Harrell is pursuing her Ph.D. in Architecture & Design Research and is a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) and Research Assistant (GRA) in the Landscape Architecture program in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech. She is currently serving as a Chair of the Departmental Advisory Board for the Department of Landscape Architecture at Mississippi State University. For 2018-19, she will be the GTA for Contemporary Pedagogy, part of the Dean’s Transformative Graduate Education Initiative at Virginia Tech.
In 2017-18, she served as the GRA for the Chattahoochee National Water Trail Conceptual Plan Project and Chattahoochee Interdisciplinary Studio as well as worked for the Landscape Architecture Program on Communications and helped to plan the 2018 Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Conference held in Blacksburg, VA.
Prior to acceptance at Virginia Tech, Harrell held a sales position at Green Oak Garden Center LLC in Jackson, MS. Green Oak is a full service Florist & Garden Center with a Design Department providing Landscape, Interiorscape, Colorscape, and Christmascape services. For Green Oak, Harrell specialized in design and consultation for all Design Departments.
During her Master’s Studies at Mississippi State University, she was a Teaching Assistant for Landscape Systems & Plants, Computers in Landscape Architecture, and Introduction to Landscape Architecture. She also served as a resident gardener and maintained the ecological planting designs around the Landscape Architecture Department’s academic buildings.
During the Summer of 2013, she participated in an Entrepreneurial Internship with Kalu Yala in Panamà where she lived and worked off the grid on the newly developing intentional & sustainable community located in the Panamanian jungle about an hour outside of Panama City, Panamà. There, her main project was to help develop and implement a sand filter greywater treatment system for the community’s base camp.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. student, Current. Architecture and Design Research, Landscape Architecture Program, Virginia Tech.
MLA, 2015. Landscape Architecture, Mississippi State University.
BFA, 2009. Fine Art (Sculpture Emphasis), Mississippi State University.