Elizabeth J Kennedy, FASLA, RLA, is the founder and Principal of Elizabeth Kennedy Landscape Architect, PLLC (EKLA), established in 1994 and the longest-surviving landscape architecture firm headed by a Black woman in the United States. Based in Brooklyn's Navy Yard, EKLA specializes in historic landscapes, cultural heritage sites, and green infrastructure, approached through a lens of social justice. In 2025, the firm marked its thirtieth anniversary. 

Kennedy is a Design Trust for Public Space Research Fellow, the ASLA-NY President's 2021 Awardee for Service and Leadership, and the 2022 recipient of the Landscape Architecture Foundation Medal, honoring a career of distinguished work at the intersection of landscape sustainability, cultural heritage, and social equity. She was elevated to the ASLA Council of Fellows in 2021, which she will chair until 2027. Under her direction, EKLA has received awards from the Public Design Commission, the New York Landmarks Conservancy, the Preservation League of New York State, the US EPA, and the National Organization of Minority Architects, among others. 

Her notable projects include the landscape design for the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn, winner of nine awards including the 2014 New York State AIA Award for Excellence and Best in State, which reimagines the site's agricultural history through stormwater management, berms, and swales tracing the original farming grid erased by urbanization; and the African Burial Ground National Memorial in Manhattan.