WLA Studio Team
Our dedicated team provides our clients with exceptional service across all sectors. Established in 1984, our firm provides design, preservation, and planning services to a range of clients. We specialize in sites with cultural, historic and or ecological significance.
WLA Studio's founding mission to promote the preservation, conservation, and enhancement of our cultural and natural environments by advancing creative planning and design solutions that draw upon the inherent characteristics of place and increase understanding and awareness.
J. Keyes Williamson, Principal Landscape Architect
As the lead principal at WLA Studio, Keyes manages preservation and construction projects that incorporate both sustainable design principles and the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Rehabilitation of Historic Properties. Prior to joining TJC, Keyes spent a decade as a gardener and administrator at historic sites, including Monticello in Charlottesville, VA and Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC. Keyes also served as the Executive Director of the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum. This experience working at public sites informs Keyes’ design approach that facilitates the interaction between people and the landscape. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, Keyes received his B.A. from the University of the South (Sewanee), an M.A. from Florida State University, and his M.L.A from the University of Georgia. In addition to being a doting father, Keyes continues in his quest to hybridize the perfectly fragrant and disease-free gardenia.
Madie Fischetti, Studio Director
Madie Fischetti, ASLA, AICP is a native of Georgia and has been with the company for much of her professional career. After becoming interested in historic landscapes in her undergraduate work at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, she pursued a Master of Landscape Architecture with a Certificate in Historic Preservation at the University of Georgia. She has taught multiple courses at both the graduate and undergraduate level at UGA and Athens Technical College and has served on the Executive Committee of the GA Section of the American Society of Landscape Architects. As a landscape architect and certified planner, Madie manages design and planning projects for public and private entities including all phases of documentation, design, and construction. Her experience includes trails, corridor master plans, streetscapes, park plans, and cultural landscapes. Madie is active in local schools, her church, and the Athens community.
Dale Jaeger (1950–2024)
Principal Landscape Architect and Preservation Planner
We are saddened to announce that Dale Jaeger, the founder of The Jaeger Company, later WLA Studio, has died. Please join us in sending our sincere condolences to her family and many friends.
Jennifer Peppers, Controller and marketing director
Jennifer Peppers serves as the firm’s Controller and Marketing Director. She attended the University of North Georgia where she received a degree in Business Administration in Accounting. She has been working in the field of accounting for over 25 years. Jennifer has been with the firm since 2008. To become more involved with the firm’s projects, she also helps with research and photography of resources for surveys and layout/editing of reports. Jennifer is a Georgia native and lives in Gainesville with her husband Shon. They have five boys and two grand boys. When not crunching numbers, she enjoys reading, sudoku, antiquing, going to estate sales, cooking, and spending time with her family.
Liz Solomon, Landscape Architect
Liz Solomon is a Landscape Designer specializing in historic sites and native plants. Liz received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Historic Preservation from SCAD University in Savannah in 2010 and returned to Georgia to complete a Master's of Landscape Architecture at the University of Georgia in 2020. Liz draws on her near decade of experience in preservation building trades, landscape management, and formal training in fine arts to inform her design philosophy. Liz attributes her interests in historic landscapes, native and medicinal plants, and local food systems to her upbringing in historic Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Liz serves on the boards of Daily Groceries Co-op and Bike Athens, a transportation equity nonprofit. She spends her free time piddling around the garden and exploring the world by bicycle.
Anders Yount, Historic Preservation Specialist
Anders Yount is a Historic Preservationist specializing in American architectural history, historic resource surveys, and historic research. Anders attended the University of Georgia, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in History in 2016. She continued her education at UGA, becoming a Master of Historic Preservation at the College of Environment and Design in 2021. During graduate school, Anders worked as the Senior Field Surveyor for the FindIt! Program, a statewide survey program run through the CED’s Center for Community Design and Preservation. This experience helped Anders sharpen her knowledge of American architectural styles, building typologies, and survey methodologies. Her graduate thesis explored the history of Shed Style residential architecture, highlighting some of her favorite local neighborhoods as case studies. Anders spends her free time watching trash television with her chihuahua.
Debbie curtis Toole, Architectural Historian
Debbie Toole is an architectural historian with over two decades of experience in the historic preservation field. She has served as the Main Street Design Consultant for the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, Architectural Historian for the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office, and works with historic preservation tax incentive projects, historic structure reports, historic resources surveys, community design guidelines, historic preservation commission consultation, review and compliance projects, and other structure-focused historic preservation projects with WLA Studio. Debbie earned a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering Technology from Southern Polytechnic Institute and a Master of Architectural History with a Certificate in Historic Preservation from the University of Virginia. She enjoys kayaking, biking, hiking, camping, and an occasional 5k with her husband and three children.
Maggie Dyer, Landscape Architecture Staff
Maggie Dyer is a Landscape Designer with a strong interest in cultural landscapes. Maggie received a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia in 2023, along with a certificate in Historic Preservation and a minor in Spanish. During her time at UGA, Maggie gained experience in plant identification and care through nursery work as well as historic preservation skills through interning with Athens’ local heritage conservation nonprofit, Historic Athens. In her free time, Maggie enjoys exploring the Athens music scene, reading, and watching movies.
Olivia Head, Historic Preservation Specialist
Olivia Head is a Historic Preservationist specializing in American architectural history, the National Register of Historic Places, and historic research. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in anthropology and archeology from Washington and Lee University in Virginia, Olivia pursued a Master of Historic Preservation with a Certificate in Cultural Landscape Conservation degree at the University of Georgia. Olivia then went to work for the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) in the National Register program reviewing National Register nominations from across the state. She later worked with the National Park Service Southeast Regional Office’s cultural landscapes program helping to convert Cultural Landscape Reports (CLRs) into Cultural Landscape Inventories (CLIs) and to update CLIs. Olivia’s experience with both the National Register and cultural landscapes programs informs her research and documentation approach in projects including National Register nominations, Historic Structure Reports, campus preservation plans, and more. During her free time, Olivia enjoys hiking with her dogs (and hopefully her cat in the future), reading, and watching trash television to discuss with Anders.