Lilian Asperin is a partner at WRNS Studio, where she helps lead the design process and build teams that deliver aspirational outcomes. Lilian values a firm culture that embraces collaboration, connection to the community, risk taking, and fostering talent. Lilian utilizes her experience as a practice leader and licensed architect to develop synergistic relationships with leaders throughout the architectural and educational communities. Lilian acts as a Board Director of AIA San Francisco and is the Co-Chair of the Equity by Design Committee, a call to action for everyone to realize the goal of equitable practice and communicate the value of design to society.
Read More#65 Artistry and Magic with Cecilia Cuff
Cecilia Cuff is a 20-year veteran of the hospitality scene and the Founder and Managing Principal of The Nascent Group, a hospitality design and project management agency. Cecilia has established herself as a pacemaker in the hospitality design industry, focusing on art and efficiency-inspired design, inclusivity, community development and sustainability. She is always guided by using community development, food sustainability and minority inclusion as a moral compass. She considers her greatest successes those students she has mentored and shares their enthusiasm as they advance through their careers around the globe.
Read More#62 Heroic Imaginations of the Future with J. Meejin Yoon
J. Meejin Yoon, AIA FAAR, is the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean at the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) at Cornell University and cofounder of Höweler + Yoon, an award-winning design studio engaged in projects across the U.S. and around the world. An architect, designer, and educator, Meejin is committed to advancing pedagogy, research, and practice to expand new knowledge across fields and disciplines, and to bringing deep expertise to the urgent environmental and social challenges facing our cities and communities.
Read More#61 Mentorship, Inclusion, and Self-Advocacy with Saakshi Terway
Saakshi Terway is a Designer at Wiencek + Associates in Washington DC. Saakshi is especially interested in responsible and sustainable architecture that has a social impact on local and global communities. She seeks to produce work that allows architecture and design to become a tool in empowering marginalized groups, encouraging them to appreciate and relate with the built environments around them. When she is not working, Saakshi spends a lot of her energy volunteering with the local architecture community, and serves as the current chair for the AIA DC Urban Design Committee.
Read More#41 Between is Beautiful with Mani Ardalan Farhadi
Mani Farhadi, LEEP AP, Associate AIA, is a Senior Facilities Planner at Stanford University School of Medicine in the Office of Facilities, Planning and Management. A global thinker and creative thought leader, Mani has three decades of experience in planning and architecture, and in collaborating with both public and private institutions. She enjoys combining her passion for education with her extensive planning skills to bring about stakeholder consensus and thoughtful solutions. Mani also volunteers for the AIA Silicon Valley Women in Architecture Committee, as well as for various Iranian-American cultural and advocacy groups.
#40 Pathways to Equity with Shalini Agrawal
Shalini Agrawal brings over 25 years of experience in community engagement, and has dedicated her career to bringing diversity and equity in design, art and architecture. She is co-director of Pathways to Equity, a leadership experience for responsible community-engaged design, and founder and principal of Public Design for Equity, an equity-driven practice for equity-driven outcomes. Shalini is on the board of Architects Designers and Planners for Social Responsibility, and Association for Community Design, as their Director of Fellowship. She is Associate Professor in Critical Ethnic Studies at California College of the Arts.
Read More#37 An Integrated Work-Life with Meghana Joshi
Meghana Joshi is a Senior Project Manager at Little Diversified, Newport Beach. She is a board member of the AIA Orange County Chapter, and Director for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. She founded and chaired the Women in Architecture Committee. Under “Project Amplify” that she founded, she amplifies and celebrates voices and works of minority architects throughout the world with diverse projects.
Read More#29 Every Voice is Valuable with Yiselle Santos Rivera
Yiselle Santos Rivera, Associate AIA, is a medical planner and the Global Director of Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion at HKS, Inc. With national and international experience on a broad range of healthcare, residential, institutional, and commercial/mixed-use projects, she thrives on building equitable practices, empowering the next generation of leaders, and creating inclusive platforms for engagement.
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