While their shared last name might be a bit of a giveaway that Lindsay and Dylan Slusser have a strong familial bond — they are mother and son — their professional goals have led them to another common distinction.
They are both currently laying the groundwork for their futures at Temple University Ambler. Lindsay Slusser is a senior completing her degree in Landscape Architecture offered by the Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Dylan Slusser will wrap up his training this month with the Temple University Municipal Police Academy, which is located at Temple Ambler.
While on decidedly different career paths, both at their core have dedicated their lives to positively supporting, protecting and preserving their communities.
“I think even though we are on different career paths, the main idea of what we are both going into is community,” said Lindsay Slusser. “I know with landscape architecture, it’s about people with nods to the past while looking forward in addition to considering the plant and animal communities. We’re both, in a way, focused on making communities better.”
With both of their careers, Dylan Slusser said, there is strong work ethic behind them. Horticulture, landscape architecture and police work can “make or break a community” in different ways, he said. People might not think about who did the work on the public park or landscape design in front of them “but at the end of the day, you brought them together and you made everybody show up for just that,” he said.
“With police work, we are focused entirely on community. Our goal is obviously (crime) prevention, but it’s also serving the people in front of us,” he said. “They make our job either easier or a lot harder. It’s always good to go in with a smile and be the best version of yourself that you possibly can and make sure that every outcome is the best outcome.”
When Dylan Slusser began the Police Academy, Lindsay was already a well-established and valued member of the Temple Ambler community, which meant “I knew someone right off the bat,” he said.
“It’s always a good feeling coming in with a familiar face that’s going to ‘bother’ you every day, but in the best possible way,” he said. “We’ve shared a lot of experiences throughout our lives so coming in and seeing a face that is always going to be cheerful is definitely something to look forward to.”
Having Dylan on campus “means I get to annoy him all the time now,” Lindsay Slusser joked.
“I think that it’s wonderful that my son is here and that he’s pursuing this career because he is wonderful with people. His problem-solving skills and being in those high-pressure situations are something that he thrives in,” she said. “It’s also something where he can use his people skills as well. It means so much to me to see him continue to grow and us grow together in the next part of our journey.”
Prior to entering the Academy, Dylan Slusser was a manager at Fusion Gyms managing 15 people and assisting with getting new locations off the ground. The Temple University Municipal Police Academy came highly recommended when he decided to pursue a career in law enforcement, he said.
“I’ve had a lot of people that are currently police officers advise me toward this academy rather than anywhere else,” he said. “I decided to self-enroll and here we are today.”
What makes the Temple University Municipal Police Academy unique is “definitely the different characters you meet on a day-to-day basis.”
“We have a lot of different instructors coming in and out each day. They are teaching us what is required for the police department in every sort of aspect,” he said. “Seeing the ethical decisions that are made and how they are explained and getting thrown all of these different challenges that they’ve been thrown on a day-to-day basis, it gives you a layout of what you are going to see and different ways to deal with it —it sets us up forever. A lot of the instructors are either retired or currently serving in law enforcement — a lot of connections are made as long as you’re willing to ask the questions and put in the work.”
The Police Academy, part of the Criminal Justice Training Programs offered through the Temple College of Liberal Arts, is a 22-week full-time program that provides the official Act 120 and Act 235 programs required to become a certified municipal or campus law enforcement officer in Pennsylvania.
According to Lindsay Slusser, she landed at Temple Ambler and Tyler’s program “because it seemed like the perfect space for somebody starting landscape architecture.”
“We have a wonderful 187-acre Arboretum here. Being surrounded by plants and the things I’m going to be incorporating into my design work and really learning from them, I thought, was the perfect way to segue into the next part of my life. My father is also a Temple graduate so it’s neat to be following in his footsteps as well,” she said. “The skills I’ve learned working in the Ambler Arboretum; I’ve been able to implement into so many things that I’ve been doing in studio. I think the design-build aspect and (exhibiting) at the Philadelphia Flower Show every year was a big deal for me when I chose to come to Temple.”
Slusser was part of the Temple’s multiple-award winning 2026 Flower Show exhibit, CommonWealth: Nourishing Community and Our Natural World. Earlier this year, she was also one of just 65 students nationwide and the first Temple student in nine years to be awarded the prestigious Udall Scholarship. The Udall Scholarship is a highly competitive national award for college sophomores and juniors committed to careers in the environment, tribal public policy or healthcare. Unlike traditional merit scholarships focused primarily on GPA, the Udall emphasizes leadership, public service and demonstrated commitment to these fields.
“Getting that whole experience of designing and working with your classroom as a group, coming together to develop a cohesive project, then going on to build it and showing it at the Flower Show, it’s something that’s very important for us to learn as landscape architects,” she said. “That was one of my highlights, one of the biggest parts of learning landscape architecture here at Temple.”
Looking forward, Lindsay Slusser said, “where I’d like to go with landscape architecture is restoration and conservation work.”
“I feel that humans over time have messed up some of our public spaces and I think it’s important for us to fix them for generations to come. Because of my experience with the Flower Show I’ve gotten really into the design-build aspect as well and I’m thinking about scale related to projects,” she said. “If you’re working on a smaller scale, it’s just as important to make these spaces for people to interact with nature — if it’s on a design-build scale, it could be for somebody’s backyard. Maybe that’s reintroducing them to nature and fixing the environment around them.”
A self-sponsored cadet, Dylan Slusser said prior to completing his training, he’s been “doing a ton” of interviews, which can be a long process.
“I know I’m going to fit in wherever I go, and I cannot wait to get out on the streets,” he said.
Approaching their futures, “I think that both of us want to have that positive aspect on our community and make that positive imprint,” said Lindsay Slusser.
“Whether its police work, landscape architecture or horticulture, it’s just about being the best person that you can be for everyone and everything that’s around you,” she said.
Learn more about the Temple University Municipal Police Academy.