Joy Glasier’s path to landscape architecture and planning began with a deep interest in sustainability.
As an undergraduate, Glasier studied Environmental Studies and Anthropology, which gave her an “appreciation for the interconnected relationships between people, culture, and the environment” that she took into her graduate education in landscape architecture.
“In graduate school and beyond, I found myself increasingly drawn to urban design and planning because I enjoyed solving complex problems at a systems level and thinking about how the built environment can create sustainable, vibrant places.”
Now, as a senior planner and landscape architect at UCSF, Glasier has brought sustainability to the forefront of her work through things like promoting the use of native plants and trees, integrating sustainable materials and products into our building and landscape designs, and co-leading the development of the Bicycle and Micromobility Plan.
“Sustainability is and should be woven through a lot of aspects of planning, everything from transportation options to where and how we build and grow. From an open space perspective, sustainability is crucial for increasing biodiversity, managing stormwater, and reducing urban heat island effect.”
Helping UCSF Flourish in the Face of Change
Working in partnership with the Office of Sustainability team also enabled Glasier to lead the UCOP system-wide Climate Resilience initiative for UCSF, helping the university prepare for the long-term impacts of climate change.
UCSF shares a definition of climate resilience with the advocacy group Second Nature: “the ability of a system or community to survive climate-related disruptions and to anticipate, adapt, and flourish in the face of change.”
When Joy Glasier started at UCSF in 2017, climate resilience was still a relatively new topic for many people.
"When I arrived, few people were talking about resiliency. When I asked, 'What are we doing about resiliency?' the answer was 'not very much, what should we do?'"
Glasier collaborated with sustainability analyst Katie Zheng, and then director of the Office of Sustainability Gail Lee, with a wide range of stakeholder input, performed a climate impact assessment, a detailed evaluation of existing and potential future impacts on the university.
Then they went into action planning.
Glasier and Zheng held conversations with stakeholder groups across the university, ranging from mental health professionals on the clinical side to staff in Emergency Management, Facilities, and Community Relations. During each conversation, they would run through potential solutions and actions geared specifically for each group.
I credit that process for helping people understand what climate resilience is, why it’s important, and how it will take a village to make UCSF resilient because it touches so many different parts of the university.”
Joy Glasier and Katie Zheng presented on climate resilience at the Continuous Improvement Conference on October 28, 2026.
These conversations formed the basis for the newly released Climate Resilience Plan, and the Implementation Framework, a sister document that lists the actions, respective lead and partner departments, priority level, timeline and status.
“There are a lot of people doing great work around climate resilience at UCSF. Prior to this process, nobody knew what anybody else was doing.” Glasier said. “This initiative ended up being a great facilitator of cross-departmental sharing and collaboration.”
Last December, Glasier received the inaugural UCSF Real Estate Achievements-Contributions-Excellence-Service (ACES) Outstanding Achievement Award for leading the university's climate resilience planning effort.
“I’m very proud that we got so many people interested in listening and learning. One of the main wins of this initiative is that many more people understand what climate resilience is and have the base knowledge to talk about it.”
Finding Joy in Resilience
Glasier takes part in a planting day at Mount Sutro.
Now, Glasier looks forward to being able to follow up with the action leads for this plan and track progress over time.
“The Climate Resilience Plan details both the process and the risks, the impacts and the actions. It’s a great document that collates all the work we’ve done to date. It’s very exciting. The goal is to reach out to the leads annually to track progress.”
As for how Glasier stays grounded in positivity when planning for the worst climate outcomes, she says there is hope to be found in taking action.
“Doing this work has both sides. It has the terrifying and depressing side, but also because we’re doing this work, it’s hopeful. Engaging in action makes you feel less helpless,” Glasier said.
A large part of that optimism comes from the UCSF community.
“At UCSF, there are a lot of smart people trying to address these issues, and that helps me stay positive. I think we’re doing a really good job overall, and there are many creative solutions to minimize our carbon footprint and plan for the future. At this point, we have to do both. We have to mitigate our carbon emissions, so we don’t make the problem worse, while also planning for a more resilient future, because the problem’s already here.”
Personally, it feels good to be part of the solution.
