Audrey Maxwell, AIA

Audrey Maxwell, AIA

Maxwell’s interest in architecture was piqued in high school, where a drafting class swayed her from pursuing journalism. Maxwell graduated at the height of the Great Recession after completing her graduate studies at Arizona State University. After working for Americorps and the nonprofit bcWORKSHOP, she became a project designer for Michael Malone Architects in Dallas. Today, Maxwell is a principal at Malone Maxwell Dennehy Architects, where her design skills and keen understanding of how architecture shapes communities are essential to the firm’s work. Her projects span educational and religious spaces for mission-driven nonprofits as well as corporate and retail spaces.

At the Texas Society of Architects, Maxwell steered the nation’s third-largest AIA component through a period of unprecedented change and sought to make the chapter more transparent, inclusive, and equitable. She joined its board in 2017 and guided the chapter through the COVID-19 pandemic as its president-elect in 2020 and president in 2021. In every role, Maxwell has been a disruptor and catalyst for change. As the Me Too movement swept the nation, she demanded awareness around issues of sexual harassment in the workplace and helped the board adopt a code of conduct and implement new mechanisms for reporting.

Issues of racial justice and the pressures of the pandemic shaped her terms as president-elect and president. In response, Maxwell instituted changes to the chapter’s strategic plan, bylaws, and policies and oversaw the transition of two key staff positions. Her ability to build consensus was invaluable, and the chapter’s strategic plan, which was an aspirational document with too many goals, became a clear list of priorities to be executed and evaluated.

Maxwell has also been a champion for AIA’s JEDI initiatives, and she worked to build trust among the Texas Society of Architects’ diverse membership, which represents 18 chapters from the remote, far West Texas to the state’s border with Louisiana. She conducted an assessment of membership demographics and participation in committee and leadership roles, which helped spur greater diversity among the chapter’s volunteers and leaders. Maxwell has also overseen key EDI efforts, includeing an audit of the chapter’s honor awards recipients and a seminar focused on implicit bias that was shared with all of Texas’ local component leaders.

Maxwell has eagerly addressed the challenges facing today’s profession. As she listens and synthesizes ideas, she continues to find innovative ways to demonstrate the critical role that architecture plays in shaping more just and caring communities.