Practice & Identity Bundle
AIAU24-WLS22-B
4 Courses
Course expires on: 04/27/2027
Description
Women’s Leadership Summit, founded by AIA, is a premier event that brings together the industry’s largest network of diverse women in architecture, design, and the allied building industries. It exists to support and empower women on their leadership journeys and break down the barriers that get in their way. Focused on networking, leadership training, business development, gender equity, and personal empowerment, WLS helps women manifest the careers they want while making a difference in the world. This bundle focuses on networking, mental health and professional growth.
Expires 4/27/2027
Learning Objectives
Share in pathbreaking ideas that challenge traditional thinking and lead change.
Celebrate women leaders at every career stage, empowering all of us to change the future.
Connect with a diverse community that wants to support architects and help the profession thrive.
Courses
Cultivating Belonging: Tackling Bias, Discrimination, and Harassment
The office setting is a meeting place of people from diverse backgrounds, rich in culture and lived experiences. Employers and employees must find ways to continue to celebrate and uplift diverse voices while challenging xenophobia and unconscious bias head on. In this session, panelists from academia, AEC-affiliate industries, and architecture firms will discuss how to cultivate belonging in the workplace. Our panelists will pull from AIA’s most recent research study, “An Investigation into Bias in the Architecture Profession,” which reveals data on racial and gender-based bias in architecture.
Mental Health & Wellbeing in Architecture: From Academia to Practice
An architect’s journey, starting in school, through licensure, and into practice, can be rewarding and simultaneously challenging. The culture of work in architecture sets a high bar for performance standards. It is a creative industry that requires rigorous attention to detail while upholding the health, safety, and welfare of people in the built environment. For students, emerging professionals, women, and BIPOC individuals, there is mounting pressure to excel, resulting in dedicated action to prevent extreme burnout, exhaustion, and mental fatigue. Join this group of panelists who will have an open and honest dialogue on mental health and well-being and will talk about opportunities for improvement and examples of firm leaders leading within their firms.
Practice & Identity: Powerful Stories of Women Designing with Purpose
Gender. Race. Identity. We all wear multiple hats and represent a mixed bag of roles: architect, mom, friend, sister, daughter. Stories give voice to the rich diversity of our world and honor our shared humanity. We invite you to hear powerful stories from women who have built design practices and nonprofits around the unique identity of their respective communities. Alicia Ponce, AIA, is the founder of her firm APMonarch and the nonprofit Arquitina, and she is the author of Latinas in Architecture. April De Simone is a principal at Trahan Architects and founder of designing the WE, a for-benefit social design studio. Tamarah Begay, AIA, is the founder of Indigenous Design Studio + Architecture, a Navajo woman-owned architectural firm. And our moderator, Tiara Hughes, is the founder of The First 500, a community of Black women architects. Let us honor the women who are bravely breaking stereotypes and glass ceilings.
A Network of Peers: Women Building our World
There are more women in leadership positions across all industries than at any point in history. In the architecture, engineering, construction, and planning network, project teams are taking on a different look—more women are in meeting rooms and in the construction trailer. While there is still a long way to go to close the wage gap and reduce biases in the workplace, we would like to honor some of the women pioneers who’ve paved a path for the next generation. Our panelists will talk about their personal and professional journeys, share lessons learned, and offer their perspectives on the future of women in the workplace.