Born and raised in San Francisco, Lucas' Bay Area roots go back to 1850 when his relatives arrived from Hamburg, Germany. His family still owns the property where his grandmother was born, so, in addition to his current role for the university as interim assistant vice chancellor for Campus Planning and Environmental Stewardship, his family has appointed him planner for that land as well!

Lucas earned his BS in Landscape Architecture from UC Davis in 2000. Prior to returning to Davis to serve as director of Campus Planning in 2014, Lucas apprenticed as a landscape architect in the office of Lawrence Halprin, received a master degree from UC Berkeley, served as the urban designer for the San Francisco Presidio Trust, and, most recently, earned a doctorate in societal safety and risk management in Scandinavia at the University of Stavanger, Norway — a region of Europe that considers both city and campus planning as integral to retaining the link between physical planning and societal well-being.

With Bob Segar's retirement in June 2023, Lucas now leads all the units responsible for shaping the campus experience on a daily basis and planning for its sustainable future.

Role and mission

Campus Planning and Environmental Stewardship, or CPES, integrates the offices of Campus Planning, Environmental Planning and Sustainability with the Arboretum and Public Garden, and Transportation Services. Together they manage all the Davis campus's public landscapes (everything outside our building walls) and choreograph the way people experience the campus, today and in the future.

UC Davis, a land-based place with a tradition of stewardship, epitomizes its long legacy of student engagement and co-creation. It's these values that CPES builds upon and perpetuates by prioritizing robust community engagement to shape their work and deliver inclusive results.