ELLEN NEISES is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Landscape Architecture, and prior to that an associate partner at James Corner Field Operations. While at Field Operations, Ellen was the project designer for the master plan for the conversion of Fresh Kills Landfill to a 3.4 square-mile parkland, and the project manager for the early construction projects of Fresh Kills Park. She led the master plan for Lake Ontario Park, a design proposal for a 925-acre park encompassing beaches, wilds, and portions of the Toronto portlands that was awarded the 2009 National Honour Award by the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects.  She is currently working with Penn students to identify ruptures in patterns of water exchange in the western United States and Mexico that will reorganize urban and rural, and create new mandates for large-scale landscape design.