Kat Imhoff — 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient

The UVA School of Architecture and the members of the Dean’s Advisory Board are pleased to announce that Kat Imhoff (BCP ’80 and MP ‘86) has been selected as the 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient. The award recognizes exceptional graduates from the School of Architecture who have demonstrated creativity, innovation, leadership, and vision through their distinguished body of work, within the professional, academic, civic, or artistic realms, as well as their service to the University of Virginia.

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“Kat Imhoff’s distinguished career and her remarkable body of work have been in the service of preserving and caring for the beauty and humanity of our world through renowned conservation and restoration projects across the nation,” said Dean Malo A. Hutson, “Her visionary leadership inspires us by modeling innovation in action, while it embodies the values of citizenry that UVA embraces. It is an honor to celebrate her with our distinguished alumni award this year in recognition of the significant historical, cultural, and ecological legacies she has preserved for generations to come.”

Born in Utah, Imhoff was raised by a father who had a degree in water resources planning and mother who believed deeply in social justice. She spent much of her childhood in some of the most beautiful places in the United States on the front line of early natural resource conservation and management. “I grew up outside in the woods and on the rivers, which cultivated for me a deep feeling of responsibility for the stewardship of nature,” Imhoff said. This was coupled with growing up with a Unitarian Universalist upbringing that embedded the idea of equity, equality, and the need to take action throughout a lifetime. Her early experiences guided Imhoff to pursue her undergraduate degree in city planning, followed by a Master of Planning, both from the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture. With both sincerity and humor, Imhoff said in reflecting on how her upbringing shaped her next steps in life, “How could I not become a planner?!” At UVA, she further cultivated an ethic of place stewardship that served as a foundation throughout her distinguished career.

Over the next four decades following her graduate studies, Imhoff built a career defined by sustained and innovative leadership in land conservation and historic preservation. Described by many as an “accomplished change agent,” Imhoff has embraced cross-disciplinary strategic thinking to not only preserve and protect cultural and historic landscapes, but also to inspire others to steward and deeply experience the world around them.

“I am particularly pleased to have been honored with this recognition as a planner,” said Imhoff.  “In my career, planning is often underappreciated and yet, as UVA and the School of Architecture has shown time and again, it is an incredibly powerful education and a pathway to making change in the world.”

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In one of her early initiatives as a young conservationist, Imhoff led the labor-intensive process of successfully designating the Southwest Mountains Rural Historic District of Virginia as part of the National Register of Historic Places. This effort led to thousands of acres of land being placed in conservation easement and helped to protect interconnected systems of farms, forests, waterways, and historic settlements as working landscapes. 

More recently, as a Senior Conservation Fellow for the Piedmont Environmental Council Imhoff worked to shape and implement a planning and preservation framework further strengthening the region’s sense of place. Her vision links cultural heritage, rural economy, and ecological assets to help communities protect their lands and towns in the face of the pressures of accelerated development. 

During the last three years, her work at the Piedmont Environmental Council focused on climate change planning and policy for Albemarle County. In concert with many others, in 2022 Imhoff helped to create a preliminary climate action platform guidance document in support of a climate-ready Albemarle County. Addressing climate vulnerabilities and risks through a scientific assessment of local impacts, the guiding document influenced the adopted Albemarle County AC44 Comprehensive Plan which charts recommendations for growth, development, and investment in the county for the years of 2024-2044.

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From 2012 to 2019, Imhoff served as the President and CEO of James Madison's Montpelier, leading the transformation of a nationally significant, historic site by bringing to the forefront of the visitor experience the contributions of the enslaved African American community to the making of this institution and the country. During her tenure in this role, she opened the grounds of the fourth president’s home to the public, secured the permanent protection of nearly 2,000 acres of Montpelier land through conservation easements, and raised more than $60 million to sustain its operations and endowment.

In addition to her leadership roles at the Piedmont Environmental Council and Montpelier, Imhoff’s prolific career includes and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation which owns and operates Monticello, a UNESCO World Heritage site.  

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With The Nature Conservancy, she spearheaded one of the most ambitious conservation efforts in the history of the organization to establish a continuous, protected migratory corridor extending over 300,000 acres across Montana to Canada, safeguarding habitat connectivity for a wide range of species, preserving watershed integrity, and ensuring long-term ecological resilience across state and international boundaries. By working to secure and leverage public and private investment, Imhoff helped to secure over half a billion dollars to contribute to the broader conservation project in Montana, a landmark effort of sustained fundraising and impact that no other state has matched in scale.  

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At Monticello, Imhoff led the dedicated team responsible for planning and developing the new Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and directed the Lewis and Clark anniversary commemoration event in 2023 by working alongside more than 350 tribal representatives to reframe the historical and cultural impact of the expedition on Native peoples. She oversaw the preservation of approximately 1,275 historic acres surrounding Monticello, including Tufton Farm, Shadwell Estate, and Home Farm, by securing the land under permanent protective easements.

Merrill D. Peterson Professor of Landscape Architecture Elizabeth Meyer, who nominated Imhoff for this award, said, “How many alumni of the A-School define themselves as a “Change Agent” on their LinkedIn account? And how many actually deserve it? I can think of one, Kat Imhoff, who has earned that title through her countless actions, visible and invisible, as a land steward at historic sites as well as an advocate for regional cultural landscapes. We can all find inspiration in Kat for showing us many paths and practices for viewing planning as a value-laden, culture-changing discipline for connecting ideology, policy and practice to the preservation and interpretation of private and public lands.” 

Imhoff has been recognized throughout her career with numerous honors and awards for her longstanding conservation achievements including by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Virginia Wildlife Federation, and The Piedmont Environmental Council. She has served as Chair of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, Executive Director of the Preservation Alliance of Virginia and Director of the Commission on Population Growth and Development. Her extensive professional service includes serving on the boards of the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation, the National Land Trust Accreditation Commission, the Galapagos Conservancy, and the Wildlife Center of Virginia; and volunteering with the Mid-Atlantic Council for American Rivers. She has engaged broad national audiences through extensive speaking engagements, inspiring others to preserve, protect, and more deeply experience cultural and historic landscapes.