Deryl McKissack is the founder, chairwoman and chief executive officer of McKissack & McKissack, a national architecture, engineering, program- and construction-management firm currently working on over $15 billion in projects nationwide. Under her leadership, the firm has over 30 years of experience working with clients to envision and deliver building and infrastructure projects that enrich people’s lives and empower communities to flourish.
Read More#77 Paths to Leadership with Liz Leber
Liz Leber is the Managing Partner at Beyer Blinder Belle in New York City. Liz is dedicated to advancing mission-based institutions through forward-looking architecture and planning projects. Guided by her astute and inquisitive nature, Liz excels at extracting the core objectives of her clients and their stakeholders and translating the collective needs and mission of institutions into creative architectural solutions. Both within and outside the firm, she is recognized for her ability to approach every challenge with a balance of creativity, pragmatism, and unfailing optimism
Read More#76 Productive Collisions with Latoya Nelson Kamdang
Latoya Nelson Kamdang is the Director of Operations of the New York Studio of Moody Nolan and a U.S. Fulbright Senior Scholar. At Moody Nolan, she leads the NY studio in the practice areas of Aviation, Healthcare, Housing, Cultural, Hospitality, and Retail. Latoya has also been a Visiting Associate Professor at Pratt Institute for over ten years, where she educates students on interdisciplinary design approaches. She has a research focus on participatory design processes, impacts of displacement on authentic communities, passive sustainable technologies, and indigenous architecture.
Read More#75 Elevating The Role of Architects Through Technology with Anamika Goyal
Anamika Goyal is a biologist-turned-architect solving for scale in a complex industry with high human impact. She is Head of Design at Cottage, a San Francisco based start-up that helps homeowners build Accessory Dwelling Units. Anamika is committed to bringing fresh ideas, pace, and processes to the AEC industry, and made the leap into residential architecture from her former experience in commercial design & construction at WeWork. She has devoted her career to experiments on smarter ways of working within the AEC industry.
Read More#74 Becoming CEO with Wendy Rogers
Wendy Rogers is CEO and Chief Talent Officer of LPA Design Studios, an integrated design firm dedicated to creating projects that innovate, inspire and improve people’s lives. Wendy leads a team of more than 400 architects, engineers, landscape architects and interior designers in California and Texas. As CEO, she handles the day-to-day operations of the firm, with a special focus on increasing the role of LPA's proprietary research unit, LPAred, and expanding LPA's unique informed design approach. As Chief Talent Officer, she is also responsible for developing the culture and lifestyle at the firm to retain and attract people who want to grow and make a difference in the built environment.
Read More#66 Designing for Inclusion with Lilian Asperin
Lilian Asperin is a partner at WRNS Studio, where she helps lead the design process and build teams that deliver aspirational outcomes. Lilian values a firm culture that embraces collaboration, connection to the community, risk taking, and fostering talent. Lilian utilizes her experience as a practice leader and licensed architect to develop synergistic relationships with leaders throughout the architectural and educational communities. Lilian acts as a Board Director of AIA San Francisco and is the Co-Chair of the Equity by Design Committee, a call to action for everyone to realize the goal of equitable practice and communicate the value of design to society.
Read More#65 Artistry and Magic with Cecilia Cuff
Cecilia Cuff is a 20-year veteran of the hospitality scene and the Founder and Managing Principal of The Nascent Group, a hospitality design and project management agency. Cecilia has established herself as a pacemaker in the hospitality design industry, focusing on art and efficiency-inspired design, inclusivity, community development and sustainability. She is always guided by using community development, food sustainability and minority inclusion as a moral compass. She considers her greatest successes those students she has mentored and shares their enthusiasm as they advance through their careers around the globe.
Read More#64 Practice Disrupted with Evelyn Lee and Je'Nen Chastain
The evolution of architectural practice has been relatively slow towards change, yet modern shifts in business and design management have prompted today’s leading architects to rethink how they work. The Practice Disrupted podcast addresses how technology, cultural shifts, and emerging best practices in business are prompting industry disruption and transformation. The series features thought leaders on business, innovation, entrepreneurship, and/or architecture.
Read More#63 Lessons in Leadership with Lauren Schmidt
Lauren Schmidt is a Principal at KPF in New York City. The youngest woman in KPF’s history to be named Principal, Lauren is invaluable to projects of all types, coordinating with multiple stakeholders, consultants and design teams, and overseeing projects through all phases. Lauren has served as designer and manager for some of KPF’s most notable and complex New York City projects, such as One Jackson Square and 55 Hudson Yards. Lauren also plays an integral role in the operations of the firm itself overseeing recruitment, staffing, and mentorship alongside KPF’s senior leadership.
#62 Heroic Imaginations of the Future with J. Meejin Yoon
J. Meejin Yoon, AIA FAAR, is the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean at the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) at Cornell University and cofounder of Höweler + Yoon, an award-winning design studio engaged in projects across the U.S. and around the world. An architect, designer, and educator, Meejin is committed to advancing pedagogy, research, and practice to expand new knowledge across fields and disciplines, and to bringing deep expertise to the urgent environmental and social challenges facing our cities and communities.
Read More#59 Looking Inward and Outward with Janet Tam, FAIA
Janet Tam is a founder and Principal of Noll and Tam Architects. Janet and her business partner, Chris Noll, founded their firm in 1992, to establish a talented studio of architects that pursued the ideal of active community involvement and environmentally responsive design. Since its founding, the Berkeley-based firm has become a leader in Bay Area public architecture, and is noted for championing women in leadership roles. Janet’s work, and that of the firm, is regarded for its emphasis on recognizing and articulating shared community values with projects that bind people together in a common vision for the future.
Read More#57 Designing an Organization with Kate Thatcher
Kate Thatcher is the Chief Executive Officer of Architecture + Information (A+I), a strategy-led architecture and experience design agency based in New York. As CEO, Thatcher drives the acceleration of innovation, collaboration between teams and subject areas, and further development of culture and inclusion initiatives within A+I. A tireless advocate for equity within the architecture and design professions, Kate is responsible for the launch, in 2020, of the firm's +IMPACT initiative, a platform for A+I’s employees to leverage their talents and expertise on opportunities at the intersection of design and social impact.
Read More#56 A Career of Joy, Fearlessness, and Serendipity with Sylvia Kwan
Sylvia Kwan is a principal based out of DLR Group’s San Francisco office. She has practiced in San Francisco for more than 40 years and her past and present designs continue to impact the built environment in the Bay Area. She has a broad portfolio of building type experience and a focused expertise in the Transportation and Higher Education markets. Sylvia takes great pride in building relationships with clients and exceeding their expectations.
Read More#48 Building a Personal Brand for Architects with Joann Lui
Joann Lui is an architect and founder of the Facebook community Women Architects Collective. She’s also a personal brand strategist and helps architects and designers build an unforgettable online presence and get noticed in their careers and businesses. Her mission is to help a new generation of women architects redefine their work journeys.
#47 Design Leadership with Julia Nagele
Julia Nagele is the Director of Architectural Design at HEWITT Seattle. She believes the success of today’s projects rely on the expertise of many, and is dedicated to creating an inclusive environment that promotes participation from a broad range of diverse thinkers. Julia helps enforce these values at HEWITT, as the team strives to address complex urban conditions in a straightforward and elegant manner. She believes the art and science of making architecture, navigating agencies and understanding complex client organizations requires her to connect the dots at the right time for the right people.
#46 Design With Agency with Winka Dubbeldam
Winka Dubbeldam is the Chair and Miller Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, where she has gathered an international network of innovative research and design professionals. As the founder/principal of New York firm Archi-Tectonics, Dubbeldam is widely known for her award-winning work, recognized as much for its use of hybrid sustainable materials and smart building systems as for its elegance and innovative structures. Archi-Tectonics' work ranges from residential to commercial, from real to virtual, and is realized in urban designs, architectural designs, and installations.
#32 COVID Diaries: Changing the Way We Practice with Evelyn Lee
Evelyn Lee, AIA, is the first-ever senior experience designer at Slack Technologies. In her role, she works cross-functionally with business operations, business technology, people operations, and their build team to create amazing experiences for employees, clients, partners, and visitors. Evelyn is passionate about finding new business models to elevate the profession of architecture, ensuring it remains relevant in an ever-changing economy. She also currently serves as the Treasurer of the AIA National Board.
Read More#31 COVID Diaries: Space is a Privilege with Rosa Sheng, FAIA
Rosa Sheng is a Designer, Architect, and Thought Leader who is known for innovating Architecture with over 26 years experience. When asked "What type of Architecture do you do?" Her answer is "The kind that hasn't been done before." She is a founder of Equity by Design, past AIA SF President, and Principal and Director of Equity, Inclusion, and Design at SmithGroup.
Read More#30 You Are Your Own Boss with Barbara Flammang, FAIA
Barbara Flammang fundamentally changed downtown Los Angeles by leading her firm’s transformative work in the City’s historic core. Her enlightened management practices have tenaciously advanced equity, diversity and inclusivity for nearly 40 years.
Read More#29 Every Voice is Valuable with Yiselle Santos Rivera
Yiselle Santos Rivera, Associate AIA, is a medical planner and the Global Director of Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion at HKS, Inc. With national and international experience on a broad range of healthcare, residential, institutional, and commercial/mixed-use projects, she thrives on building equitable practices, empowering the next generation of leaders, and creating inclusive platforms for engagement.
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