Vlada’s Seeds of Life is incredibly proud to celebrate our President, Silvia Higuera-Backlund, whose creativity, dedication, and professional work have recently received an extraordinary series of honors.

Silvia has been recognized with five national design and marketing awards for her work on The ABCs of Water Reuse, along with being named a Client Service Award Finalist at Carollo Engineers.

These honors recognize different aspects of Silvia’s work—from graphic design and illustration to creative campaigns, communication, collaboration, and service.

Three National SMPS Awards

Most recently, Silvia’s work on The ABCs of Water Reuse received three national Marketing Communications Awards from the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS):

Best Book — Print & Digital
Best Promotional Campaign — Mixed Media
People’s Choice Award

Silvia served as the designer and illustrator of The ABCs of Water Reuse, helping transform a complex subject into a colorful, engaging, and approachable educational experience.

What began as a book grew into much more. Its illustrations and educational message became part of a larger creative campaign, extending the project through presentations, promotional materials, educational outreach, and other visual applications.

Receiving the People’s Choice Award made the recognition particularly special, reflecting the project’s ability to connect with a broad audience and make water reuse education engaging and accessible.

Two Graphic Design USA Awards

Together, the awards celebrate something that has been at the center of Silvia’s career: the ability to take complex information and transform it into something people want to see, understand, and remember.

The first award recognized the design and illustration of The ABCs of Water Reuse itself, while the second celebrated the larger integrated campaign that grew around the book—including digital communications, social media, educational outreach, promotional materials, and other creative applications.

Recognized for More Than Design

Silvia was also named a Client Service Award Finalist at Carollo Engineers, where she has built a career spanning nearly four decades as a Senior Graphic Designer.

Selected from among approximately 1,900 employees across North America, the recognition honors individuals who demonstrate exceptional dedication to client service—going above and beyond, building trusted long-term relationships through reliability and commitment, and helping others strengthen their own client-service skills.

For Silvia, the recognition is especially meaningful because it celebrates something beyond the finished design. It reflects the relationships she has built throughout her career, her commitment to the people and teams she supports, and her willingness to share her experience and help others succeed.

Being recognized not only for what she creates, but also for how she works with and serves others, makes this honor especially meaningful.

Bringing That Creativity to Vlada’s Seeds of Life

We are especially proud to have Silvia bring that same creativity, energy, and experience to her role as President of Vlada’s Seeds of Life.

Working alongside our founder, Vlada, and our volunteers, Silvia helps advance our mission of encouraging families and communities to grow food, cook together, and eat real food.

While water education and growing healthy food may seem like very different worlds, they share something important: both are about taking information that matters and finding ways to make people care, understand, participate, and share it with others.

That is where creativity can make a difference.

Whether through an award-winning educational book or a packet of seeds placed into the hands of a family, a simple idea can become something much bigger when people are inspired to participate.

We couldn’t be prouder to celebrate Silvia and the creativity, dedication, and spirit of service she brings to everything she does.

And knowing Silvia, there are probably still a few ideas growing. 🌱

Congratulations, Silvia!