The Association of Professional Landscape Designers has named Susan Olinger president for 2012. Olinger is a landscape and garden designer in Flanders, N.J. Since 1996, she has been creating custom landscape designs, and overseeing the installations for Sterling Horticultural Services, a full-service landscape firm. She has been a member of APLD since 1998, and has been certified since 2001.

In addition to attending numerous workshops and conference tours in this country and in Europe, Olinger has completed certificate courses at Rutgers University and Harvard Graduate School of Design. She also holds an Associate of Applied Science degree in Landscape Design from County College of Morris, Randolph, N.J.

Olinger began her career in a retail garden center, managed private gardens, and served a two-year horticultural internship at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morristown, N.J. She has lectured to groups and adult schools on garden design and maintenance, and is a freelance garden writer, member of the Garden Writers Association. Olinger has been serving on the board of directors of APLD since 2008 and was founding president of the N.J. Chapter.