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*This event is occurring as a live webinar. Registrants will be emailed a link to access the program.*

Join the TORCH Mentorship Program as they spotlight the changemakers reshaping the profession and leading conversations around diversity, equity, and justice at both the grassroots and institutional levels. A panel of distinguished leaders will speak to the initiatives they are spearheading on EDI, education, and ethics, highlighting the many ways emerging and experienced designers can effect change throughout the field. The event will introduce attendees to initiatives and groups including the Emerging Professional Justice Group, the JEDI Design Network, Dark Matter University, AIA’s new resolutions on the Code of Ethics, and more.

Panelists:
Emily Grandstaff-Rice, FAIA,
2023 AIA National President-elect; Senior Associate, Arrowstreet Inc
Gabrielle Bullock, FAIA, NOMAC, Director of Global Diversity, Principal, Perkins+Will
William J. Stanley, III, FAIA, NOMAC, Principal, Stanley-Love Stanley P.C.
Rosa T. Sheng, FAIA, Director, JEDI Design Network; Principal, SmithGroup
Shalini Agrawal, AIA, Founding Principal, Public Design for Equity; Thought Leader, Equity by Design [EQxD]
Dyana Berthaud, Assoc. AIA, Co-Founder, JEDI Design Network; Junior Associate, Building Studio Architects

Moderator:
Venesa Alicea-Chuqui, AIA, NOMA,
Principal, NYVARCH Architecture; Organizer, Dark Matter University

About the TORCH program:
The TORCH Mentorship program partners emerging professionals and AIA Fellows over the course of the year to share personal strategies and paths to success in the architecture profession. TORCH includes public panel discussions plus one-to-one mentor matching for a longer term discussion. Learn more here.

Panelists:
Emily Grandstaff-Rice is an architect at Arrowstreet in Boston with experience on a broad range of academic, hospitality, institutional, and commercial projects. Her leadership includes serving as the elected 2018-2020 Director-at-large for the AIA Board of Directors, 2014 president of the Boston Society of Architects, and chairing the Equity in Architecture Commission.

Gabrielle Bullock oversees Perkins&Will’s Diversity, Inclusion, Engagement program, which works to support and strengthen a firm-wide culture that embraces justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Her role as award-winning principal and Director of Global Diversity enables her to combine her passion for architecture and social justice to effect positive change at a micro and macro level. Gabrielle has been a key player in Perkins&Will’s success for nearly three decades. She’s worked in both the New York and Los Angeles offices and became the first African American and first woman to rise to the position of Managing Director of the Los Angeles office.

William J. Stanley is the founder and principal for design for Stanley, Love-Stanley, P.C. He was the Chancellor of the AIA College of Fellows in 2014, the South Atlantic Regional Director from 2007-2009, President of AIA Georgia, and the 1995 recipient of the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Citation, given as one of the Institute’s highest honors to the country’s most socially-conscious architect. AIA Georgia bestowed upon him the Bernard Rothschild medal—the state’s highest award. AIA Atlanta presented him with the Ivan Allen Senior Trophy its highest Award. The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) elevated him to Honorary Fellowship in their College. Since 1978, Bill has practiced at Stanley, Love-Stanley, P.C., with his wife, Ivenue Love-Stanley, FAIA, Hon. FRAIC. The firm is the second oldest African-American practice in Georgia, providing architecture, planning, program management, and interior design throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Rosa T. Sheng is a Principal at SmithGroup, serving multiple roles as Higher Education Studio Leader in Northern California, and national Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (JEDI). She is also the founder of Equity by Design [EQxD], and the first Asian American Women to serve as AIA San Francisco President (2018) in the organization’s 136 year history. Recognized as a designer, architect, strategist and thought leader, she is known for delivering design solutions with transformational impact in the built environment.

Shalini Agrawal brings over 25 years of experience in community-engaged practice, and has dedicated her career to bringing diversity and equity in design, art and architecture. She is founder and principal of Public Design for Equity, a practice that re-envisions and activates new systems towards equity-driven outcomes. Shalini is also Director of Programs for Open Architecture Collaborative, and Director of Pathways to Equity, a leadership experience for responsible community-engaged design.

Dyana Berthaud is a native New Yorker who received her Bachelor of Architecture from New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), and works at Building Studio Architects as a Junior Associate. Her talents around design are based on helping those who are in need of space that provides safety, community, and allows for recuperation. Projects that allowed for this exploration included her academic thesis on Emergency Disaster Relief Housing toward the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti, a competition submission for Tiny Homes for Homeless College Students in Chicago, and a crowd-funded travel project of Tiny Homes for Homeless People across the US.

Venesa Alicea-Chuqui is a registered Architect in New York State, Founding Principal of NYVARCH Architecture, and brings over 15 years of experience designing multi-family sustainable affordable housing developments. She is committed to working with local communities to develop good design, both sustainable and socially conscious. Committed to design justice, she’s an active contributor to Dark Matter University and Design as Protest. She’s the New York representative to the AIA Small Firm Exchange, and President of the Architecture Alumni Group of the Alumni Association of the City College of New York, her alma mater, where she also taught Coop Internship and Professional Practice classes.

See more information about our speakers and moderator here.

Organized by
AIANY Emerging New York Architects Committee
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