ENVD Alum Honored with Black Alumni Award

Jason Groomes, a 2016 graduate of the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (APLA), was honored with a Black Alumni Award at an awards banquet on April 23 as part of Auburn’s Black Alumni Weekend. Grooms, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design, was honored by the Auburn Alumni Association for outstanding personal and professional achievements as well as service to the University.

Groomes lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is currently a Product Manager with ASSA ABLOY, a global leader in access products and services like locks, doors, gates and entrance automation. He began his career with the company working in demand-generation and business development positions and currently manages a portfolio of door-closers, automatic operators, pivots and door-controls accessories manufactured in the U.S.

Professor Emeritus Magdalena Garmaz said it’s no surprise that Groomes has found so much professional success. She remembers him as an outstanding student who used his experiences in the ENVD program to sharpen his entrepreneurial and leadership skills through engagement with real life projects. “Jason’s visual documentation for a project on the history of Auburn’s Cater Hall was a critical piece of research that allowed other students to build on it with their own historic timelines,” Garmaz stated. “His master plan for a new school in Salem, Alabama, was equally impactful. Jason’s ability to work simultaneously at different scales of a project and to engage effortlessly across disciplinary boundaries, coupled with his calm and supportive attitude, always contributed to an exceptional final product.”