Guides for Equitable Practice and Beyond (Session 3)

AIA’s Code of Ethics includes as one of its standards, that “Members should provide their colleagues and employees with a fair and equitable working environment, compensate them fairly, and facilitate their professional development.” The rule of conduct that follows states: “Members shall treat their colleagues and employees with mutual respect and provide an equitable working environment.”

Architecture as a profession has historically struggled with issues of representation and career advancement for women and BIPOC individuals. AIA has created the Guides for Equitable Practice (“the Guides”) to respond to many of these issues and provide a framework “to overcome inequities and help advance the profession, the careers of individual architects, and the quality of the built environment by creating more diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces and interactives.” Architects should work to ensure the health, safety and welfare of those in their workplaces, as well as those in the communities they serve. These tenets go hand in hand as a more diverse and equitable workforce is more likely to be aware of and address the intersectional issues that continue to plague our society. Using the Guides and additional resources, this three-part course will serve as a primer to provide data and research to build a case for equitable practice in the field of architecture. Architects and design professionals are encouraged to attend if they want to develop a foundational awareness of core topics that impact equity, diversity, and inclusion in their workplaces and suggest methods to begin to address them.

Session 1: Thursday, April 22
Session 2: Thursday, April 29
Session 3: Thursday, May 6

*This is a three-part series, you can purchase sssions 2 and 3 separately, following the Session 1 offering. CES Credits are available only if you attend all three Sessions.*

Each session to include following: 

• Tips on how to use the Guides 
• Terms and definitions 
• Key takeaways 
• Case studies 
• Related resources and data 
• Interactive Q&A and feedback  

Speaker:
Kavitha Mathew, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP, Special Projects Director, AIA New York; Founder, Equity Co:LAB

Kavitha Mathew is Special Projects Director for AIA New York. In this role, she strives to enhance engagement opportunities for members, with a focus on developing leadership and community service initiatives. She is a registered architect with over 20 years of experience in the field. Her past roles include Director of Corporate Architectural Services for Ralph Lauren and project architect/manager/director at firms including Ted Moudis Associates, Spacesmith, and KPF.