ACD 44 Thursday (blue background, Thursday)

Design/ing in the Apocalypse (11:30-12:30 EST)

Liz Ogbu

A designer, urbanist, and spatial justice activist, Liz is a global expert on engaging and transforming unjust urban environments. From designing shelters for immigrant day laborers in the U.S. to a water and health social enterprise for low-income Kenyans, Liz has a long history of working with communities in need to leverage the power of design to catalyze community healing and foster environments that support people’s capacity to thrive. She is Founder and Principal of Studio O, a multidisciplinary design consultancy that works at the intersection of racial and spatial justice. In addition to her practice, Liz has held academic appointments at several institutions including at UC Berkeley, Stanford’s d.school, and the University of Virginia. She also previously served as the Droga Architect-in-Residence in Australia, investigating urban marginalized populations and community development practices in the country. Liz has written for and been profiled in publications such as The New York Times, Bloomberg (formerly The Atlantic) CityLab, and the Journal of Urban Design. Her projects have been featured in museum exhibitions and received numerous design awards globally. Her honors include IDEO.org Global Fellow, TEDWomen Speaker, Aspen Ideas Scholar, Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council, and one of Public Interest Design’s Top 100. She earned architecture degrees from Wellesley College and Harvard University.

Ujijji Davis-Williams

Ujijji Davis Williams is a practicing landscape architect, urban planner and researcher based in Detroit. She is the recipient of the 2020 Michigan ASLA Emerging Professional of the Year Award, and the recipient of the 2019 National ASLA Bradford Williams Medal of Excellence for her design literature. She is the Founding Partner of JIMA Studio, a landscape architectural design studio that collaborates with community groups, non-profit organizations, and builders that are committed to cultural placemaking and placekeeping. JIMA focuses on participatory design methods to provide full site design and strategy planning services, from conceptual design to implementation. Prior to JIMA, Ujijji served as Associate at SmithGroup for over six years, leading critical landscape and urban design work across the country, focusing on post-industrial cities and sites. Ujijji serves as Adjunct Professor at the University of Detroit-Mercy School of Architecture, and has lectured at the University of Michigan. She is a Board Member for Black Landscape Architects Network, where she produces the annual Landscape Symposium that highlights diverse contributions to the field and supports scholarships to prospective students. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from Cornell University, and a Master of Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. She's originally from Brooklyn, NY.

Ifeoma Ebo

Ifeoma is an experienced Urban Designer & Strategist with a proven track record in transforming urban spaces into platforms for equity and design excellence. Through leadership roles in urban design & development initiatives funded by the United Nations, FIFA and the NYC Mayors Office she has excelled in managing multidisciplinary teams towards the planning and implementation of projects supporting racial, social and cultural equity. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at Syracuse University and Columbia University where she teaches on the intersection of urban design and equity. As the founding Director of Creative Urban Alchemy LLC, she is a highly sought-after consultant on equitable urban design and sustainable development strategy for city governments and civic institutions internationally.

 

Mapping Power for Collaborative Change 12:45-1:45 EST

Melisa Betts Sanders

Melisa Sanders, AIA, NOMA, SEED, is the founding Principal of BlackArc in St. Louis, MO. She is committed to the research, testing, and design of sustainable, equitable, and functional spaces focusing on disinvested communities, BIPOC communities, and community advocacy and education. Combining 8+ years of experience in Interior Design, Architecture, and Urban Design, her practice embodies how a building affects people, the environment, and the community context. As one of few black women practicing architecture/urban design in the midwest, she has used her experiences with discrimination in the architecture field to seek equity in her community design work.

Liz Kramer

Liz Kramer is a principal at Public Design Bureau, which helps organizations through thoughtful and creative processes that are focused on the needs, motivations, and experiences of those most directly impacted. She oversees the Office for Socially Engaged Practice at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, and teaches on topics including empathy, design thinking, and engagement.

 

Pecha Kucha Architecture Beyond Capitalism School Designing in Right Relation Neighborhood Design after COVID 2:00 - 3:00 EST

Natalie Leonard - Architecture Beyond Capitalism School

Natalie Leonard is an architectural researcher at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. She manages research design for the U-M HomeLab: a simulated, one-bedroom apartment that enables the simultaneous collection of behavioral and physiological human-subjects data. She received her BS of Psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2018 and her MS of Architecture Research from the University of Michigan in 2019, where she became a member of the Architecture Lobby (T-A-L). Natalie joined T-A-L’s Academia Working Group in January of 2021 and served as a designer, facilitator, and saloner for the group’s Architecture Beyond Capitalism 2021 Summer School.

Peggy Deamer - Architecture Beyond Capitalism School

Peggy Deamer is Professor Emerita of Yale University’s School of Architecture and principal in the firm of Deamer, Studio. She is a founding member of the Architecture Lobby, a group advocating for the value of architectural design and labor. She is the editor of Architecture and Capitalism: 1845 to the Present and The Architect as Worker: Immaterial Labor, the Creative Class, and the Politics of Design and the author of Architecture and Labor. Articles by her have appeared in Log, Avery Review, e-Flux, and Harvard Design Magazine amongst other journals. Her theory work explores the relationship between subjectivity, design, and labor in the current economy. Her design work has appeared in HOME, Home and Garden, Progressive Architecture, and the New York Times amongst other journals. She received the Architectural Record 2018 Women in Architecture Activist Award and the 2021 John Q. Hejduk Award.

Valerie Lechene - Architecture Beyond Capitalism School

Valerie Lechene is a design researcher, technologist, and advocate. She is the Design Coordinator at The Architecture Lobby (T-A-L), a grassroots organization of architectural workers who advocate for just labor practices and an equitable built environment. Within T-A-L, she coordinates the Academia Working Group which initiated, designed, and carried out the the Architecture Beyond Capitalism School, an summer program rooted in a critical interrogation of the structures and systems of power that have made progress difficult within design professions and institutions. In addition, within T-A-L, Valerie has been organizing for a just transition with the Green New Deal Working Group. Her work has been published in Design Justice Network, Science for the People Magazine, Platform Austria, Abstract, and independent publications funded by GSAPP Books. She has worked as an architect in New York City, Rotterdam, Paris, Zurich, Bogota, and Montreal. Valerie holds a Master of Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP.

Palmyra Geraki - Architecture Beyond Capitalism School

Palmyra Geraki is a practicing architect and educator. She is the founding principal of Palmyra PLLC and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Palmyra has been a member of The Architecture Lobby (T-A-L) since 2016. She previously served as the Architecture Lobby’s financial coordinator and is an active member of T-A-L’s Cooperative Network and Academia Working Groups. She was one of the organizers of T-A-L’s inaugural 2021 Architecture Beyond Capitalism Summer School and also served as the coordinator of the school’s third content unit titled “Collectives”. Palmyra received her B.A. in 'Architecture' and 'Ethics, Politics & Economics' from Yale University and her M.Arch. from the Yale School of Architecture, where she was the recipient of the George Nelson Traveling Fellowship. Her writing has been published in Log and the New York Review of Architecture. She grew up in Thessaloniki, Greece, and has lived in New Haven, New York, the Bay Area, and Chicago.

Ashton Hamm - Designing In Right Relation

Ashton Hamm is a licensed architect and a co-founder of uxo architects - an architectural cooperative located in California. Since 2016 she has been involved locally and nationally with The Architecture Lobby and in national leadership for nearly 4 years. Her professional work has spanned in scale from residential to large industrial projects and she has worked with private clients, public entities, community land trusts, cooperatives, and nonprofit organizations. Her research and activism have been focused on housing policy and public housing and the structures of the architectural profession notably around the cooperativization of small firms.

Alice Armstrong - Designing In Right Relation

Alice Armstrong is on the ownership track at uxo architects. She previously worked as a project manager on public education and affordable housing projects in the Bay Area. Her background in urban studies and cooperative housing continues to shape her architectural practice - which encompasses traditional building projects, masterplanning, and community engagement.

Katherine Sacco

Katherine Sacco is the Director of Partnerships at the Urban Design Forum, where she leads research, design, and policy initiatives, in partnership with community-based organizations and city agencies, that advance equity in the built environment. Her portfolio at UDF includes the Forefront Fellowship, an annual leadership development program, as well as Neighborhoods Now. Katherine previously researched urban planning in Medellín, Colombia; managed interdisciplinary research teams in health policy and economics; and helped to build the International Innovation Corps, a social impact fellowship program based in Chicago. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of California, Irvine.

Andrew Brown

Andrew Brown is a researcher trained in empirical analysis of programs and public policy. At Van Alen, Andrew oversees projects that explore the relationship between mental well-being and cities, and develops workshops that convene stakeholders to design strategies to urgent problems. In 2017, Andrew coordinated a workshop on potential mental health impacts of the impending shutdown of one of New York’s busiest subway lines, convening academic institutions, public health professionals, issue advocacy groups, community boards and other organizations of concerned citizens. Insights from the workshop were worked into a health impact assessment conducted by students at Cornell University, which provided recommendations for addressing health concerns during the subway disruption. Andrew received his Master of Public Administration from the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. He received his Bachelors in History from Williams College.

Diana Araujo

Diana is an architect and preservationist with experience in design, urban planning, and heritage management. She earned her B. Arch in Quito, Ecuador in 2010 and received her Master’s in Historic Preservation from Columbia University in 2015. Before joining Van Alen, Diana worked as an independent heritage consultant for the city of Paramaribo, Suriname as well as the Director of Strategic Management for the Metropolitan Institute of Heritage (IMP) in Quito, Ecuador. At IMP, she contributed to the management of the city’s World Heritage Site; led projects to re-think heritage preservation as a tool for social and economic development; and worked with local and international allies to advance planning and preservation strategies using a community-based approach.

Martha Snow

Martha Snow is a Program Manager at the Urban Design Forum, where she led the second phase of the Neighborhoods Now initiative, and is currently running Streets Ahead, a research and visioning project on the future of city streets. Previously, she has designed experiential learning programs in the Hudson Valley, and led special projects at The Design Trust for Public Space.

 

ACD 44 Friday (blue background, Friday)

 

The Visible & Invisible Voter Experience Design of Dallas County 12:00 - 1:00 EST

Christina Hahn

Christina (she/her) is a third-generation Korean-American ex-pat who grew up in South Korea before moving to Texas to study Political Science & History at Rice University. She is currently completing her Master’s in Design & Innovation at Southern Methodist University. She is the Director of Communications for Bluebonnet Data, a non-profit building long-term movement for data talent and infrastructure for progressive candidates and causes. Her passion is to help decolonize human-centered-design education in higher ed as well as usher in a movement of community-centered public policy design.

Collin Yarbrough

Collin (he/him) is a born and raised Texan pursuing a PhD in Civil Engineering at Southern Methodist University. He holds a Masters in Sustainable Development from Southern Methodist University. His research focus is equity centered urban planning and design. He is a registered Professional Engineer, runs a non- profit cookie bakery with his mother, and has recently published a book about infrastructure inequality in Dallas, “Paved a Way: Infrastructure, Policy, and Racism in an American City.

 

Acknowledge + Listen: Undoing Colonial Design in Massachusetts 1:15 - 2:15 EST

Katherine Shozawa

Katherine Shozawa is an interdisciplinary artist and educator from Vancouver, B.C. whose socially engaged art practice begins with intimate examinations of stories and qualities of memory in marginalized communities in the U.S. and Canada. Katherine serves as Director of Community Engagement for Lesley University’s College of Art and Design where she teaches Socially Engaged Art and relational design practice.

Chelsea Johnson

Chelsea Johnson is a senior Graphic Design major at Lesley University’s College of Art and Design. From Portland, ME, her love of art and design began at an early age, watching her grandmother paint, knit, and crochet. With a wealth of life experience and perspectives as a mother, she led the student team that created Acknowledge + Listen.

Madeline Meyer

Madeline Meyer is a Boston-based UX designer and recent graduate of Lesley University's College of Art and Design. In collaboration with the Community Design Studio course, her senior capstone project Beyond the Flag explores the significance of the Massachusetts state flag through conversations with local indigenous leaders.

 

Equity by Design - Creating Housing and Multigenerational Communities with AARP 2:30 - 3:30 EST

Esther Greenhouse

A catalyst for positive change Esther Greenhouse, CEO of Silver To Gold Strategic Planning, is a built environment strategist and environmental gerontologist.  Ms. Greenhouse brings nearly 30 years of experience and a unique constellation of expertise in design, gerontology, environmental psychology, and planning to help communities solve real problems. Her expertise has been sought by AARP International in facilitating a Transatlantic Built Environment Leaders Forum, and the development of the multiyear Equity by Design initiative for the creation of Enabling and Equitable Housing and Multigenerational Communities. She has been invited to contribute her expertise by presenting for the Clinton Global Initiative, co-authoring the American Planning Association’s Aging in Community Policy Guide, and on the design of the U.S.’s first elder-focused emergency department.  Ms. Greenhouse is the Strategic Director for one of the nation’s first Age-Friendly Centers for Excellence in Tompkins County, NY.  Her experience creating and facilitating unique and model events, teaching both professionals and university students, developing community-wide and international initiatives, combined with her extensive network, make her an invaluable resource to communities poised to create positive change. At Cornell University, she is shaping the field as an industry scholar for the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures. She contributes to successful community planning with workshops and consulting nationwide, including a new workshop to help communities most effectively use their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.  Her expertise was requested for such projects as the book Independent for Life, for two PBS series on design for aging, and for the design of the nation’s first senior-focused emergency department. In the building industry, she has been recognized as an award-winning instructor and leader in Universal Design and Aging in Place by the National Association of Home Builders.

Preeti Sodhi

Preeti Sodhi is an urban planner with over a decade of experience working with neighborhoods across New York City. Currently as Director of Community Engagement with The High Line, she oversees the development and execution of the organization's comprehensive community engagement strategy. Previously she served for six years as Project Director at Spaceworks, a nonprofit developer and operator of subsidized artist workspace. As a Design Fellow with Architecture for Humanity, she directed the redevelopment of the LES Skatepark through a public private partnership with Nike and the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. Preeti is the Founder of Hello Voter, a civic engagement initiative connecting New Yorkers with local government, and is a Core Organizer with Design as Protest and Board Member of the Association for Community Design.

Fernando Gomez

A native-New Yorker, Fernando Gomez initially pursued a career in the performing arts that has paralleled and now fully transitioned into his work in social services. Through his experiences working for various human services organizations, with particular interests in aging, mental health, and programming for older adults, Fernando works to engage clients as key stakeholders and community partners, building bridges that connect individuals and groups, as well as empower them. Fernando currently works at Penn South Program for Seniors, NORC-SSP, as the Group Services & Volunteer Supervisor; having successfully launched both in-person and virtual sessions of programming, he is now working with the program to introduce hybrid models of programs and services.

 

ACD 44 Saturday (blue background, Saturday)

 

design justice: weaving through disciplines, practices and identities 12:00 - 1:00 EST

Dave Pabellon

Dave Pabellon is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design @ Columbia College Chicago and a design consultant under the moniker It Is Just Dave LLC, with a focus on partnerships with cultural institutions, contemporary artists, and activist organizations. Pabellon most recently was an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Dominican University and prior to that held the role of senior designer at the award-winning studio Faust Associates. In addition to his professional and academic practice Pabellon also serves on the Presidential Team for AIGA Chicago, is on the Dark Matter University roster, and is a Design As Protest Collective core organizer.

Siboney Diaz-Sanchez

Siboney Díaz-Sánchez (she/her/hers) was born and raised on Coahuiltecan/ Tonkawa/ Jumanos lands in San Antonio, Texas. She is an Enterprise Rose Fellow at OppCo where she works with The Neighborhood Developers and Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation located on Pawtucket and Massa-aschu-es-et lands in Boston and Chelsea, Massachusetts. As a real estate project manager at non-profit community development corporations, she focuses on understanding how development and design can best serve residents and reflect community needs. Siboney currently teaches Community Practice at The Boston Architectural College, contributes to Design as Protest and co-chairs the Empowerment Committee within the board of the National Organization of Minority Architects. She insists that creative fields are viable vehicles for social change and is committed to prioritizing anti-racist design practices towards more justice and liberation in development processes. Siboney received her BArch from Cornell University and is a registered architect in the state of Texas.

 

Dark Matter University 1:15 - 2:15 EST

Venesa Alicea-Chuqui

Venesa Alicea-Chuqui is an Architect, Educator and Advocate. Founding Principal of NYVARCH Architecture, she 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 has also taught Coop Internship and Professional Practice classes.

Lisa C. Henry

Lisa C. Henry Holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design and is currently enrolled in a PhD program in English at the University of Utah. She is an Associate Professor of the School of Architecture at the University of Utah (SoA). Her research is focused on how Critical Gender, Race, Queer, and Disability theory intersect with architectural education, pedagogy, design and production. For example, her dissertation analyzes how research and analytical methods in humanities and literature can inform our understanding of architecture and the built environment as a critical tool in the construction of race. Henry co-lead the transformation of the curriculum at the SoA to focus on the values of Global Citizenship, Social Equity, Critical Agency, Resilience, and community engagement. The new curriculum uses research methods integrated with studios to develop a design process that centers the development of disciplinary knowledge in these areas, building these values into design processes, and project delivery focused on community and cultural resilience in Utah’s two design build programs.

A.L. Hu

A.L. Hu is a queer, trans, Taiwanese-American architect, organizer, and facilitator who lives and works in New York City. Their practice synthesizes organizing for racial, class, and gender justice with design; rethinks the architect’s role in facilitating accessible spaces; and manifests in design, visual media, and collaborative cultural work. A.L. is a 2019-2021 Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow, and is currently Design Initiatives Manager at Ascendant Neighborhood Development in East Harlem, where their focus is designing, prototyping, and refining resident engagement processes for AND’s current portfolio and pipeline projects. They are a Core Organizer and Facilitator with Design as Protest and Dark Matter University. A.L. facilitates Queeries, an initiative for and by LGBTQIA+ architects and designers, that documents community members’ experiences of queerness in their personal lives, workplaces, and academic settings. They received a Master of Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP.

 

ACD Circles of Practices 1:15 - 2:15 EST

Presenter Name forthcoming

Presenter Bio forthcoming