Ashley Montgomery, a recent Master of Architecture graduate with five years of experience as a land planning and environmental design project manager, has already left her imprint on the coastal communities in Norfolk, VA. Through her involvement and leadership in the Coastal Community Design Collaborative, Ashley and her fellow student colleagues engaged a different neighborhood each year to learn about their unique challenges from sea level rise and create strategies to alleviate them. Ashley applies this awareness of the impacts of climate change to her work—by first seeking to understand the nature and the context of the site and then creating structures that work with their environment and use it to its fullest potential.   

• Master of Architecture, Hampton University
• AAS Computer Aided Drafting and Design with a Specialization in Architecture, Tidewater Community College

"Nature is a fundamental element of architecture that can't be lost to time. We will always have to deal with varying climates, because we will always live in a live environment."