building communities where people and nature thrive together

A placemaker's portfolio building the case–and the community–to make this real.

Theresa Bowie's vision of a Nature Nested Neighborhood.

About me

I am an engineer, systems thinker, and lifelong learner exploring how the places we live can better support human and ecological well-being.

My path to CityLab did not begin with cities. It began with health. As a former health coach, I worked closely with individuals seeking to rebuild their relationship with food, movement, and their own bodies. But it was while volunteering to build tiny homes for houseless communities in Hawaiʻi that something shifted — I saw firsthand how shelter, land, and community are inseparable from well-being, and I couldn't think small-scale anymore.

Through my professional work in energy systems and infrastructure, that conviction deepened. I began to see cities as living systems where housing, food, energy, water, and social connection are inseparable. CityLab offered the space to explore this complexity in a grounded, place-based way.

the citylab catalyst

As a Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Design Leadership MA/MBA candidate I am given the special opportunity to engage in CityLab Catalyst: Business Innovation for Social Impact. Through fieldwork, reflection, and collaboration, I am examining urban livability challenges at the intersections of housing, food systems, energy, and community resilience. This portfolio documents that learning journey as it unfolds in real places and real conversations.

My long-term vision is the development of Nature Nested Neighborhoods: regenerative, climate-resilient communities designed to restore reciprocity between people and the ecosystems they inhabit. CityLab is not an endpoint, but a proving ground where ideas are tested, assumptions are challenged, and purpose is sharpened through practice.

FOLLOW ME ON MY JOURNEY

The beginning

Fieldwork Without Boundaries

My fieldwork is rooted in South Central Pennsylvania, where I am exploring the tension between urban sprawl and the working farmlands that define this region's character and food identity. But placemaking doesn't pause when I travel. Wherever I go, I find myself noticing — a rooftop green market nourishing shoppers in a city center, a café terrace where greenery softens the boundary between indoors and out, an intentional community that has reimagined what a neighborhood can be. I am constantly collecting evidence that the relationship between people and nature can be woven into the fabric of everyday places at every scale. South Central PA is my laboratory. The world is my reference library.