Andrew Justus-Fritz

Hello, I’m Andrew.

I’m a husband and father, living with my family in our small, self-built home overlooking the American River Canyon in Auburn, California, in the foothills of the Sierra Mountains. Much of my joy comes from simple things—cycling and running throughout the foothills and tending our little plot of land toward health and beauty.

I was born and raised in rural northwest Indiana, where an early fascination with land and community, trees and trails, faith and farming, body shops and sports, influenced a grounded approach to work and a persistent pull toward meaning. I grew up attentive to how land holds memory, how communities form around shared labor and needs, and how decisions and actions, done well or poorly, leave lasting marks. That upbringing continues to shape how I work today: attentive to context, patient with process, skeptical of shortcuts, interested in what endures, and committed to work that is useful, honest, and rooted in the real conditions of people and places.

I graduated from Ball State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography (GIS, remote sensing, cartography), with minors in Telecommunications and Geology, and pursued graduate studies in Landscape Architecture. I’ve also completed contemplative training at the Living School through the Center for Action and Contemplation.

I’ve held a breadth of roles and responsibilities throughout my professional career: landscape architect, GIS analyst, marketing and brand manager, youth director, community garden leader, wilderness guide, event timing technician, urban agriculture conservationist, and conservation director.

In the diversity of work and education I’ve had, a narrative arc emerges: a capacity to notice patterns and connections across disparate domains, to hold complexity without flattening it, and to design meaning, strategy, and action into a coherent, legible, and usable whole.