Presentation:

AIA|DC’s Advocacy Committee

Carolyn Sponza, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Carolyn Sponza, AIA, LEED AP BD+C is a Senior Associate in the Washington, DC, office of global architecture, design, planning and consulting firm Gensler. Trained in both social science and design, Carolyn has a unique background from which she approaches her work. At Gensler, she is a regional leader for Design Management combining her 15 years of architecture and planning experience with a passion for engaging stakeholders and communities in a collaborative dialogue about long-term project planning.Carolyn is currently chair of AIA|DC’s Advocacy Committee and Director-at-Large on the Chapter board. She is a boomerang member of AIA|DC, first having joined the Chapter in 1999 and again when she returned to the DC area in 2011. In the interim, she was a member of the AIA NY Chapter, where she was Vice-President for Professional Development, providing Executive Committee oversight on seven chapter committees. She had been active in both the Women in Architecture and Emerging New York Architects Committees, where she was part of a four-member team responsible for organizing an international ideas competition, awarded AIA National’s Emerging Professional Program of the Year Award. Carolyn was recognized by the Chapter with a Presidential Citation for her volunteer contributions in 2009. Carolyn is an alumni of the Catholic University of America and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Presentation:

AIA Advocacy

Adam Melis and Andrew Goldberg join us to discuss the role of AIA within Federal, State and Local relations, the role of the AIA in public policy , the current inititatives the AIA is undergoing and how to get involved in advocacy and public policy programs within the AIA such as ArchiPAC and Grassroots.

Adam Melis | AIA Director, Political Affairs & Engagement

For the past 11 years Adam has been responsible for advancing the Institute’s goals by directing the Government and Community Relations team’s political outreach initiatives and year-round advocacy program, including the AIA’s political programs and ArchiPAC, grassroots mobilization, and citizen architect/leadership programs and training. Before joining the AIA in 2003, Adam’s experience includes serving as finance director for a member of Congress, the aide to the Mayor of Anaheim, and a campaign fundraising consultant.  Adam has made numerous presentation to AIA components on the importance of member engagement and political advocacy, he has also presented at conferences sponsored by the Public Affairs Council, the George Washington University, and other organizations. Adam earned a BA from the James Madison College at Michigan State University, where he studied international relations and political theory.

Andrew Goldberg, Assoc. AIA | AIA Managing Director, Government Relations and Outreach

Andrew Goldberg, Assoc. AIA, was named the AIA’s Managing Director of Government Relations and Outreach in November 2011, following four years as Senior Director of Federal Relations. As Managing Director, Goldberg runs the AIA’s advocacy program before Congress and the Executive Branch and its grassroots mobilization efforts, including ArchiPAC, the AIA’s political action committee. Goldberg spearheaded the AIA’s successful lobbying efforts to enact far-reaching legislation to promote energy efficiency in federal buildings, reform procurement regulations that unfairly target architects, and spur the State Department to create a design excellence program for America’s embassies. After studying architecture in the early 1990s, Goldberg turned to politics and public policy, spending six years on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant to members of Congress; managing government and media relations for a health care association in London, England; and serving as executive director of Democrats Abroad, the Democratic Party organization for Americans living overseas. He also has worked on numerous political campaigns at the national, state and local levels. Goldberg received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Design of the Environment program in architecture and landscape architecture.

Roundtable:

Three Paths of Advocacy

The goal of this discussion is to build awareness in the role that architects play in public policy through advocacy. There are many forms of advocacy – ideological, legislative, special interest group, mass, budgetary, etc – each representing a different approach to initiate changes in our society. As educated design professionals, we have a unique set of skills and perspectives that are key to understanding the needs of people and our environment. The actions or inactions of design professionals to participate in society and share our vision of what society needs can keep us in a state of “what is” or can lead change to “what should be”. Today, we welcome the perspectives of three inspiring design professionals who have chosen to advocate for the importance of design in our communities through three unique paths. We welcome their insight in engaging the community at large and questioning our local and national leaders to bring to light public policy issues and solutions.

Jacob R. Day, Assoc. AIA | President at Salisbury City Council

Jacob R. Day, Assoc. AIA is an urban planner, Army officer and candidate for Salisbury City Council. Jake was born and raised in the Camden neighborhood of Salisbury, where he lives and owns a home today. He has served the City as a Planning Commissioner and Board of Housing Appeals Member.

Jake earned a Master of Science in Nature, Society & Environmental Policy from Oxford University where he graduated with distinction for his dissertation. He also earned a Master of Urban Design from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Maryland.

Jake has spent his career revitalizing downtowns and making them more vibrant, livable places. He has worked for the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, most recently as the Director of the Center for Towns. The Center for Towns is a program utilizing design, planning and implementation assistance to establish vibrant, sustainable small cities and towns on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Before moving back to the land of pleasant living in 2008, Jake served as national President of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and later as Editor-in-Chief of Crit, a journal of architecture by the AIAS. As a Richard Upjohn Fellow, he served on the American Institute of Architects (AIA) national Board of Directors and in various capacities with each of the national architectural organizations (NCARB, NAAB, ACSA) and a growing design organization, Urban Dialogues. Jake has worked for Partners for Livable Communities, Becker Morgan Group and Design Collective helping to redesign and revitalize communities.

Jake is a Lieutenant in the Army, serving as Aide-de-Camp to Brigadier General Hinz, The Assistant Adjutant General of the Maryland National Guard. He is a graduate of Armor Basic Officer Leaders Course, Officer Candidate School and Basic Combat Training at Fort Benning, GA. Jake has served as a Platoon Leader and Executive Officer in the 1-158th Cavalry Regiment of the 58th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade.

Trinity Simons | Director of Mayors’ Institute on City Design

In that capacity, she works with mayors from across the country, assisting them in addressing some of our nation’s most pressing urban planning and design issues. Prior to joining the MICD, she directed the Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship, a prestigious fellowship program for emerging architects to achieve design excellence in affordable housing through work with community development corporations.

Trinity speaks about the intersection of design and political activity at events and symposia across the country, including national conferences of the American Institute of Architects, the American Planning Association, and the American Society of Landscape Architects. She currently serves as the on the Board of Directors of the Association for Community Design and has previously served on the Boards of the National Architectural Accrediting Board, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the American Institute of Architecture Students, and the DC chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Her design work has won numerous awards, including a Progressive Architecture Citation, a Boston Society of Architects Unbuilt Design Award, and an Outstanding Student Planning Award from the American Planning Association.

She has a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Arkansas and a Master of City Planning with a focus on city design and real estate development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Shannon B. Kraus, FAIA, FACHA, LEED AP, MBA | Principal, Washington, DC Office Director at HKS, Inc.

With over 15 years of healthcare planning experience, Shannon has been an integral part of the design and planning of over 15 million square feet of healthcare projects throughout the United States and abroad on projects of all sizes in scope.   His work has included complex facilities such as freestanding heart hospitals, to replacement hospitals, women’s centers, short stay hospitals, and ambulatory care facilities.  His projects have been honored multiple times, with design awards from the AIA, Symposium on Healthcare Design, Modern Healthcare, and IIDA.  His work has been recognized in publications such as World Architecture News, Healthcare Design, Building Design and Construction and Hospitality Design magazines.

Shannon is a fellow and board certified healthcare architect by ACHA, is a contributing author to the FGI 2010 and 2014 Guidelines for Healthcare Construction, and on Faculty with the American Hospital Association teaching seminars in hospital design.  In 2005 he served as National Vice President on the American Institute of Architects Board of Directors where he helped organize and lead the organizations knowledge and research agenda.  Additionally, he has worked with both the Clemson University & University of Texas at Arlington Schools of Architecture as a studio critic and lecturer.   In 2007 he launched and founded the HKS design fellowship, focused on bringing together designers across the globe together for the purposes of providing design thinking to a community base need.

In recognition of his contributions, he was awarded fellowship in the AIA in 2013, and young architect of the year from the AIA in 2005, and from TSA in 2006.  In 2008 he was named one of building design and constructions 40 under 40, and in 2009 was honored as one of the Dallas Business Journal’s 40 under 40 honorees.  He served as the chair for the 2010 AIA national convention in Miami, and continues to be active with architecture school accreditations serving as a board member and currently as the President fo NAAB.

Shannon is a Principal and the Healthcare Practice Leader in the DC office of HKS for the midatlantic and northeast United States.

Presentation:

Design and Health

Maureen McAvey | Bucksbaum Family Chair for Retail at the Urban Land Institute

Ms. McAvey is Senior Resident Fellow, ULI/Bucksbaum Family Chair for Retail at the Urban Land Institute (ULI) in Washington, DC. Her recent work includes the coordination and publication of research on the relationship of Gen Y and their consumer and retail preferences. She is initiating work on retail in underserved communities and the contribution that the real estate community can make in creating healthier places. Ms. McAvey spearheaded What’s Next: Real Estate in the New Economy, published in 2011 and What’s Next: Getting Ahead of Change, published in October 2012. Previously, she led much of the research and content agenda of the Institute, including the Infrastructure Initiative and the Climate, Land Use and Energy (CLUE) Initiative.

McAvey has over 30 years of experience in real estate development, consulting, and the creation of public/private financial structures. Prior to ULI, she was Director, Business Development, for Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRIT), a NYSE traded owner and manager of retail and mixed-use developments. She is a frequent speaker at national and international events, and holds Masters Degrees from Harvard and the University of MN.

Zachary Hart | Director, Policy at The American Institute of Architects

Zachary Hart is the Director, Policy at the American Institute of Architects, where he leads policy development efforts related to the AIA’s portfolio of sustainability initiatives.  Prior to holding this position he worked as the AIA’s Manager, State and Local Relations, where he supported AIA components’ government advocacy programs by providing research and strategic guidance concerning legislative and regulatory affairs.  He is the lead author of the 2013 AIA publication, Deep Energy Retrofits: An Emerging Opportunity.

Prior to working at the AIA, Zachary worked in politics and legislative advocacy.  He has worked on political campaigns at the local, state, and federal level and as the lead organizer for the Kansas Organization of State Employees.  Zachary holds a BA in English from the University of Kansas and a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Michigan.