Curtis E. Alling, AICP

During my boyhood, I spent most weekends fishing, camping, hiking, and later hunting with my brother, dad, and mom. My happy place was, and still is when busy life permits, outdoors. In response to “what will you be when you grow up?” my kid’s answer was a forester spotting wildfires from a mountain-top tower. Through my college and grad school journey, my professional passion evolved to be the human dimensions of the environment, i.e., the influence of people in the natural world. Looking to land a government job, like with BLM or NPS, I graduated during a deep recession, so nothing panned out. After a period of temp jobs, I was fortunate to find a small landscape architecture consultancy that needed an environmental planner. One door closed, another opened. From then on, consulting in planning, environmental, parks and open space, natural resources, and later climate change practices became my full career.

I am so grateful for all the folks who mentored me, cared about me, pushed me forward, gave me opportunities, and joined me collaboratively at work, many of whom became long-time friends. Most recently, I had the joy of partnering with several of those friends to start Ascent as a people-first, nimble, and caring consulting firm (and this time amid the Great Recession). It’s been a total delight. Ascent has created exciting multidisciplinary opportunities not only for me, but also more importantly for scores of Ascentians. My goal now is to keep trying my best to give back, care for, pay forward, open doors, and support the success of the people around me.