Articulating AIA's voice in 2025

Congratulations on your inauguration! How are you feeling?

Anxious, in a good way! Somebody recently told me that the chemicals for anxiety and anxious energy are actually the same—it’s just [a matter of] how you register them.  

There’s a lot of work ahead regarding the trust that needs to be built between AIA National and the local components. That’s definitely top of mind. I’m ready to roll up my sleeves.  

Most of my focus this year is going to be on AIA and the presidency. My family is gearing up to give me the time and space I need to travel, but I’m doing my best to make sure I’m home on the weekends.  

What inspired you to run for this position?  

I’ve had a very long leadership service at AIA, and I have a habit of asking those who come behind me, or those who are rolling off their leadership positions, “What’s next for you? How do we keep your voice engaged in the profession?” And throughout my career, I’ve had people ask that of me as well. The progression from at-large [board] member to treasurer seemed natural, and treasurer to president also seemed like a natural progression for me. Over the past 10 years, I’ve really begun to define what my voice is in the profession and identify where I can have the greatest impact.  

There’s an interesting convergence happening in the AEC industry. There’s a lot more VC [venture capital] funding going into the industry. There’s a lot of technological change with AI that is affecting our built infrastructure because we need more electricity to support it.  

I also think that this new generation of leadership that’s coming up really wants to understand what it means to practice differently and how we can not only criticize all the culture things that tend to plague our practice and our profession and our industry around being undervalued, overworked, and underpaid. There seems to be a wave of people saying, “I really want to be intentional about how to do that differently.” That’s where I’ve positioned myself in the profession and the industry.  

As you mentioned, you have a lot of experience in leadership roles at AIA, but I wanted to talk to you about your work as Outside Director for the firms Shepley Bulfinch and Luckett & Farley. What are the toughest issues they are currently trying to navigate, and how might that inform your leadership?

Both firms have long histories as architectural practices but have found new ways to lead going forward. They’re looking for a voice that can continue to bring fresh ideas to them to consider how they work and how they evolve as practices.  

Shepley Bulfinch is part of AIA’s Large Firm Roundtable. They’re one of the few larger firms that I’m aware of that are truly embracing what it means to be a hybrid practice. For instance, they have no requirements around the minimum number of days you need to be in the office, they have several remote studios, and they’ve been able to grow their staff in unique ways through the remote offering. That is very similar to Luckett & Farley; they are in Kentucky and geographically constrained. They realize that they can’t get all of the talent that they want to move to Kentucky, so they also have a very open, remote, flexible workplace. Obviously, that’s what is attracting me to these firms, too, but the CEO of Luckett & Farley is actually not an architect. He’s a marketing individual by background, and he brings a lot of outside industry knowledge to architecture. He values the perspective that I bring to the firm.  

Very cool. What are some challenges that you anticipate while serving in this role this year?  

We have a new federal administration coming in, and the good thing is that we’ve dealt with this administration before. We do anticipate some of the old things coming back, like the classical architecture mandate. We know which federal partners we should be working with, and we know that we’re probably going to be playing more defense on the federal side and that we’re going to have to be more proactive on the state side. It [the mandate] is an issue that we already can begin to form a game plan around.

I think there’s an opportunity to really position the AIA—if we do it right—to begin to articulate the voice we need to have as technology begins to move at a rapid clip. How does that affect how we practice and the way we practice, as well as the other conversations we need to be a part of?  

Some tech firms do long-range strategic planning on a six-month basis. Architecture firms are doing long-range strategic planning on a 10-year basis. I think that goes to show the difference of how quickly things are evolving.  

What are you most looking forward to this year? What are you most excited about?  

Getting out and meeting the members where they are, understanding what their most pressing issues are, and figuring out how AIA can service our members down to the local level is, I think, really exciting.  

I’m also excited about growing some of the initiatives that Kim [Dowdell, 2024 AIA President] started with the Chief Architect initiative, but addressing how that Chief Architect position is important to the housing crisis and why it’s important to have them involved in these conversations.  

Is there anything else you hope to accomplish this year?

I do think it is time for AIA to address AI. There are enough experts in this field for us to come together to begin to think about the opportunities the technology can present us.  

The other thing is that I always have my business hat on. I really want us to think about the business spin that we can put on our two core values, equity and climate action. What is the business case that we can begin talking to architects about why they should be integrating [those two things] within their firms, but also give them the language to go out and talk to their clients from the business point of view. Also, growing the resources that I know Lakisha started on AIAU when it comes to business fundamentals. Architects consistently complain that we only had one hour of professional practice training as part of our accredited program. I would argue that doctors and lawyers and dentists and veterinarians and all of the other professional service providers don’t get any business courses as part of their curriculum either. It’s kind of on the professional organization and the individual business leaders to go out there and get it themselves. Every single architecture practice out there is a business, and in order for them to be successful, they need to know how to run their business successfully.