Illya Azaroff, FAIA is the founding principal of +LAB architect whose mission is to build resilient capacity and advance goals for a sustainable, regenerative future while giving underserved communities greater voice and visibility. He is an internationally recognized leader in disaster mitigation, resilient planning, and design strategies. An Associate professor at New York City of Technology (CUNY). He serves as a technical expert for the New York Climate Impact Assessment appointed by Governor Hochul.  As AIA New York state disaster coordinator, he founded the AIA Unified Task Force City and State addressing impacts of COVID19.  Illya is advising HUD, the federal government, as part of the Resilient Housing Task force. While with ICC/ANCR- the Alliance for National Community Resilience helped create community resilience benchmarking system. He is a founding director of KIGRR - Kalinago Institute for Global Resilience and Regeneration on the island of Dominica. His office is advancing culturally significant community resilience hubs and regenerative cluster housing in several communities across the world. He served as the 2021 AIA New York State president and founding co-chair DfRR Design for Risk and Reconstruction at AIA New York (2011-21). Prior to coming to New York, he worked in Germany, Italy and Holland. He has worked in the field for over 25 years.

Craig Brandt is an architect and educator based in Chicago and Chair of Programs for the AIA Committee on Design. He has guided the design and execution of collaborative public projects with a focus on sensitive adaptation and sustainability, and has participated as design critic, lecturer, and moderator internationally. His various activities promote a wide gamut of design excellence and preservation with leadership roles in the American Institute of Architects and Docomomo US. He is a member of the Society of Fellows at the American Academy of Rome, a General Services Administration (GSA) National Peer, and serves as adjunct professor at the University of Notre Dame and University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

Marlene is an ACSA Distinguished Professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville College of Architecture + Design where she served as dean from 1994 to 2003. In 2013, Marleen received national recognition as an ACSA Distinguished Professor due to her career efforts as a design educator in the academy and in service to the profession and the community and in 2006 was recognized as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Marleen has worked tirelessly to strengthen the profile and the quality of architectural education having served on the boards of AIAS, AACSA, and the NAAB. As President of the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, she helped to commemorate the organization’s 100th anniversary with an innovative web site exhibit, ACSA Archive, and with a scholarly publication edited by Joan Ockman, and printed by MIT Press, entitled: Architecture School: Three Centuries of Educating Architects in North America.

Stephen Luoni, AIA is Director of the University of Arkansas Community Design Center (UACDC), an outreach program of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. Luoni is the Steven L. Anderson Chair in Architecture and Urban Studies and a Distinguished Professor of architecture. Under his direction since 2003, UACDC’s design and research have received more than 100 awards. Luoni’s work at UACDC specializes in interdisciplinary public works projects combining landscape, urban, and architectural design across Arkansas. Luoni directed production of UACDC’s award-winning book: Low Impact Development: a design manual for urban areas. In addition to being appointed a 2012 Ford Fellow by the United States Artists, Luoni is a recipient of National Endowment for the Arts grants and has served as a review panelist for the NEA and a resource team member for the Mayors’ Institute on City Design. He has also taught at the University of Florida; the University of Minnesota, as the; Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Oklahoma.

Joe Riley is widely considered one of the most visionary and highly effective governmental leaders in America.  He served ten terms as Mayor of the City of Charleston from 1975 to 2016.  He is known for his innovative redevelopment projects, carefully crafted to add to the overall quality of life in the city.  

Today, Riley is professor of American Government and Public Policy at The Citadel and Executive in Residence at the Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Center for Livable Communities at the College of Charleston. Riley has held numerous national leadership positions and received many awards and distinctions including the 2009 National Medal of the Arts as the founder of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design. Additional distinctions include the U.S. Conference of Mayors President’s Award, the Urban Land Institute’s Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development, the Arthur J. Clement Award in Race Relations, the Thomas Jefferson Award, the Seaside Prize from the Seaside Institute, and the Outstanding Mayors Award from the National Urban Coalition. He served as President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 1986-87 and has received honorary degrees from ten colleges and universities. The American Architectural Foundation and the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 2010 created the Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Award for Leadership in City Design in his honor.