. Mulley taught courses including LA 2261 History I: History of Landscape Design, LA 5271 Graduate History II: Modern Landscapes, LA 601 Design Research, LA 551 Seminar on the Profession, and supervised graduate theses. Her scholarly work includes the peer-reviewed article 'Landscape Architects' Use of Native Plants in the Southeastern United States' published in HortTechnology in 2007 (co-authored with R.F. Brzuszek and R.L. Harkess).