Kimberly Dowdell on her time as NOMA president and the importance of diversity in architecture

{"version":"0.3.0","atoms":[],"cards":[],"markups":[["a",["href","https:\/\/www.hok.com\/","target","_new"]],["a",["href","https:\/\/www.noma.net\/","target","_new"]],["b"],["sup"],["a",["href","https:\/\/www.aia.org\/articles\/6311692-nomas-public-statement-regarding-racial-in"]],["i"]],"sections":[[1,"h2",[[0,[],0,"Kimberly Dowdell, AIA, will be the first Black woman\npresident in the history of AIA when she takes office in 2024."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Elected as 2023\nFirst VP\/2024 President-elect at the 2022 AIA Annual Meeting in June, Ms.\nDowdell is currently Marketing Principal at global design firm "],[0,[0],1,"HOK."],[0,[],0," She was previously president\nof the "],[0,[1],1,"National Organization of Minority Architects"],[0,[],0," (NOMA) from 2019-2020. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"In the first of our two-part interview with Ms. Dowdell, she\ntalks about her motivation to become an architect, lessons learned during her\ntime as NOMA president, and the importance of diversity in the field of\narchitecture. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"When did you first know that you wanted to be an\narchitect?"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I decided when I was 11 years old that I wanted to become an\narchitect because I wanted to help heal my hometown, which is Detroit.\nI learned about architecture in a middle school art class, where my teacher\ngave us an assignment to create an apartment out of a shoe box, using carpet\nsamples, blocks and other materials. That simple exercise exposed me to the power\nof design as a tool to shape the way people live. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Around that same timeframe, I took notice of a building in\ndowntown Detroit called the Hudson\u2019s Department Store. It occupied an entire city\nblock for many decades during Detroit\u2019s strongest era in the early to mid 20"],[0,[3],1,"th"],[0,[],0,"\ncentury. As a result of suburban flight, Hudson\u2019s closed its flagship Detroit\nstore the year that I was born. I never got to experience Hudson\u2019s as a place\nof commerce, but I know it meant a lot to the community while it was thriving.\nI remember looking at this beautiful old building that was a ghost of its\nformer self, noticing the windows had been broken and that there was graffiti\nabound, all of which was fairly commonplace in downtown Detroit in the early\n\u201890s. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"At that moment, I sort of put two and two together and\nthought \u201cwell, if architects make space and improve buildings, then I\u2019ll become\nan architect so I can fix this building and all of the other problematic things\nthat I saw around it.\u201d I felt there was a correlation between the blight and\nthe homelessness that I was seeing along with the other issues on display in\ndowntown at that point. I believe that moment was a calling for me to get\ninvolved with helping my city recover. I later learned that architects don\u2019t necessarily\nsolve all of these complicated urban challenges, but we are a vital partner on\nthe larger team. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I initially wanted to become a doctor, but I ultimately concluded\nat age 11 that becoming an architect and working on urban issues would empower\nme to help heal larger groups of people than I would be able to impact at the individual\npatient scale. And that\u2019s how all of this got started\u2026from a shoebox."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"You were previously president of The National\nOrganization of Minority Architects where your platform \u201cALL in for NOMA\u201d\nfocused on access, leadership, and legacy. \nCan you expand on your accomplishments during your term with NOMA?"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"The ALL in for NOMA platform was meant to help signal that\nall people could join. NOMA was founded by Black architects at an AIA\nconference in 1971, and I think the general sentiment was that NOMA is only open\nto Black architects. I wanted to change that narrative, expanding our\nopportunities to engage and have a broader impact on diversity in the\nprofession. Our membership more than doubled when I was president and I\u2019m very\nproud of that accomplishment, among others. Now we\u2019re joined by many architects\nwith different racial and ethnic backgrounds who want to support the mission\nand work toward our ambitious goals of increasing access to the profession for\nthose who have historically been under-represented. NOMA partnered with the AIA\nLarge Firm Roundtable to double the number of licensed Black architects between\n2020 and 2030. Even with achieving this, the number would only be around 5,000\nout of more than 120,000 licensed architects in the U.S. We still have much\nmore work to do. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I\u2019m proud that NOMA was really able to ramp up our support\nfor young people considering a career in architecture. Our relationship with the\nphilanthropic leadership at General Motors in Detroit availed us of over half a\nmillion dollars to support our K-12 NOMA Project Pipeline (NPP) summer camps.\nDuring the pandemic, we digitized a lot of our content so it could be more\naccessible and help bridge the digital divide for students who wouldn\u2019t\notherwise have access to our educational content. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"For college students, we have our\nNOMA student chapters (known as NOMAS), and prior to the pandemic I tried to\ntravel and visit them in person as much as possible. That had to pivot to\nvirtual visits early in 2020, but it was important to establish and maintain\nthose touchpoints with students to drum up more excitement about the\norganization and architecture as a career. The main objective was to find ways\nto support young people and get them to stay engaged in the field. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Something I\u2019m super proud of is the\nNOMA Foundation Fellowship (NFF) program, which is geared toward students who\njust graduated or are very close to graduating from architecture school. We\npaired them with architecture firms to help the transition from school into the\nprofession. That was another important outcome of NOMA\u2019s partnership with the\nAIA Large Firm Roundtable, which represents the 60 largest architecture firms\nin North America. They pooled money and provided funding to NOMA for us to go\nthrough a selection process to ensure our students were appropriately paired\nwith firms for a fellowship program. NOMA also managed the compensation for the\nstudent fellows, ensuring that each participant had the resources that they needed\nto navigate that transition process into firm life during the pandemic. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"What lessons from being NOMA\u2019s\npresident will help you as AIA president?"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"I firmly believe that leadership is\na practice similar to how architecture is a practice or law is a practice or\nmedicine is a practice. I don\u2019t believe in perfection, but practice definitely helps\none to get closer to the goal of excellence. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"NOMA has given me a lot of\npractice. I was national president of NOMA for two years, but it\u2019s actually a\nsix year term. I was President-elect for two years, then I had two years in the\ndriver\u2019s seat as President, and I\u2019m currently the Immediate Past President\nuntil the end of this year. It\u2019s a lot of time on the executive committee and\nhelping to make key decisions for the organization. I will gladly bring that\nexperience to AIA."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"One of the biggest takeaways from\nNOMA was learning more about my own resilience as a leader. I certainly didn\u2019t\nknow that I was going to be the sitting president when a global pandemic would\nstrike. I had to take everything in stride. One of the most important things I\ndid was send a weekly note to our members during the uncertain times of the\npandemic. After sending my last note several months into the whole situation, I\ngot so many messages back from people saying how those notes really helped them\nstay connected and gave them a level of comfort that someone was awake at the\nwheel. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"My experience leading NOMA through\nthe early stages of COVID-19\u2019s sweeping impact around the globe taught me how\nimportant it is to hear from leadership. Whatever that means in 2024, whether\nwe\u2019re navigating an economic downturn or something else completely unexpected, I\nintend to be communicative about how the AIA can be supportive, for all of our\nmembers, including those at different size firms, in different regions, and at\ndifferent stages of their careers. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"The other thing that unfortunately came up in 2020 was the\nmurder of George Floyd. I wrote a "],[0,[4],1,"statement"],[0,[],0,"\nin reaction that challenged architects to be B.R.A.V.E., an acronym that stood\nfor: "]]],[3,"ul",[[[0,[],0,"Banish racism"]],[[0,[],0,"Reach out to those who are grieving "]],[[0,[],0,"Advocate for the disinherited "]],[[0,[],0,"Vote in every American election"]],[[0,[],0,"Engage each human how you want to be engaged"]]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Basically, I was encouraging people to be better humans to\none another. The intent of the statement was to be communicative about how many\nof our members were feeling in those heart wrenching moments following the\ntragedy. The impact of that statement exceeded my expectations in terms of\ncirculation far beyond the NOMA membership. We even have NOMA BRAVE apparel to\nhelp us share the message. As AIA president, I plan to continue searching for\nand conveying the right messaging to give all of our members the confidence\nthat we are tuned into what needs to be said and done for the greatest benefit\nof the Institute. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"Why is diversity especially important in architecture?"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Studies show that diverse teams are far more successful than\nhomogenous teams. Any kind of real estate development project requires a team,\nand we know that architects are vital to the success of the overall team. If we\nwant our cities, towns, suburbs, and rural areas to be the best they can be, we\nneed to bring the best team of architects available to the development process.\nDiversity is the differentiator."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Racial, ethnic, ability, economic and gender diversity in\ndesign leadership is especially valuable when designing for a wide spectrum of\nhumanity. The design teams that serve diverse communities, particularly for\nlarge and complex projects should absolutely offer diversity of thought and\ndiversity of background. We must normalize having people from different perspectives\nrepresented at the design table in order to optimally enhance the human\nexperience in the built environment."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"It\u0027s important to have a workforce that reflects the\ncommunities that we want to work for. If we desire high quality outcomes from\nour design work, we must have high quality teams, and high quality teams,\nfrankly, are going to be diverse. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[5],1,"Part two of our interview with Kimberly Dowdell will be\nin the July 12 issue of AIA Architect. "]]]]}