Stefania Staniscia is an associate professor of Landscape Architecture at West Virginia University. She is a licensed architect and landscape architect in Italy. She has degrees from Università di Pescara, Italy (M Arch), ETSAB, Spain (MLA), and Università IUAV di Venezia, Italy (PhD). Her research focuses on anthropogenic landscape changes. Studying the key drivers of these alterations and their main impacts on the landscape from a longitudinal perspective, she places cultural landscapes at the center of her investigations. Staniscia is currently examining the Appalachian coalfields and the aftermath of surface mining on the landscape and the communities that inhabit it.