My thought leadership efforts fall into two categories - speaking and community engagement.
I regularly get opportunities to participate in panels, speak, and teach. The topics have been chances to connect with a broader group of professionals in the industry (and outside of it). I strive to open the door to further discussion into better communication through the process of making buildings, technology advances that can improve our processes and outcomes, and be part of the face of change in an industry that has traditionally been very male dominated.
My community engagement includes outreach, fundraising, connection making, and Board service for cultural and professional organizations.
Below, I have described a few of these.
AIA Seattle and Seattle Design Festival Board of Directors - 2019-2024
I was invited to join the AIA Seattle Board of directors in 2019. I first sat on the development board, which focuses on outreach related to sponsorship drives, fundraising for programs, helping our Corporate Allied Partners connect with programs that they can sponsor, and assisting committees with finding partnerships for fundraising. After that I was elected to lead the board as President (3-year term sitting as president elect, president, past president). This included leading the first year of AIA Seattle and Seattle Design Festival being aligned Boards and leading the Board to the decision to not renew the lease at 1010 Western in favor of finding a better suited space. I will end my time serving AIA Seattle/SDF by serving as chair of the Member Advancement Committee focused on supporting the pipeline development and maintenance for the organization.
One of the key elements of the Board’s efforts are participating in and advancing the AIA Seattle efforts related to diversity and inclusion. Participation in workshops, identification of individuals to attend future workshops, and ongoing mentorship in the field to support efforts to drive increased inclusion have been critical.
Board members are regularly tapped to lead and moderate panels, town halls, and other opportunities to connect with the AIA Membership.
The Art of Project Management 2020
After attending the first Seattle Project Management series in 2019, I was invited to join the steering committee headed by Ted Sive. Our group met for months reworking the series and developing learning objectives that focused heavily on helping a cohort of local professionals in the AEC industry understand the perspectives, skills, and tools that will help them become better project managers.
In addition to being on the steering committee, I taught a session (pre-recorded) about Pull Planning, co-hosted a session on Scheduling for Architects, and hosted a panel on Target Value Design with the UW Population Health team.
Design in Public/Seattle Design Festival 2020 Fundraising
Hosted a “virtual table” and facilitated discussion of the theme of “About Time” for the 2020 Design in Public Seattle Design Festival. Our breakfast discussion and fundraising gathered over $25,000 toward our 2020 programming and efforts
2D vs 3D is Irrelevant BILT 2019
Data focused design is becoming the future of modern construction. This round table at BILT Data Days in 2019 focused on the opportunities, risks, and barriers to moving to a more integrated approach to utilizing the BIM model through out the lifetime of the project.
Spec Coordination Across Trades 2019
We believe that specifications can be an extremely useful tool, but we how often do we hear from the "end users," as in the people who work with the documents we write? In this two-class series, learn:
How people are actually using specs?
What's useful to the end user and what's not?
What users would like to see in a spec?
How we can make these document into more efficient and useful tools?
In our first class, learn straight from the sources - a general contractor, design build consultant and former manufacturer/fabricator.
LMN/GLY VDC presentation 2019
As part of the GLY VDC groups efforts to do outreach with our design partners to try to facilitate a more seamless progression from design to construction, the 3 design managers at GLY (Trevor Lunde, Heather Johnston, and myself) hosted an open discussion at LMN’s offices talking about the ways we all work together and where the opportunities and risks lie. This has lead to continuing discussion about identifying an appropriate Design Build project for GLY and LMN to partner on to test some of the ideas.
UW ARC Student Research
As part of an interest to get more involved in the work that Renee Cheng at the UW (see picture adjacent from her work) is doing at the College of Built Environment, I am regularly participating in reviews of student work that is supported by the Applied Research Consortium. The consortium aims to connect a broad group of professionals in the industry with students to help make early connections and improve relationships between the fields.
Swedish Standing Advisory Committee 2018-2019
I participated in the Seattle Neighborhoods Swedish Standing Advisory Committee in 218-2019. These committees are drawn from the neighborhoods of major master plans and institutions to act as representatives and a voice of the neighborhood in decision making that is supplemental to the design review and permitting process.
Future Ready Buildings Committee and Panel Mediator 2017
AIA Seattle put on the Future Ready Buildings symposium as a chance to bring a diverse array of individuals working in Big Data and emerging technologies together to talk about the impact of them on architecture and buildings.
I hosted a panel on Big Data (Data Rich/Knowledge Poor) featuring panelists from BigQuery at Google, Community Attributes, and Onvia to discuss the gap in understanding and use of Big Data in the world and specifically the opportunities for it in design and the built environment.
Washington Ensemble Theater Board of Directors 2017-2019
WET is a small independent theater located in the Capitol Hill Arts District. It is a theater that strives to make people reconsider their assumptions, challenges their expectations of a night at the theater, and fosters a dynamic group of artists creating audacious stories. Board service was focused on fundraising, gala planning and support, and professional advise and services related to renovations of their lobby space.
Can’t We All Get Along? CSI NW/W Regional Conference 2017
This presentation, in partnership with Philip Rothey (then with ZGF now with Autodesk), was a challenge to the industry to rethink the connections and hand off between designer and contractor. We discussed the opportunity to use the techniques of design build teams to facilitate better communication. Especially important is the approach to working together in a BIM environment.
Virtual Reality: Are you Ready? 2017
A presentation with Studio 216 for SMPS Seattle to discuss the development and implementation of AR/VR/XR in the built environment, especially construction applications we were testing at GLY at the time.
NOMADcity: Evolution of the American Dream 2007
Home, rather than being a specific geographic location, is more and more about a set of personal activities, habits, and relationships than an established continuum of habitation in the same location.Ó The automobile culture of the past century has allowed Americans to be mobile and expansive Ñ and yet, a stigma has developed against early mainstays of American nomadism, especially the mobile home and the trailer park. Recently, the ability to work and play remotely has made the nomadic lifestyle appealing to a new highly educated, worldly, chic, and technologically savvy demographic. These neo-nomads have put pressure on existing modes of nomadicity to evolve to accommodate their needs and desires. AmericanÕs neo-nomadic movement will have to tackle the social and community implications associated with the move away from a distinctly urban society.