Happy 2023 and Lunar New Year: Standing With You and Serving With Open Hearts
Dear NOMA family, friends, and partners, I hope you found time to rest as 2022 ended and that 2023 is off to a wonderful start for each and every one of you. My year began with the remarkable honor and privilege of leading as your 2023–2024 NOMA President. It is a position I hold with great integrity, and I promise, as the 315th living Black female architect in the U.S., to continue leading the fight for a more just and equitable profession for you and the generations to come – a fight that should be long over, a fight we battle everyday.
In 2021 I received the AIA Whitney M. Young. Jr Award for my advocacy efforts and ascended to the AIA College of Fellows, the youngest African American to receive that honor in the organization’s 167-year legacy. I have been quoted in the New York Times regarding my efforts, and Forbes magazine described me as “the powerhouse woman…actively changing history with a simple mission: women and designers of color must claim and be credited for their contributions to the built environment.” More recently I was featured on Oprah’s Future Rising website for Black trailblazers moving our world forward in the Audacious category. I share these accomplishments with you, because one they were all achieved because of NOMA and two, to make it clear that this mission is the center of my purpose.
Read full message on the President’s Desk.