Michele O’Connor is a Principal at Langan and a director of the firm’s civil engineering practice in New York City. Langan is an integrated planning, site engineering, and environmental consulting service firm for private developers, property owners, and public sector clients. Michele’s practice includes site engineering design and planning for a wide variety of commercial, institutional, recreation, retail, and residential development projects. Besides her passion for civil engineering, Michele is also extremely passionate about supporting, mentoring, and empowering women in STEM and the engineering community. This dedication inspired her to co-found Women@Langan in September 2015.
A partner at SOM, Julia Murphy is integral to the firm’s engagement with the built environment of New York City. In her decade of experience at SOM, she has worked on some of the most complex projects in Manhattan, emerging as an expert project manager. She has a diverse range of project responsibilities, from day-to-day interaction with the client and coordination with the consultant team to maintaining staffing, schedule, and budget. Much of her work involves mitigating risk for clients who must build their projects within the exigencies of New York’s physical and regulatory environments. She was featured in Architect Magazine’s feature piece, “Workers in Progress.” Murphy is a member of the WX Women Executives in Real Estate and is the Immediate Past Chair of Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation.
Angelica Trevino Baccon is a principal of SHoP. She has a particular specialty in leading complex mixed-use and workplace design projects, often at the intersection of enterprise and technology. These include the new Uber headquarters in San Francisco and several confidential projects for global leaders in Silicon Valley. She holds a Bachelor in Architecture degree from ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico, and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University, where she has also served as a professor. Her work on New York City’s South Street Seaport established her deep expertise in fast-paced, high-profile design and delivery challenges with multilayered stakeholder groups, successfully leveraging programs to promote vitality, equity and community in the private sector and public realm.
Kirsten Sibilia is a vocal advocate for the value of design. As managing partner, she is focused on the firm’s health and vitality. Her design training and entrepreneurial spirit have allowed her to approach the business side of the practice as a design project; with each initiative, she reflects the firm’s commitment to improving public life, through the creation of resilient and sustainable urban density. Kirsten joined BWAF in 2017, is on the board of Habitat for Humanity of New York City & Westchester and the New York Building Foundation and served on the Architectural Review Board for over a decade while a resident of Hastings-on-Hudson. She recently moved back to Brooklyn. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the New School’s Parson School of Design as well as a Bachelor of Arts from The New School’s Lang College.
Patti Harris, Founder and CEO of LicenseSure LLC and Special Counsel to Zetlin & De Chiara LLP, provides legal and business counsel to architects and engineers throughout the United States. A serial entrepreneur as well as an attorney, Patti started her career as a corporate attorney with two New York City law firms. From 2000 to 2013, Patti served as the Managing Partner of Zetlin & De Chiara. Harris is the Founder and CEO of LicenseSure, which provides business and licensing compliance services to design professionals. Ms. Harris’ legal practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, business organization and management issues, succession, strategy and licensing issues.
Joan Blumenfeld, Contract Magazine’s 2018 Legend, is a design principal at Perkins+Will, a global architecture and interiors firm. Over the past 10 years she has been committed to achieving gender equity across all aspects of the design and construction business. As the first president of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF) she facilitated broadening its mission to include changing culture throughout the industry. She remained President for five years, helping to grow the organization to have national recognition, and since 2011 served on the Executive Committee, stepping down in 2020. Previous and parallel to her work with BWAF she has been an active advocate for building better and more healthy interiors, buildings and communities. As 2007 President of AIA NYC, she worked with city agencies and the Mayor’s Office, resulting in the first revamping of citywide workplace standards since 1971.
Melissa Burton is a Principal with Arup and currently serves as the Consulting Practice Leader for Canada. She oversees a variety of work for Arup in the consulting practice from early stage advisory through specialty technical consulting work to complex design studies. In her role she brings together teams of engineers and consultants with a breadth and depth of skills and experience to enable them to collaborate with clients and develop creative, robust solutions to realize her client’s visions. Melissa started her career looking at how the wind climate affects the buildings we design, and how the consequential reaction of the buildings affects the people that occupy them. Her technical expertise extends to beyond code approaches using advanced analytical tools to quantify and reduce design risk from wind loading.
Latoya Nelson Kamdang is a U.S. Fulbright Senior Scholar, Registered Architect, Certified Interior Designer, and LEED AP BD+C. Her experience spans architecture, planning, exhibit design, industrial and interior design. She has experience in hospitality, retail, museums, workplace, education, and institutional. As a Senior Architect, some of her most recent clients include Hilton Worldwide and Hudson Yards Observation Deck experiential journey. Latoya was on the design team for the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of African American History and Culture. She was an interdisciplinary team member from RFP submission through construction documents. Her spatial focus was the Slavery & Freedom History Gallery. Latoya’s experience has also spanned to overseas federal projects.
Sabrina Kanner is the Executive Vice President of Development, Design and Construction and responsible for overseeing Development in the Northeast U.S. With Brookfield Properties and its predecessor, Olympia & York, for over 35 years, Sabrina joined the construction division of Olympia & York in 1982. In her tenure with the company, Sabrina has played a key role in the construction, design and development or redevelopment of over 40 million square feet of signature Brookfield projects such as World Financial Center, Brookfield Place, 300 Madison Avenue, Halley Rise, the restoration/renovation of the Winter Garden at World Financial Center after 9/11, and Manhattan West. Sabrina holds a B.A. from Union College and is a member of WX and the National Academy of Construction.
Rich McFadden joined JB&B in 2003, and has acted as Project Manager and Partner-in-Charge in the Electrical Department on a wide variety of projects and building types. With a strong background in facilities operations, Rich has lent his expertise to the live upgrade of large mission-critical systems supporting projects such as Citigroup’s New York headquarters at 388-390 Greenwich Street. He has also played an instrumental role in the development of Brookfield’s multi-building complex at Manhattan West for which he serves as the Partner-in-Charge. Rich currently serves as National Director on the ACEC New York Executive Committee. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Bucknell University, and is a licensed Professional Engineer and LEED Accredited Professional.
Carol Loewenson’s expertise ranges from highly technical buildings, renovations and façade replacements to work involving both the private and public sector. Her approach to architecture is deeply rooted in a commitment to public spaces and an acknowledgment of how the shape of a building, city, or institution impacts people’s lives. She brings a careful consideration of context to her work, balancing preservation and modernization to generate sustainable transformations that capture the complexity of a space’s past history and future goals.
Carol Loewenson joined Mitchell Giurgola in 1982 and became a partner in 1996. Her work at the firm includes projects for the New York Public Library, Rockefeller University, New York University, Cornell University, LaGuardia Community College, and the New York State Unified Court System. She serves as a Board member of the AIA Center for Architecture, the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, the IDC Foundation and New Yorkers for Parks. She was as elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in 2013 and elected President of AIA New York in 2016.
Karen McNeill, Ph.D., is an expert on Julia Morgan and currently working on a multiple publications about the architect. Dr. McNeill’s scholarship focuses on women and gender in the architectural profession as well as how Progressive Era women used the built environment to expand their roles society as consumers, reformers, educators, and professionals. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Autry National Center, the Bancroft Library, and the University of California Humanities Research Institute. Karen has also taught history and architectural history at colleges and universities in the San Francisco Bay Area and has been involved in historic preservation, authoring several context statements for major surveys and successfully nominating a range of buildings to the National Register of Historic Places. She is currently Managing Director, SVP, Sr. Leadership & Legacy Consultant at Ascent Private Capital Management of U.S. Bank
Bolanle Williams-Olley is the Chief Financial Officer and Co-owner of Mancini Duffy, a technology-first design firm, where she oversees the firm’s financial and operational performance. With a strong background in financial analysis and strategic initiatives, Bola thrives on building relationships between finance and management teams to ensure the overall financial success of projects and her firm.
She is also the author of the bestselling book, Build Boldly, chart your unique career path, and lead with courage. It’s a practical playbook written to ignite individuals and leaders to take bold, courageous action and craft their own unique playbooks for success.
She holds a Master’s in Education & Social Policy from NYU, Master’s in Applied Mathematics and Bachelor’ in Mathematics from City University of New York, Hunter College. She is passionate about service and is the founder of four impact organizations: SheBuildsWaves, SheBuildsLives, SheBuildsMoney and REACH Nigeria.
Annya Ramírez-Jiménez, AIA, is a Partner at Marvel. She oversees the architecture staff of the firm. Annya tackles complex projects with ease and is focused on achieving consensus from stakeholders while maintaining a clear design voice for each project. As a passionate advocate for equity, her career focuses in building a more equitable city that balances its resources to serve all residents. She is currently leading multiple projects at various scales, from the design and development of Rockaway Village; a new neighborhood in Queens which will revitalize downtown Far Rockaway to various city sponsored civic projects in the Bronx including the Bronx Arts Museum Renovation. Annya was raised in Puerto Rico, and attended the University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture, then settled in New York City after obtaining a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University GSAPP in 2003. She currently serves as a board member for The Clemente Center, a Puerto Rican and Latinx cultural space in the Lower East Side and is a member of the AIANY Honors Committee.
Ann is a partner at FXCollaborative. She directs their Architects’ Cultural and Educational practice, and has been instrumental in its development from its inception. She is inquisitive and optimistic by nature, and with a keen blend of analytical and organizational skills, Ann uncovers possibilities, unlocks potentials, and maximizes outcomes. Ann is a Fellow of the AIA, a registered architect in New York, and a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, where she earned both Bachelor of Arts and Master of Architecture degrees. A frequent speaker and active member of the design community, she has served on the advisory boards of several organizations and is active in the AIA New York Committee on Architecture for Education, Non-Traditional Employment for Women (NEW), and Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF).
Lynn is SVP Global ESG & Sustainability who has spent more than 20 years’ experience shaping a regenerative economy and meeting business needs that demonstrate a commitment to climate change and social justice across tech, real estate, built environment, AEC, and non-profit sectors. She influences and convenes stakeholders to Board level, leads cross-functional programs in matrix organizations, and builds multidisciplinary global teams with a focus on carbon, waste, water, health and DEI. Lynn was most recently at Google as Head of Sustainability within Real Estate and Workplace Services where she led a global, cross-functional team leading collaboration on KPI setting process, mapping shared opportunities for carbon, water and waste, and gaining collective buy-in for 1, 2 and 5-year goals. As Managing Director and Founder of Simon & Associates (S&A), Lynn educated over 10,000 AEC professionals and led interdisciplinary teams on 500+ projects from multi-family residential to large-scale institutional and commercial developments. As Senior Vice President at Thornton Tomasetti, who purchased S&A in 2013, Lynn built and retained over 250 client relationships across real estate, hospitality, institutional, and AEC such as MGM, Tishman Speyer, and State of CA. Lynn has spoken at over 200+ industry events on sustainability, resilience, leadership and diversity around the world. She was honored with the USGBC Pacific Region SHERO Leadership Award, gb&d Magazine Women in Sustainability Leadership Award, and the USGBC’s President’s Leadership Award. Lynn serves on the Board of Directors of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation and recently served on the Corporate Advisory Board for the World Green Building Council. She holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Washington and earned a BA in Environmental Design from UC Berkeley. She is a Registered Architect (26574) with the State of California and a certified coach through New Venture West.
Experienced in managing complex institutional planning and design projects, as Partner at Robert A.M. Stern Architects LLP, Jennifer Stone brings a love of contextually appropriate, sustainable architecture to her work with clients, communities, and building industry partners. Jennifer is an active participant, mentor, and volunteer in her professional community. As a council member of the Society for College and University Planning, she shares her extensive knowledge and stays current with global best practices. Her presentations at numerous professional conferences and her leadership roles with the New York Building Congress Foundation, ACE Mentorship Programs, and the Urban Land Institute, as well as the firm’s own Women Leadership Initiative and Sustainability Committee, testify to her commitment to developing and opening the field of architecture.
Over the course of her career, Danielle Tillman has become an expert at infusing architecture with social consciousness. Her orientation toward community service and civic engagement has drawn her to education and institutional projects. Danielle’s specialty is built environments that naturally integrate into their communities. With a focus on urban planning, she cultivates relationships with neighborhood leaders and residents, synthesizing their requirements and feedback into the project program.
In addition to education and institutional projects, Danielle’s portfolio includes mixed-use and residential developments. She was a member of the team that developed the 2016 Chicago Olympic Village housing bid. Danielle earned a BS in mathematics from Spelman College and a Master’s in Architecture from the University of Michigan. She holds a Certificate of Real Estate Development and is a member of Chicago Women in Architecture, the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), CREW Chicago, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She is a licensed architect in the state of Illinois.
Ebbie Wisecarver is senior vice president, head of global design, at WeWork. Since joining the company in 2015, she has held multiple positions, including architect and development project manager for Australia, design director of Asia, Australia and India, and head of project delivery for WeWork Japan. Previously, Wisecarver held positions at prestigious design firms Diller, Scofidio + Renfro New York and Steven Holl Architects. She holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and has participated in numerous traveling exhibitions and fellowships, including a competitive summer internship at Takenaka Corporation in Osaka, Japan. A strong advocate for gender equality, Wisecarver currently serves as the executive sponsor of the company’s employee resource group, Women of WeWork.
As Executive Vice President of Design for Related California, Ms. Yee is responsible for the management of architecture and design for all market rate and mixed-income residential developments in California. Ms. Yee works closely with the architectural team, sales and marketing, and development executives throughout the entire development process to ensure seamless design and execution. A recipient of the Asian Women in Business Corporate Leadership Award, Ms. Yee holds a Master in Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles and a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. She is a current member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and has been a speaker at AIA conferences and Urban Land Institute events.
Alexandra Lange is a design critic. Her essays, reviews, and profiles have appeared in numerous design publications including Architect, Harvard Design Magazine, Metropolis, and T Magazine, as well as in The Atlantic, New York Magazine, the New Yorker, and the New York Times. Her latest book, The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids was published by Bloomsbury USA in June 2018. Her most recent book, “Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall”, was published by Bloomsbury in June 2022.
Mary McLeod is a Professor of Architecture at Columbia GSAPP, where she teaches architecture history and theory, and occasionally studio. She has also taught at Harvard University, University of Kentucky, University of Miami and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies. Her research and publications have focused on the history of the modern movement and on contemporary architecture theory, examining issues concerning the connections between architecture and ideology.
McLeod is co-editor of Architecture, Criticism, Ideology and Architecture Reproduction, and is the editor of and contributor to the book Charlotte Perriand: An Art of Living (Abrams, 2003). She also initiated and helped curate the exhibition Charlotte Perriand: Interior Equipment, held at the Urban Center in New York. Her articles have appeared in Assemblage, Oppositions, Art Journal, AA Files, JSAH, Casabella, Art Journal, Harvard Design Magazine and Lotus as well as other journals and anthologies, such as The Sex of Architecture, Architecture in Fashion, Architecture of the Everyday, Architecture and Feminism, The Pragmatist Imagination, The State of Architecture, Fragments: Architecture and the Unfinished, Architecture Theory since 1968, Oppositions Reader, Le Parole dell’Architettura, and Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art. She has received numerous fellowships and awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship, NEH award, and grants from New York Council of the Arts and the Graham Foundation.
Victoria Rosner is Dean of NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She joins NYU from Columbia University’s School of General Studies, where she has been serving as the dean of Academic Affairs. She joined Columbia’s School of General Studies in 2010 and has served as the dean of Academic Affairs since 2016. She joined the faculty of Texas A&M University as an assistant professor in 1998 and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2004.
Rosner is the recipient of numerous awards and honors; her work has been supported by the Graham Foundation, the Modernist Studies Association, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is the author of Machines for Living: Modernism and Domestic Life (Oxford UP, 1) and Modernism and the Architecture of Private Life (Columbia UP, 2005), as well as editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Bloomsbury Group (Cambridge UP, 2014) and The Global and the Intimate: Feminist Theory in Our Time (Columbia UP, 2012). Her public-facing scholarship includes the award-winning web archive Pioneering Women of American Architecture as well as the oral history project Frontline Nurses. She is co-editor of Gender and Culture at Columbia University Press, the preeminent book series on gender and the humanities.
She received her BA, MA, and PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
Cynthia is an architect and currently serves as the Executive Director for Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF). She joins the Foundation following ten years as the Managing Director of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter, Center for Architecture. Both an architect and a creative institutional administrator, Cynthia was responsible for the creation of Archtober, the New York City month-long festival of architecture and design. As one of the early pioneers of co-education in the 1970’s, Cynthia graduated from Princeton University receiving both a magna cum laude, and Masters of Architecture. She worked for Philip Johnson in the 80’s and taught at the University of Virginia, New Jersey Institute of Technology and her alma mater.
Virginia is from Montgomery, Alabama and graduated from the University of Alabama in 2020 with a degree in Advertising and Art. She is looking forward to working with the community around her to build up and acknowledge women’s achievements in the design and building industry.