Branches of Architecture: Alternate Career Paths

Join us for an insightful evening as we host a panel discussion featuring four esteemed female architects, each specializing in different branches of the architectural field. From sustainable design to urban planning and social resiliency, our esteemed panelists will share their experiences, expertise, and visions for the future of architecture. Don't miss this opportunity to gain unique insights and inspiration from these leading voices shaping the built environment.

Speakers:
Ifeoma Ebo, Architect, Urban Designer, Planning Strategist, Artist
Annie Coombs, RA, Educator, and Co-designer
Swati Jain, Architectural Designer, Artist, Researcher
Irina Schneid, RA, AIA, IIDA, Educator, and Co-designer

Moderators: 
Fion Li, CCNY AIAS Chapter Vice President, Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture
​​​​​​Sidney Mauricio, CCNY AIAS Chapter President, Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture

About the Speakers:
Ifeoma Ebo is an experienced Architect, Urban Designer, and Strategist with a proven track record in transforming public spaces into platforms for equity and design excellence. Her extensive expertise has been recognized through her service on Advisory Boards for prestigious entities such as the Mayor of Helsingborg’s H22 Smart City Initiative in Sweden, the Association for Community Design, the Museum of Modern Art, and her role as a founding board member of the BlackSpace Urbanist Collective. This collective is a national network of Black practitioners dedicated to promoting equity and justice in the built environment.

Annie Coombs is a registered architect in New York State. She is principal architect of Siris Coombs Architecture and is an assistant professor at Pratt SOA. She is passionate about women’s empowerment and Native American affairs. She is also the Co-Founder of Post-Reservation, an ongoing project that researches and visualizes housing, infrastructure, and economy on the Lakota reservations in South Dakota. In 2014, her work on gender dynamics in the architecture field was presented at the 1st Congress of Architecture & Gender Research in Spain.

Swati Jain is a transdisciplinary architectural designer, artist, and researcher, with a focus on employing sociocultural, ecological, and multisensory methodologies to nurture collective empathy and cultivate equitable design solutions for the future. Their work orbits around themes encompassing gender, identity, and phenomenological embodiment. Jain earned a Master of Science in Advanced Architecture Design from Columbia University, a Dataopia fellowship at Floating University, and a BAchelor of Architecture from the University of Mumbai. She has also pursued post-graduate studies in Indian aesthetics, critical theory, aesthetics, and practice at Jnanapravaha Mumbai. Accumulating over seven years of diverse experience, Jain has contributed to projects spanning exhibition design, institutional settings, historic preservation, residential spaces, and urban design, spanning both New York City and Mumbai.

Irina Schneid is a registered architect, educator, and co-designer. She is the Founder of Scharc Studio and Impact Wrkshp. Deeply committed to expanding community outreach through her teaching and practice, Irina founded Impact Wrkshp as a springboard for participatory design.Irina has been profiled on Madame Architect, ArchNative, and Beyond the Built Environment, and her writing and work have been published widely, including within the recent Routledge publication, Appropriated Interiors. Irina has lectured and taught internationally, with teaching appointments at Barnard College, Columbia University, Temple University, Drexel University, CityTech, NYIT, and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Melbourne, Australia. Irina earned her B.Arch and M.Arch II from Cornell University and is licensed in New York and New Jersey.