WHO WE ARE

Ruth is a prominent Irish environmental consultant, researcher, and heritage advocate who specialises in Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), Landscape Character Assessment (LCA), and sustainable tourism development. She is the founder and principal of Minogue & Associates, Environmental Consultancy, an agency she established in 2006.

She holds an MA(Econ) and is a full member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (MCIEEM). She has also worked with Environmental Resources Management (ERM) Ireland.

She regularly leads environmental and ecological assessments for local authorities and public bodies across Ireland, which include formulating Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) and Appropriate Assessments (AA) for statutory county development plans, local area plans, and clean energy strategies.

She has co-authored major research literature for the EPA, including the comprehensive Reframe Landscape Character Assessment framework.

Dr. Karen Foley is a highly respected figure in Irish landscape architecture. She is Emeritus Assistant Professor at University College Dublin (UCD) and has had a longstanding professional association with the Irish Landscape Institute, serving on the Institute's council and its educational sub-committees. She also previously represented Ireland as the Vice President (Education) for the European Foundation for Landscape Architecture (EFLA).

Karen lends her expertise as a judge for high-profile industry events, including the Bord Bia Bloom show gardens, which she co-founded in 2006.

Terry O'Regan is a prominent Irish horticulturist, landscape consultant, and the founder and coordinator of Landscape Alliance Ireland (LAI). He established the organisation in 1995 following his public call for a formal National Landscape Policy for Ireland. For several decades, O'Regan has been one of Ireland's leading advocates for integrated spatial planning, environmental awareness, and the strategic management of shared natural and built heritages.

Prior to his focus on advocacy, Terry O'Regan built a 50-year career in the Irish commercial sector as a contractor and managing director of the BHL Landscape Group. He has also worked internationally as a Council of Europe heritage and landscape expert.

Christina Todd is an Executive Landscape Architect at Dublin City Council (DCC), operating within the city's Parks, Biodiversity, and Landscape Services department. She is a Chartered Landscape Architect and a member of the Irish Landscape Institute.

She works extensively on civic greening, heritage preservation, and urban public realm developments across Dublin. Her notable public contributions include inter alia St Canice's Graveyard Project (Finglas), Historic Cemetery Audio Guides, notably for the the Cabbage Garden burial ground, St. Anne’s Park & The Red Stables and Stoneybatter Greening Strategy.

Dr. Emily Shakespeare is Research Lead at the SABRE Research Centre within the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at South East Technological University (SETU). Her transdisciplinary research spans landscape biography, digital landscape representation, and the development of the Landscape Digital Twin (LDT) as an emerging framework for understanding dynamic environmental change.

She is co-PI of the EPA-funded Cúpla Trá project, which combines digital twin technology and landscape biography to support the protection and management of an Irish coastal ecosystem. Emily has published internationally on landscape biography and digital representation, and was awarded the Landscape Research Journal Best Paper by an Early Career Researcher Prize in 2022. She is co-editor of the forthcoming volume Exploring New Frontiers in Landscape Biography: Beyond Traditional Boundaries, and Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies and regularly presents internationally on landscape, ecology, built environment, and digital innovation.

Dr Karen Ray is a prominent lecturer, qualified planner, and environmental landscape specialist operating within the Department of Planning, School of the Human Environment at University College Cork (UCC). She holds the distinction of successfully defending the very first PhD in Planning and Sustainable Development at the university.

She serves as a lead for the Masters in Planning and Sustainable Development (M.Plan) program.

Her academic research centres on strategic landscape planning, landscape sensitivity, and urban/metropolitan spatial development.

In February 2026, she secured an EPA research grant for her project titled LANDSENSE (Determining environmental impacts on landscape – understanding landscape sensitivity).

Willy a prominent Irish architectural adviser and heritage expert central to the creation and deployment of Ireland's National Landscape Strategy. For decades, his work has bridged the intersection of built heritage, historic estates, and national spatial planning across Ireland.

He served as a long-time director and senior architectural adviser for the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH), operating under the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Prior to this he was senior architect for the Office of Public Works (OPW).

He pioneered methodologies for surveying, protecting, and understanding historic country houses, demesnes, and estate settings. His structural approaches are still referenced by local authorities, such as the planning guidelines published by Cork County Council. He also championed using LCA data within local municipal planning policies to ensure modern development does not degrade rural or historic landscapes.

Dr. Amy Strecker is an Associate Professor at UCD Sutherland School of Law with expertise in cultural heritage law, environmental law and human rights. She holds a PhD in public international law from the European University Institute (Florence), for which she was awarded an Irish Research Council doctoral scholarship. Amy is a leading expert on landscape and law with over 20 years’ experience researching landscape governance, combining legal analysis with interdisciplinary and cross cultural perspectives. In 2019 she was awarded a major European Research Council grant for a project on land, property and spatial [in]justice in international law PROPERTY[IN]JUSTICE.

She has published widely on landscape, law and culture, as well as on various aspects of cultural heritage law (Irish/international), heritage destruction, Indigenous Peoples' rights, World Heritage (cultural landscapes), the return of cultural objects, the Caribbean Reparations Commission, intangible cultural heritage (customary practices) and cultural diversity.

Amy is also involved in various campaigns and advocacy work related to cultural heritage, landscape, and human rights in practice.

Tony Williams is the Principal Landscape Architect for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). He manages large-scale environmental integration, infrastructure design, and climate adaptation strategies.

He served as President of the Irish Landscape Institute (ILI) from 2013 to 2016 and President of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA Europe) from 2015 to 2019.

His work champions Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI), and urban streetscape planning, such as the Luas Cross City tree pit development.