Nancy Blackwood, winner of the 2023 ENVD Distinguished Alumni Award, came to Boulder from suburban Detroit in 1970 to attend what was the new Environmental Design Program at CU. She graduated from ENVD in 1974, the first graduating class, and has lived and worked in Boulder for the past 49 years, including 15 years at DTJ Design (Downing-Leach and Associates), 15 years with OZ Architecture, and a cumulative 19 years as a private Urban Planning Consultant.Â
Her work over the years has encompassed both public and private urban mixed-use developments, land use planning for large-scale residential/commercial developments, urban planning, design guidelines, downtown redevelopment plans, corridor master planning and streetscape design concepts for projects in communities across the country. A notable project was the  Master Planning and Design Guidelines for a new 5,000 acre sustainable/off-the-grid city outside Nairobi, Kenya. She has also served on urban design review teams in multiple Colorado municipalities.Â
Nancy has been a long-standing member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and has served the Boulder community extensively. She has been the president of the University Hill Neighborhood Association Executive Committee for the past eight years and served on the Historic Boulder Inc. Board of Directors for 17 years.Â