2022 Spring Speakers

Sharon Prince
CEO and Founder, Grace Farms Foundation

Sharon Prince is the CEO and Founder of Grace Farms Foundation a private operating foundation established in 2009. The Foundation’s interdisciplinary humanitarian mission is to pursue peace through nature, arts, justice, community, faith, and Design for Freedom — and Grace Farms, a SANAA-designed site for convening people across sectors. Grace Farms has garnered numerous awards for contributions to architecture, environmental sustainability, and social good, including the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize. Its stake in the ground is to end modern slavery and gender-based violence, and create more grace and peace in our local and global communities. 

After recognizing a void in addressing exploitation in the building materials supply chain, Prince launched Design for Freedom, a new movement with more than 80 industry leaders to initialize a radical paradigm shift towards a forced labor-free built environment. In 2019, Prince received the NYC Visionary Award from AIA NY and the Center for Architecture. On March 31, 2022, Grace Farms hosts the first-ever Design for Freedom Summit, a day-long event to accelerate the movement to remove forced labor from the global materials supply chain. There are currently four Design for Freedom Pilot Projects in the U.S. and abroad including the 21st Serpentine Pavilion in London.

Susie Teal, AIA, LEED AP
Partner

Susie joined COOKFOX in 2012 and plays a vital role in the development and design of the firm’s new projects. In addition to her contribution to proposals, she was the project architect for Phase Two of City Point, a three-part mixed-use development in Downtown Brooklyn. The project received the Award for Excellence in Design from the New York City Public Design Commission in 2013. Susie was also the project architect for 535 Carlton, an affordable building in the Pacific Park development in Brooklyn and is currently the project manager of 378 West End Avenue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, as well as 1900 Crystal Drive in Arlington, VA and other developments in the Washington DC Metro area. Susie regularly shares her expertise in biophilic and sustainable design, housing and exterior wall design. She has presented at the AIA Conference on Architecture, Greenbuild, CitiesAlive, NYCxDesign, the Façades+ Conference, and the Urban Green Council.

Prior to starting at COOKFOX, Susie spent 5 years at Skidmore Owings & Merrill working on a range of projects both domestic and international. She worked on multiple school projects, including the High School for Art & Design in New York City, and the Syracuse University Basketball Training Facility. She also worked on large-scale commercial and mixed-use projects in Asia and the Middle East. As a runner, Susie is inspired by the architectural nuances of the streets of New York.

Ann Rolland, FAIA, LEED AP

Ann Rolland, FAIA, LEED AP, is Partner at FXCollaborative, a New York City-based architecture, interiors, and planning design firm. Ann serves as Studio Director of the firm’s 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 American Institute of Architects, 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 the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF).

Amy Mielke AIA, Director of Ennead Lab
Associate Principal, ENNEAD ARCHITECTS

Amy Mielke, an Associate Principal at Ennead Architects and the Director of EnneadLab, a research group within the firm engaged in design explorations of social, environmental, and technological importance that is aimed at expanding the traditional boundaries of professional architectural practice. Named a “Game Changer” by Metropolis and a “Best Young Disrupter” by ArchDaily, she has been recognized internationally, including the Lafarge Holcim Gold Medal for North America, the world’s most significant award for sustainable design. A frequent lecturer and visiting juror, she has taught and advised at Parsons School of Design and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She is also co-founder of the Water Pore Partnership, a design collaborative focused on the agency of water in urban resilience and the spatial potential of water in infrastructure.

Katie Swenson
Senior Principal, MASS Design Group
Harvard University GSD, Loeb Fellow | University of Virginia, M. Arch | U.C. Berkeley, B.A.

A nationally recognized design leader, researcher, writer, and educator, Katie Swenson has served as a Senior Principal of MASS Design Group since 2020. Katie’s work explores how critical design practice can, and should, promote economic and social equity, environmental sustainability, and healthy communities. Katie has over 20 years of experience in the theoretical and practical application of design thinking and is a talented global public speaker and thought leader. A prolific writer, she authored Design with Love: At Home in America, and In Bohemia: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Kindness, both published in August 2020.  She co-authored Growing Urban Habitats: Seeking a Housing Development Model with William Morrish and Susanne Schindler. She is a contributing author to Activist Architecture: Philosophy and Practice of Community Design and Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism. Katie was awarded the AIA Award for Excellence in Public Architecture in 2021. Prior to joining MASS, Katie was the vice president of Design & Sustainability at Enterprise Community Partners. An alumni of the Enterprise Rose Fellowship’s second class, Swenson was tapped to lead and grow the program in 2007. Katie also helped found the Charlottesville Community Design Center in 2004.

Paul Schwer, President, PE, LEEP AP

Paul is an energy geek, an engineer, an educator, and an entrepreneur.

For over 35 years, Paul has been collaborating with architects to design beautiful, high-performance buildings. His projects include high-rises, museums, offices, educational facilities, and labs. Paul’s highest performing projects include the Bullitt Center and the Rocky Mountain Institute Innovation Center. His most recent project, the PAE Living Building, is the world’s largest urban commercial and Portland’s first Living Building.

As a thought leader, Paul has spoken extensively throughout the nation at events including Living Future, Verge, Greenbuild, Labs 21, and the New York Academy of Science. He has helped educate the next generation as an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon and New York University. Paul has also served on national juries to select the best projects in the country for both Engineering News Record (ENR) and the AIA National Committee on the Environment. In 2020, he was named one of ENR’s Top Newsmakers of the Year.

Justin Brooks, AIA, LEED AP®

B.Arch, Syracuse University

Justin Brooks has always enjoyed losing himself in his imagination. As a child, he imagined elaborate tree houses and forts, and then began drawing his ideas: boats, ships, cars, and, of course, buildings. He still taps into that power today, getting lost in thought to parse though how a system or design might work and how to tell the story of the place. A native Oregonian and avid traveler, he relishes experiences in new environments that push him to think differently about the complementary forces of performance, biophilia, and beauty of design.

Jill Sherman
Co-founder of Edlen & Co.

Jill leads Edlen & Co.’s public-private partnerships and build-to-suit projects for nonprofit and for-profit organizations, facilitating the important work of nonprofits and public agencies in our communities. Her projects at Edlen & Co., and previously at Gerding Edlen Development which she joined in 2003, include affordable housing, community facilities, student housing, academic buildings and mixed-use residential. Jill sources new deals and manages all aspects of the development process, with a depth of expertise at integrating non-conventional sources of financing including low income housing tax credits, new market tax credits, historic tax credits, tax-exempt bonds and urban renewal funds. She holds a Master’s of Urban Studies from Portland State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from University of Pennsylvania. She served on the City of Portland’s Planning and Sustainability Commission and currently serves on the boards for Architectural Foundation of Oregon and Earth Advantage.

Katie Zabrocki, Senior Associate, PE

Katie has over a decade of experience developing innovative, energy-efficient systems as a mechanical engineer. Her project expertise includes optimizing systems for high-performance buildings, designing LEED-certified projects and the PAE Living Building. Katie also has significant experience in K-12 design and project management. In addition to being a professional engineer, Katie also has a Masters in Business Administration from Portland State University. She is a valued communicator and brings a collaborative approach to her projects.

Laura Terry Howard
Fox Rothschild LLP | Corporate Partner and Co-Chair of the firm’s Business Succession Planning Practice | San Francisco, CA

Laura serves as a trusted business adviser to corporate clients, including architects and engineers, with whom she works closely to identify, assess and resolve legal issues involving employment, contracts and ownership transition. She assists clients through the corporate life cycle, addressing formation issues in the startup phase to developing and implementing an exit strategy. Laura possesses extensive experience in general corporate counseling, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and ownership transition and provides results-oriented and practical solutions to her clients’ legal challenges. Laura was a contributor and the editor of “Architects Essentials of Ownership Transition” published by John Wiley and Sons. She earned her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and her B.A., magna cum laude, from Emory University.

Syvia L. Magid
Fox Rothschild LLP | Corporate Partner | San Francisco, CA

Syvia helps her clients with choice of entity decisions and entity formation, counsels businesses regarding general corporate matters and governance and regularly drafts and reviews contracts. Her practice particularly focuses on design professionals, including architects, landscape architects, interior designers, engineers and environmental consultants. Syvia drafts and reviews design services contracts and helps these clients to successfully transition ownership either internally, to a new generation of owners in order to allow for the growth of the design firms over multiple generations of ownership and leadership, or externally to become part of a larger organization through merger and acquisition. She earned her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings, College of the Law and her B.A., summa cum laude, from Whittier College.

Tommaso Bitossi
Associate Director, Transsolar KilmaEngineering

Tommaso focuses on two aspects of climate responsive design: architecture and climate engineering. His unique perspective on the integrated design process together with his understanding of both the architectural and the engineering approaches facilitate the communication of complex strategies to the design team. In addition to his international project management responsibilities, Tommaso developed and coordinated the education components of the Transsolar Academy, a program designed to enable young professionals to gain basic climate responsive design knowledge.

Ruth Baleiko, FAIA, Partner
Miller Hull

Ruth Baleiko’s work is defined by her ability to take a client’s vision and translate it to iconic form and expression. Since joining Miller Hull in 1999, Ruth has devoted her expertise to spaces for learning and discovery that weave together functional and inspirational aspects of design. As a Design Partner, Ruth is experienced with the facilitation techniques needed to meld the technical requirements of public facilities with a broad range of stakeholder desires. Through her unique approach defined by active listening, emblematic expression and typological transformation, she creates spaces that bring people together to share intellectual and cultural capital in new, unexpected ways. By embracing a variety of typologies within a singular project, Ruth has expanded the way architects design learning, teaching, and working spaces. Instead of designing for their differences, she designs for their similarities inspired by a client’s mission and focused on how spaces change people.

Ted Watson
Partner, MJMA Architecture & Design Toronto

Ted is a Partner at MJMA Architecture & Design Toronto, who focuses on the design of comprehensive public space, collaboratively leading the design of many of the studio’s most challenging and ambitious projects. He brings 25 years of community recreation design to MJMA’s municipal and academic projects. Framing design solutions around social, technical, and environmental challenges, Ted strives to advance the architecture of community and campus recreation projects as critical infrastructure for collective human engagement, one that ‘Elevates the Civic Experience’ and has impacts beyond their site.

Megan Stringer
Associate Principal | Holmes

Megan Stringer is an Associate Principal at Holmes, focusing on the structural engineering of mass timber and low-carbon concrete designs. She is active across professional industries leading sustainable efforts (SE2050, SEI, SEAOC, SEAONC). She is a leader in mass timber and has project managed multiple mass timber projects, including Microsoft’s new Mountain View Campus. In addition, Megan actively is improving our community through her DEI contributions to elevating engagement and equity within the profession through many channels (SE3 project, NCSEA & SEAONC).

Tim Keil, RA, Principal
Studio Ma 

Tim Keil, RA promotes architecture as a practice of observation and response. Master plans and buildings are shaped by their surroundings and the intention to improve peoples’ experiences through their construction. Discovering how to achieve that better existence comes from reading the social context, as architectural designs are turned into constructed buildings. While he is adept at addressing technical details and expressing the character of building materials, Tim also has a gift for understanding people and bringing them together to resolve challenges – resulting in purposeful architecture that creates value.

Born in the California Bay Area, Tim spent his childhood in Seattle and Southern Oregon, a region of small towns separated by conifer woods and mountain ranges. These are areas where the environment plays a primary role in daily experience. Tim studied architecture at the University of Oregon, which nurtured his love of the Pacific Northwest style and its emphasis on the innate character of building materials. He spent his early career in Sacramento, working on schools, colleges and housing. Seeking to grow his skills comprehensively, Tim joined Studio Ma in 2006 and immediately he took on some of our firm’s most ambitious commissions. This included supervising the concurrent execution of Arizona State University’s Manzanita Hall renovation and the expansion of the ASU Sun Devil Fitness Complex and segued into overseeing construction administration for Studio Ma’s Lakeside Graduate Housing at Princeton University.

Tenna Florian, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
Lake|Flato Architects

Tenna is a Partner and co-leader of the Lake|Flato’s Eco-Conservation Studio. Tenna finds purpose in creating architecture that promotes environmental stewardship through high-performance design that strengthens the essential bond between humans and nature. With over 20 years of experience, she has proved to be a skilled listener and collaborator. She is committed to an integrated design process that seeks to fully realize the client’s aspirations and goals. Her passion for innovative sustainable design has led to several award-winning projects including Naples Botanical Garden, the AIA Honor Award-winning Confluence Park, and the Dixon Water Foundation Josey Pavilion—the first certified Living Building Challenge project in Texas.

Sarah N. Lindenfield, AIA, Managing Principal
Payette

Sarah joined Payette in 2014 after working at Safdie Architects for over 13 years. As Managing Principal, Sarah focuses on firm-wide management and enhancing client relationships, positioning the firm for growth. Internally, she leads the Practice Management Group, overseeing staffing and recruiting, and is the Co-Chair of Payette’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, acting as a vital mentor to Payette’s designers.

Sarah’s nearly 20-year career has been characterized by complex project coordination, team management and client relations. Her project experience ranges from academic science buildings to performing arts centers and libraries. She also has extensive experience leading large intricate projects with ambitious goals and multifaceted programmatic needs.

Sarah has been an active participant in the Women in Design Committee at the Boston Society of Architects, including serving on the Mentoring Sub-Committee, Steering Committee, along with the Women’s Leadership Summit for the AIA. She has also served on the BSA Honors and Awards Committee. Sarah is a frequent lecturer on topics of equity, mentoring and firm management, recently presenting at the 2019 AIA Women’s Leadership Summit.

Darryl Condon, Managing Principal
hcma architecture + design

Darryl Condon is interested in design that acts as a catalyst for positive social change. As Managing Principal at Vancouver based HCMA Architecture + Design, his leadership has led to highly innovative public spaces such as community centers, pools, recreation facilities, fire halls and libraries across Canada. After 30 years of practice creating these dynamic, engaging and effective spaces, Darryl is asking ‘what’s next?’ The intent is to push, think and break away from preconceptions of conventional practice at every scale, to maximize the impact and potential of projects and collaborations. These efforts are focused on transforming his firm to provide creative interdisciplinary solutions to an increasingly wider range of challenges facing our communities.

Darryl is a registered Architect (Architect AIBC, AAA, SAA, OAA, NLAA, AIA) and a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. He is a Past-President of the Architectural Institute of British Columbia, a frequent speaker internationally and has been an adjunct professor at the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.