Speakers

Conference Keynotes

David Adjaye Adjaye Associates

David Adjaye OBE is recognized as a leading architect of his generation. Adjaye was born in Tanzania to Ghanaian parents and his influences range from contemporary art, music and science to African art forms and the civic life of cities. In 1994 he set up his first office, where his ingenious use of materials and his sculptural ability established him as an architect with an artist’s sensibility and vision.

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He reformed his studio as Adjaye Associates in 2000 and immediately won several prestigious commissions. In Oslo he designed the Nobel Peace Centre in the shell of a disused railway station (completed in 2005). In London his design for the Whitechapel Idea Store pioneered a new approach to the provision of information services (2005). Later projects in London included the Stephen Lawrence Centre, with teaching and community spaces (2007), Rivington Place, an exhibition venue and resource centre (2007), and the Bernie Grant Centre for the performing arts (2007). Adjaye Associates’ largest completed project to date is the £160 million Moscow School of Management Skolkovo (2010). 


In the United States, Adjaye was the designer of a new home for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver (2007), two public libraries in Washington DC (2012), as well as of several innovative residential projects. In 2009 a team led by Adjaye was selected to design the new $360 million Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington DC. The practice has also completed a social housing scheme in New York’s Sugar Hill (2014), the Center for Art and Culture at Colgate University (ongoing), The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art at Harvard’s Hutchins Center (2014) and a condominium development for Four Seasons in Washington DC (ongoing).


Adjaye Associates now has offices in London, Berlin, New York, Accra and Shanghai, with projects throughout the world. These include a shopping and cultural complex in Beirut (ongoing), a concept store in Lagos (2014) and a new headquarters building for the International Finance Corporation in Dakar (ongoing).


Adjaye frequently collaborates with contemporary artists on art and installation projects. Examples include The Upper Room, with thirteen paintings by Chris Ofili (2002), Within Reach, a second installation with Ofili in the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2003), and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art for the 21st Century Pavilion that was designed to show a projection work by Olafur Eliasson, Your Black Horizon, at the 2005 Venice Biennale. The Upper Room is now in the permanent collection of Tate Britain. Adjaye is now collaborating with Okwui Enwezor on the design of the forthcoming 56th Venice Art Biennale.


Adjaye has taught at the Royal College of Art, where he had previously studied, and at the Architectural Association School in London, and has held distinguished professorships at the universities of Pennsylvania, Yale and Princeton. He is currently the John C. Portman Design Critic in Architecture at Harvard. He was awarded the OBE for services to architecture in 2007, received the Design Miami/ Year of the Artist title in 2011 and the Wall Street Journal Innovator Award in 2013. 


The material from Adjaye’s ten-year study of the capital cities of Africa was shown in Urban Africa, an exhibition at the Design Museum, London (2010) and published as African Metropolitan Architecture (New York, 2011, and as Adjaye Africa Architecture, London, 2011). He was the artistic director of GEO-graphics: A map of art practices in Africa, past and present, a major exhibition at the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (2010). The last exhibition of his architectural work, David Adjaye: Output, was held at Gallery MA, Tokyo (2010) and he is now collaborating with Haus der Kunst in Munich and the Art Institute of Chicago on a comprehensive retrospective exhibition, which will open in 2015.

 

Stephen Ayers Architect of the Capitol

As Architect of the Capitol, Ayers is responsible for facilities maintenance and operation of the historic Capitol Building, the care of 553 acres of grounds, and operation and maintenance of 17.4 million square feet of buildings including the House and Senate Office Buildings, Capitol Visitor Center, Library of Congress Buildings, the U.S. Supreme Court Building, the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building, and other facilities.

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Ayers completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture at the University of Maryland and received his Master's of Science degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California. After attending Officers Training School at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, Ayers was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Air Force and assigned to Edwards Air Force Base. There he served as a Staff Architect with the 6510th Civil Engineer Squadron managing numerous design and construction projects. He was promoted to Design Team Chief and progressed to the rank of Captain. Ayers was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal and after five years of active duty, decided to pursue a career in public service in another way.


After working in the architectural and engineering community in the Washington, D.C., area, Ayers joined the Voice of America as a General Engineer in 1991. In 1992, he transferred to Rhodes, Greece, to lead design and construction efforts at several Voice of America sites in Greece and Germany. Ayers returned to the U.S. in 1997 and joined the Architect of the Capitol as an Assistant Superintendent for the Senate Office Buildings. In 1999, he was promoted to Deputy Superintendent. He was then promoted to Superintendent of Library Buildings and Grounds in 2002. In October 2005, Ayers was appointed as Acting Deputy Architect/Chief Operating Officer. In March 2006, he was selected as Deputy Architect/Chief Operating Officer. In February 2007, Ayers began serving as Acting Architect until his appointment as Architect of the Capitol in May 2010.


Ayers is a licensed architect in California. He also is an Accredited Professional in Leadership in Energy and Environment Design. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a member of the National Historic Trust for Historic Preservation, the George Washington Chapter of Lambda Alpha International, Construction Users Roundtable, Construction Industry Institute, Washington Building Congress, and Construction Managers Association of America.

 

Shelley Bernstein – Brooklyn Museum

Shelley Bernstein is the Vice Director of Digital Engagement & Technology at the Brooklyn Museum where she works to further the Museum's community-oriented mission through digital projects. Through her work at the Museum, she explores the intersection of public participation and digital and has organized three projects— Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition, Split Second: Indian Paintings, GO: a community-curated open studio project—which enabled the public to participate in the exhibition process. She's currently working on a museum-wide digital initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of their Bloomberg Connects program.

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In 2010, Shelley was named one of the 40 Under 40 in Crain's New York Business and her work on the Museum's digital strategy and approaches to social media have been featured in the New York Times. She can be found biking to work or driving her '74 VW Super Beetle in Red Hook, Brooklyn with her dog Teddy.

 

Lonnie Bunch – National Museum of African American History and Culture

Lonnie G. Bunch III, 56, is the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. As the museum’s director, Bunch has identified the museum’s mission, is developing exhibitions and public programs and coordinating the museum’s fundraising and budget development.

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Under Bunch’s leadership, the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened an exhibition in January titled “The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise,” which features more than 100 images created by one of the premiere African American studios in the country and one of the longest-running black businesses in Washington. In addition, the museum opened its inaugural exhibition in May 2007 at the International Center of Photography in New York. The exhibition, “Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Photographs,” examines 150 years of American history to show how photographers and their subjects worked together to create positive images, challenge demeaning stereotypes and shape new attitudes about race and status. The exhibition is on a national tour through 2012. Bunch also established the program “Save Our African American Treasures” featuring daylong workshops where participants work with conservation specialists and historians to learn to identify and preserve items of historical value ranging from photographs and jewelry to military uniforms and textiles.


Before his July 2005 appointment as director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Bunch served as the president of the Chicago Historical Society (January 2001 to June 2005). There, he led a successful capital campaign to transform the Historical Society in celebration of its 150th anniversary; managed an institutional reorganization; initiated an unprecedented outreach initiative to diverse communities; and launched a much-lauded exhibition and program on teenage life titled “Teen Chicago.”


A prolific and widely published author, Bunch has written on topics ranging from the black military experience, the American presidency and all-black towns in the American west to diversity in museum management and the impact of funding and politics on American museums. Lectures and presentations to museum professionals and scholars have taken him to major cities in the United States and many nations abroad, including Australia, China, England, Italy, Japan, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden and Ghana.Bunch has worked at the Smithsonian in the past, holding a number of positions at its National Museum of American History from 1989 through 2000. As the museum’s associate director for curatorial affairs for six years (1994-2000), he oversaw the curatorial and collections management staff. He also led the team that developed a major permanent exhibition “The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden.” While serving as assistant director for curatorial affairs (1992-1994) at the museum, Bunch supervised the planning and implementation of the museum’s research and collection programs. He also developed “Smithsonian’s America” for the American Festival Japan 1994; this exhibition, which was presented in Japan, explored the history, culture and diversity of the United States. As a supervising curator for the museum from 1989 to 1992, Bunch oversaw several of the museum’s divisions, including Community Life.


Bunch served as the curator of history and program manager for the California Afro-American Museum in Los Angeles from 1983 to 1989. While there, he organized several award-winning exhibitions, including “The Black Olympians, 1904-1950” and “Black Angelenos: The Afro-American in Los Angeles, 1850-1950.” He also produced several historical documentaries for public television.


Born in the Newark, N.J., area, Bunch has held numerous teaching positions at universities across the country, including the American University in Washington, D.C. (1978-1979), the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth (1979-1981) and the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (1989-2000).


In service to the historical and cultural community, Bunch has served on the advisory boards of the American Association of Museums and the American Association of State and Local History. Among his many awards, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Commission for the Preservation of the White House in 2002. In 2005, Bunch was named one of the 100 most influential museum professionals of the 20th century by the American Association of Museums.


Bunch received his master’s (1976) and bachelor’s (1974) degrees from the American University in Washington, D.C.

 

Carol Coletta – Knight Foundation

Carol Coletta, who joined Knight Foundation in 2013, is an expert on the development of cities.

Coletta was director of ArtPlace, a unique public-private collaboration to accelerate creative placemaking in communities across the United States. ArtPlace brings together leading private foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts, other federal agencies and major banks.

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For seven years, Coletta was president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, a national network of urban leaders. Previously, she served as executive director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, and also ran a Memphis-based public affairs consulting firm, Coletta & Company, focused on civic issues.


Coletta has written and spoken extensively on the future of cities, including how communities develop, attract and retain talent. 


In 2003, Coletta was named a Knight Fellow in Community Building at the University of Miami School of Architecture. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Memphis with majors in Journalism and Public Issues Management and has completed graduate work in future studies at the University of Houston Clear Lake and in design at the Institute of Design in Chicago.

 

Ned Cramer – Architect Magazine

Ned Cramer is editor-in-chief of ARCHITECT, and editorial director of ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING, ECO-STRUCTURE, and METALMAG, published by Hanley Wood, a Washington, D.C.-based business media company.

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Prior to joining Hanley Wood, Cramer served as the first full-time curator of the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF), where he organized public programs and exhibitions such as "A Century of Progress: Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair" and "New Federal Architecture: The Face of a Nation." At CAF, projects under Cramer's direction received support from foundations and corporations such as Altria, Boeing, the Driehaus Foundation, the Graham Foundation, and the McCormick-Tribune Foundation. He speaks regularly on architecture, design, and related issues. The Avery Architectural Index lists nearly 100 articles with Cramer's byline, many written in his former capacity as executive editor of Architecture magazine. The recipient of an Arts Administration Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Cramer has held positions at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Menil Collection in Houston. Cramer is an alumnus of the Rice University School of Architecture. He was born and raised in St. Louis.

 

Dale Dougherty – Maker Media, Inc.

Dale Dougherty is the Founder & Executive Chairman of Maker Media, Inc. in Sebastopol, CA. Maker Media produces MAKE Magazine, which launched in 2005, and Maker Faire, which got its start in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2006. Dougherty is passionate about fostering a new generation of “makers” who are creative, innovative, and curious; through MAKE, he has catalyzed a worldwide Maker Movement that is transforming innovation in industry, hands-on learning in education, and the personal lives of makers of all ages.

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In 2011, the White House recognized Dougherty as one of the “Champions of Change: Make it in America,” for his work in helping to create high-quality jobs in the United States. In May 2012, he led the launch of Maker Education Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to creating opportunities for young people to make.


Dougherty was co-founder of O’Reilly Media, where MAKE got its start before spinning out as its own company in 2013. Prior to MAKE, Dougherty was the developer of Global Network Navigator (GNN), the first commercial website, which launched in 1993 and sold to America Online in 1995.

 

Phil Freelon – The Freelon Group Architects

Known for imaginative design and thoughtful collaboration, Phil Freelon practices architecture that engages the community and enhances opportunities for interaction and learning. Founder of The Freelon Group, Phil's design achievements include cultural, civic, and academic buildings produced for some of United States' most respected institutions. He currently leads the Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup team of architects working with The Smithsonian Institution on the design of the $500M National Museum of African American History and Culture, now in construction on the National Mall

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The Freelon Group served as the design architect for the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, the Harvey B. Gantt Center in Charlotte, Emancipation Park in Houston, and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore. Freelon's national library and government projects include facilities in Chicago, Atlanta, Washington DC, and Durham, North Carolina.


In 2014, Phil and his firm joined global architecture and design firm Perkins+Will. Phil is Managing Director and Design Director of the Perkins+Will North Carolina Practice in Research Triangle Park (RTP) and Charlotte. He is also an important member of the firm-wide leadership team as a member of the Board of Directors and its Executive Committee.


Phil is a recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture, a presidential appointee to the U. S. Commission of Fine Arts, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA), and a faculty member at MIT's School of Architecture + Planning. He is a recipient of the AIA North Carolina's Gold Medal, the association's highest individual honor.

 

Paula Kerger – Public Broadcasting Service

Paula A. Kerger is president and chief executive officer of PBS, the nation’s largest non-commercial media organization with more than 350 member stations throughout the country.  Since her arrival in 2006, Ms. Kerger has made particularly strong commitments to the arts, news and public affairs, high-quality content for education, diversity, and the use of new technology to bring public media into the lives of all Americans.

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Under Ms. Kerger’s leadership, PBS has been growing its audiences across genres, and platforms. In the course of a year, nearly ninety percent of all television households in America watch PBS, and over eighty percent of all children watch PBS. Six of the top ten children’s television shows are on PBS. And online, viewers stream 188 million videos per month on PBS platforms.


Among her accomplishments are the pop-culture phenomenon “Downton Abbey,” which is the most-watched MASTERPIECE program in the series’ history; Ken Burns’s 2012 documentary, “The Dust Bowl”; the debut of such acclaimed children’s programs as “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” and “Curious George” (the number one show for children ages 2-5 since 2006); new primetime science and arts series; and comprehensive online sites for parents and caregivers. PBS has also developed the new PBS LearningMedia, which provides educators with strategies, tools, and professional development resources to fully utilize digital learning in the classroom.


In addition to leading PBS, Ms. Kerger is president of the PBS Foundation, an independent organization that raises private sector funding for PBS, and has become a significant source of revenue for new projects at PBS. Ms. Kerger is regularly included in the Hollywood Reporter’s “Women in Entertainment Power 100,” an annual survey of the nation’s top women executives in media. In 2008, Ms. Kerger received the Woman of Achievement Award from Women in Development, New York. And in 2012, she was honored by Promax/BDA, B&C and Multichannel News with their 2012 Brand Builder Award.


Ms. Kerger received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Baltimore, where she serves on the Merrick School of Business Dean’s Advisory Council. She is also a director of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and a member of the board of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.


Ms. Kerger and her husband Joseph Kerger live in Washington, D.C.

 

Terence Mickey – Co-Founder, Thought Warrior, Inc.

Terence Mickey co-founded Thought Warrior, Inc. to help organizations find and craft stories that call ideas to action. With a focus on narrative structure, Thought Warrior aligns the purpose of a story with the most effective form. Terence has worked with leadership in a wide-range of industries at companies, including Marsh & McLennan, Google, Ford, Vanguard, Chanel, Wrigley’s Global Innovation Team, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Mass Mutual.

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He has presented internationally at Prudential’s Top of the Rock Summit, Discovery’s Creative Speaker’s Series, Marsh’s Global Executive Committee, and Knowledgent’s Leadership Conference. He has performed on the Moth’s Main Stage, was a writer-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center, and gradu­ated from the MFA program at University of California, Irvine.

 

Mary Rowe – The Municipal Art Society of New York

Mary W. Rowe is Vice President, Managing Director for the Municipal Art Society of New York, where she supports the work of her colleagues to research, train and advocate for city building practices and policies that build economic vitality, cultural vibrancy, environmental sustainability and  social diversity. Her particular charge at MAS includes creating learning networks of practitioners working to foster urban livability and resilience. Her engagement with MAS follows five years of work in the recovering city of New Orleans, most recently as coordinator of the New Orleans Institute for Resilience and Innovation, a loose alliance of initiatives that emerged in response to the systemic collapses of 2005.

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Her initial engagement in NOLA was as part of a fellowship awarded to her by the blue moon fund of Charlottesville, Virginia, to focus on self-organization in cities as the underpinning of urban and regional social, economic and environmental resilience. While at blue moon Mary developed an urban granting program to invest in specific initiatives in New Orleans, Washington DC, and New York. Her work in New Orleans included supporting a broad array of local, connected initiatives that include building the local economy, creating more open governance and data collection and sharing, fostering entrepreneurship, creating a culture of planning that supports transparent decision making and land-use, the emerging role of social media, and creating peer-to-peer learning in the emerging civil society-led innovation in the Region.
 
Mary is an experienced facilitator, convener and communicator on urban issues, and worked for ten years in Toronto as President of Ideas that Matter. Books to which she has contributed include What We See: Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs (Center for the Living City/New Village Press), Oil and Water…and Other things that don’t mix (LL-Publications), Toronto: Considering Self-government (The Ginger Press), Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design (Ecotone Publishing), and Ideas that Matter: The Worlds of Jane Jacobs (Island Press/Ginger Press).

 


 

Conference Panelists and Speakers

 

Chrysanthe B. Broikos – Curator, National Building Museum

Chrysanthe B. Broikos is an architectural historian and curator at the National Building Museum.  She has coordinated the presentation of more than 25 exhibitions since joining the curatorial team in 1998—including several of the Museum’s signature shows (Designing for Disaster; Do It Yourself: Home Improvement in 20th Century America; On the Job: Design and the American Office; and Stay Cool! Air Conditioning America). The intersection of architecture and photography is of particular interest to Broikos, who has collaborated with Bill Bamberger (Stories of Home, 2003) and MacArthur Prize grantee Camilo José Vergara (Storefront Churches, 2009).  Likewise, she worked closely with the dean of architectural photography in Washington, D.C., Robert C. Lautman (1923-2009), whose archive is part of the Museum’s permanent collection. Broikos initially joined the Museum’s education department in 1996, where she created the acclaimed Spotlight on Design lecture series. She earned her master’s degree at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture and holds her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Mary Case – Director, Qm² Consulting

In 1993 Mary Case, with Will Phillips, founded Qm2, a community of consultants helping nonprofit organizations build successful futures by implementing powerful concepts of learning, leadership, management, and organizational design.


Since then, Case has consulted exclusively with boards and senior staff on leadership issues, improving decision making and strategic thinking initiatives. She is known for establishing new and fruitful associations among people, for her storytelling, for asking penetrating questions, and for guiding nonprofit leaders to practical organizational solutions. Case lives by the motto: Learn to teach.


Case’s life as an independent consultant follows a career which began in the American bicentennial year at the Mercer Museum, Doylestown, PA, an idiosyncratic collection of hand tools and folk art. She worked on opening the Strong Museum, Rochester, NY, pioneering open storage and collections information systems. At the IBM Gallery of Art and Science, New York, she established exhibition, collection, security, and interpretation programs. At the Smithsonian Institution she was responsible for policy development and automation systems managing the national collection of 140 million objects and specimens ranging from the Ruby Slippers to four million ticks, and for training more than one thousand people employed in collections management at the Smithsonian.


Case has served on the boards of the American Association of Museums, the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums, the International Council of Museums Documentation Committee, ArtTTable DC, and the Community Action Group.


Case’s education includes an MA with honors, Museum Studies, SUNY, Cooperstown and a BA magna cum laude, American Studies, Temple University. She is widely published in museum journals. Her books include Registrars on Record, American Association of Museums, Washington, 1988 and Building On Strength: Constructive Change for Nonprofit Organizations, 2003, iUniverse.com.

Daniel Curry, AIA, LEED AP – Quinn Evans Architects

Daniel Curry is a Senior Associate at Quinn Evans Architects where he specializes in the design of learning environments. He is a Co-Chair on the AIA|DC Chapter Committee on Architecture for Education. Through the Washington architectural Foundation, he is a perennial volunteer in the Architecture in the Schools program. Daniel Curry brings significant experience in the design of educational facilities for both public and private institutions. Understanding the impact a well-designed environment has on its occupants, he excels in renewing aging buildings as high-performance and inspiring learning environments.

Education: University of Virginia, Bachelor of Science, 1996; University of Maryland, Master of Architecture, 2000

Andrew Costanzo – Teen Programs Manager, National Building Museum

Andrew Costanzo is Teen Programs Manager at the National Building Museum, where he oversees multi-visit, hands-on opportunities for youth to learn about their role in shaping the built world. He received a B.A. from College of the Holy Cross and a Masters in Museum Studies from The George Washington University. He has previously worked at the Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science, and Art.

Mary Fitch, AICP, Hon. AIA – Executive Director, Washington Chapter, American Institute of Architects

Mary Fitch is Executive Director of the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Washington Architectural Foundation. In that capacity, she founded and developed the award-winning ArchitectureDC Magazine, Architecture Week, the DesignDC Conference, and the District Architecture Center. She holds a BA in History from UC Berkley and a Masters in Urban Planning from George Washington University. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and received honorary membership in The American Institute of Architects in 2006.

Cathy Crane Frankel – Vice President of Exhibitions & Collections, National Building Museum

Cathy Crane Frankel is vice president of exhibitions and collections at the National Building Museum and oversees an exhibition team as well as the logistics, schedule, and budget. Frankel leads the curatorial team to develop the Museum’s exhibition program and coordinates the production of the Museum’s exhibitions. Among the exhibitions that she has directed during her tenure at the National Building Museum are the acclaimed House & Home, as well as the series of ambitious exhibitions that focused on sustainability and the built environment, and history-based exhibitions such as House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage and Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future. As a member of the Museum’s senior staff team, Frankel also participates in the development of the Museum’s long-term and strategic planning. Prior to joining the National Building Museum in 1999, she held the position of exhibitions manager at the Corcoran Gallery of Art as well as a variety of education program roles. Frankel has an MAT from the George Washington University and a BA from Dickinson College.

Lauren Kass Harnishfeger – Vice President for Development, National Building Museum

Lauren K. Harnishfeger has been with the National Building Museum since July 2013. As vice president for development, Lauren is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Museum’s fundraising. Previously, Lauren served as the vice president for individual and institutional giving at the National Park Foundation (NPF), the official, nonprofit partner of the National Park Service . Lauren was with NPF for nearly nine years, raising money for national parks all across the country. Lauren has also worked at George Washington’s Mount Vernon and the Smithsonian Institution. Before beginning her non-profit career, Lauren worked for a Washington, D.C. area auction house where she served in a variety of roles. Lauren has a BA in art history from Trinity College, Hartford, CT;  a postgraduate diploma in the fine and decorative arts, awarded by the Royal Society of Arts, London; and a MA in museum studies from George Washington University.

Mary Hendrickse – School & Youth Groups Manager, National Building Museum

Mary Hendrickse is the school & youth groups manager at the National Building Museum, where she manages the school, scout, and birthday party programs at the Museum. Over the past ten years, Mary has developed curriculum for use at the museum, coordinated and facilitated educator workshops, and taught students and adults about the impact of the built environment. She has a B.A. in Art History from the University of California, Davis and has completed graduate work in Museum Studies at George Washington University.

Sarah Herda – Director, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts

Sarah Herda is Director of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Founded in 1956, Graham Foundation is the only private foundation in the United States committed to providing project-based grants to individuals and institutions working to address issues related to architecture and the built environment. In addition to the funding program, Herda oversees a public program of exhibitions, lectures, and publications produced at the foundation's headquarters in the historic Madlener House in Chicago. Herda was the Director/Curator of the Storefront for Art and Architecture, a non-profit exhibition space in New York City, from 1998-2006. While in that position she mounted over 40 diverse exhibitions. Herda is active in the design community and serves on numerous advisory boards and review panels related to architecture, art, design, and related fields.

Berit Hoff – Director of Exhibitions, AIA New York / Center for Architecture

At the Center for Architecture in New York City, Berit Hoff has managed the production of more than 30 exhibitions on topics ranging from active design to Asian urbanism. Her research is included as part of the BGC Craft, Art & Design Oral History Project. She received her B.S. in the History of Architecture from Cornell University, and her M.A. in Design History from the Bard Graduate Center.

Paul Killmer – Director of Public Programs, National Building Museum

Paul Killmer, ASLA, is the director of public programs at the National Building Museum. He manages a team of coordinators in developing exhibition-related programming for a college-level-and-above audience consisting of the general public and professionals in the design fields. Among other programs and events, Paul has managed the Museum’s signature lecture series, Spotlight on Design, since 1996. He has incorporated site-specific dance performances into the Museum’s programming, uniquely expanding on the Museum’s mission while reaching new audiences. He was a producer of the Great Green Places video series, which served as a complement to the Museum’s exhibition Green Community. In 2012, Paul developed the day-long symposium Designing Homes and Neighborhoods for an Aging Population. Between 2012 and 2014, and in collaboration with the National Association for Olmsted Parks, he produced the two-part symposium focusing on the work and legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Paul holds a masters in landscape architecture from Virginia Tech., and a BA in historic preservation from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Cynthia Phifer Kracauer, AIA – Managing Director, AIA New York / Center for Architecture

Cynthia Phifer Kracauer, AIA, is the Managing Director of the Center for Architecture and the festival director for Archtober: Architecture and Design Month NYC. She was previously a partner at Butler Rogers Baskett, and from 1989-2005 at Swanke Hayden Connell. After graduating from Princeton (AB 1975, M.Arch 1979), she worked for Philip Johnson, held faculty appointments at the University of Virginia, NJIT, and her alma mater.

Patrick Kraich – Public Programs Coordinator, National Building Museum

Patrick Kraich is the public programs coordinator at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., a position he has held since 2007.  In this capacity, he develops, coordinates, and manages programs that serve nearly 14,000 adults annually. Patrick serves as the lead staff member on several program series, including programs related to the Designing for Disaster exhibition; D.C. Builds, which explores current architectural, planning, and public policy issues affecting the District of Columbia; and Smart Growth, a monthly speaker series that showcases the best sustainable development strategies, projects, and research. Patrick manages the continuing education accreditation for all of the Museum’s public programs. He holds a BA in political science from the University of Delaware and a MA in community and regional planning from the University of New Mexico. 

Mary Kay Lanzillotta – Partner, Hartman-Cox Architects

Kay Lanzillotta, Partner, joined the firm of Hartman-Cox Architects in 1989. She has been responsible for managing complex institutional and historic projects in Washington, DC and throughout the country.

For a decade Ms. Lanzillotta directed the renovation and restoration of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, home of Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, a National Historic Landmark and one of the most important Greek Revival buildings in America. The project has received numerous awards and is a significant project for the city of Washington, DC.

Additionally she has worked on the restoration of the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the American Pharmacists Association and The Hay-Adams Hotel, all in Washington, DC. Currently she is working on the restoration of and renovations to the House of the Temple and the National Gallery of Art.

Her expertise also includes higher education projects. For example, a renovation and courtyard enclosure for Anheuser-Busch Hall at Washington University in St. Louis, Rouss Hall at the University of Virginia and the Morehead Planetarium Addition and Renovation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ms. Lanzillotta’s work has been published in Architectural Record, Traditional Building Magazine, Inform, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle, among others.

In 1991, she founded the Architecture in the Schools program within the Washington Architectural Foundation where she continues to serve as lead volunteer. She was awarded the John Wiebenson Award for Architecture in the Public Interest in 2006 by the Washington Architectural Foundation.

Within the Washington Chapter of the AIA, Lanzillotta has held numerous offices including Chapter President in 2000. She has also participated with the national Young Architects Forum Advisory Committee serving as Chair in 1999. The AIA recognized Ms. Lanzillotta with the Young Architects Award in May, 2000. She is the chair for the AIA Honor Awards Program in 2012.Within the Washington Chapter of the AIA, Lanzillotta has held numerous offices including Chapter President in 2000. She has also participated with the national Young Architects Forum Advisory Committee serving as Chair in 1999. The AIA recognized Ms. Lanzillotta with the Young Architects Award in May, 2000. She is the chair for the AIA Honor Awards Program in 2012

Ms. Lanzillotta has lectured at the University of Pennsylvania, Tulane University, DC Preservation League, AIA Grassroots Convention, AIA National Convention, Building Virginia, Architecture Exchange East, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Building Museum, the Mid-Atlantic Museum Association and the Society of Design Administrators.

She received her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Virginia and her Masters of Architecture and Certificate in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania. Following graduate school Ms. Lanzillotta was a US-ICOMOS fellow to the Soviet Union. She is NCARB certified, a registered architect in the District of Columbia and three states and is a LEED Accredited Professional. In 2008 she received Fellowship from the American Institute of Architects.

Mark Levin – President, BAI Leadership, Inc.

For over 25 years, Mark Levin, CAE (Certified Association Executive) and CSP (Certified Speaking Professional), has been helping organizations throughout the world grow and prosper. When Mark talks or writes about membership development or volunteer leadership, he speaks with the voice of experience. Tens of thousands of volunteer and staff leaders have attended his programs worldwide, and they all can attest to his ability to present his topics in a unique, humorous, and interactive style.

Mark's years of experience in not-for-profit organizations include staff positions as a membership director, local chapter director, and chief staff officer of three organizations. In addition, he's an active volunteer in several local, state, national, and international societies. He's served for over 20 years on the faculty of the Institutes for Organization Management, a continuing education program sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Since starting his own company in 1986, Mark has learned the challenges and rewards of owning a business. He combines his talent and experience to help organizations in the areas of membership development; volunteer and staff training; strategic and long-range planning; and marketing products and services.


An award winning author, Mark's first book "Membership Development: 101 Ways to Get and Keep Your Members" has been a hit on five continents. His second book, "The Gift of Leadership," has won universal acclaim for its ability to train – and inspire – volunteer leaders in virtually every type of organization. Mark's third book is "Millennium Membership: How to Attract and Keep Members in the New Marketplace." was on the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Best Seller list for more than four years, and his latest book, "Retention Wars: The New Rules of Engagement," has received unanimous recognition as a valuable tool in the ongoing fight to keep members coming back year after year.


A graduate of the University of Maryland, Mark's clients range from the American Medical Association to the Australian Society of Association Executives. Perhaps most importantly, Mark is not a "former" anything. His presentations are based not only on his previous experiences, but also on his day-to-day role as Executive Vice President of an international trade association headquartered in Washington, DC.

Margie O'Driscoll – Director of Programs, Architecture for Humanity

Margie O'Driscoll has spent the last three decades in senior leadership roles at a variety of nonprofit and governmental organizations, including AIA San Francisco, Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. She has worked on a variety of large civic efforts in San Francisco, including the Crissy Field restoration project, the (new) Main Library campaign, the founding of the Center for Architecture and Design, and the 99% Invisible radio program.


Ms. O’Driscoll holds a master’s degree in Public Management from Columbia University, and has been a guest instructor at Stanford University and San Francisco State University. She serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of Architecture Organizations.

Brett Rodgers – Director of Marketing & Communications, National Building Museum

Brett Rodgers is the director of marketing & communications at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., a position he has held since July, 2012. His team is charged with managing, distributing, and advancing the Museum’s brand through marketing channels, online content, and PR campaigns. From June 2010-July 2012, he served as the Museum’s online marketing & communications manager, overseeing the institution’s online presence, website, social media strategy, multimedia content, and online marketing efforts. Prior to joining the National Building Museum team, Brett served as the communications director at the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works in Washington, D.C. He holds a BA in art from the University of Maryland and an MA in Middle Eastern languages and cultures from Columbia University.

Chase Rynd – Executive Director, National Building Museum

Chase Rynd, Hon. ASLA, a nationally recognized leader in the museum and arts communities, has held the position of executive director of the National Building Museum since September 2003. Created by Congress in 1980, the National Building Museum, a private, nonprofit institution, commemorates American achievements in architecture, design, construction, urban planning, and engineering, and encourages excellence in the building arts. Under Rynd’s leadership, the Museum has achieved a strong national profile through enhanced educational programs, scholarly and visually engaging exhibitions, and numerous outreach efforts. With increasing media attention and fast growing attendance, the Museum is recognized as a collaborative partner with many regional and national organizations and associations.


Prior to his work at the National Building Museum, Mr. Rynd was appointed executive director and CEO of the Tacoma Art Museum in 1993, and to the same position at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, Tennessee in 1998.


A former longtime Seattle resident, Rynd was the founder of Equivalents Gallery, which he operated for eight years. Appointed by Seattle’s mayor to the Seattle Arts Commission in 1988, Rynd went on to serve two consecutive terms as the Commission’s chairman. In 1990, Security Pacific Bank recruited Rynd to develop a public gallery space that would serve the community with a variety of activities and programs designed to enhance the city’s arts environment. While in Seattle, Rynd served on numerous boards and served as chair of the design committee for St. Mark’s Cathedral.


A graduate of Georgetown University and active in the museum community, Rynd is a member of the International Council of Museums; American Association of Museums; and Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums. He sits on the Boards of the American Friends of Chantilly, France; the Downtown DC BID; Penn Quarter Neighborhood Association; the Richardson Architecture Center, Buffalo; and the Association of Architecture Organizations. He also is a member of ACE Mentor Program’s National Advisory Board; the ASCE Industry Leaders Council and the vestry of St. John’s Lafayette Square in D.C. Rynd resides in Washington, D.C.

Jason Schupbach – Director of Design, National Endowment for the Arts

Jason Schupbach currently manages the NEA’s design initiatives as Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts. Prior to coming to the NEA, Mr. Schupbach held the first-in-the-nation position of Creative Economy Industry Director for the Massachusetts Office of Business Development where his accomplishments include coordinating the growth of new industry cluster groups, and launching a Design Excellence initiative, an effort to improve procurement processes in Massachusetts in order to build more sustainable and longer-lasting buildings and communities, and increase the number of designers being offered contracts.

Gina Maria Volpicelli, LEED AP BD+C – Shalom Baranes Associates, PC

For the past four years, Ms. Volpicelli has participated on the Washington Architectural Foundation’s (WAF) Youth and Family Programs Committee. Ms. Volpicelli has led various sessions on structural concepts with youth at District Architecture Center. By volunteering in the Architecture in the Schools program, she has exercised the students’ analytical and creative skills through the architectural design process and has applied what is learned in the classroom to the built environment. The themes of the programs have varied from sustainable design building methods in a program called The Sky’s the Limit: Building a Sustainable City in Outer Space to the students exploring various architectural building types that are found Around the World. This semester at Chesterbrook Elementary, the students are using the two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes that they are learning about in their math class to link together concepts of gravity, force and speed in their weekly activities involving drawing, Sketchup models, and physical models in order to create a Marble Machines.

Education: Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University with a concentration in Architectural Science and Technology. Board of Directors for Commercial Real Estate for Women (CREW), where the chapter’s Mentoring Program is developing a Legacy Project teaching elementary girls about careers in the building industry.

Lam Vuong – Perkins + Will

Lam Vuong was born in Nha Trang Vietnam and immigrated to the United States with his family on July 4th 1983. Since that time he has studied architecture at Virginia Tech, travelled abroad to study Architecture in Europe and the martial arts in Japan, and completed design and construction of numerous buildings in the DC metro area and nationally. In his professional career, Lam is a licensed architect in Washington DC, and is currently a LEED Accredited Professional. Among his community activities, Lam has been involved in the Masonry Institute’s ‘It Makes a Village’ Masonry Competition, and participated in CANstruction annually since 2007. His most rewarding professional experience has been working with the Washington Architecture Foundation’s Architecture in the Schools program (AIS). Since 2005, he has been involved with the AIA/DC and Washington Architectural Foundation’s enrichment programs. Specific programs which he has developed and taught include architectural drawings, modeling making, and a cross cultural French/English model making seminar. Most recently, Lam has worked with both the WAF and Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington to develop and implement an architecture summer camp for students age 10-14, inaugural season in 2013. With the success from previous years, both the WAF and B&G Club are expanding their programs, including integration of Architecture modules into the Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) initiative and designing a stage set for their annual Arts Summer Camp to be performed at the Kennedy Center.

Timothy Wright – National Curricula Coordinator, National Building Museum

Timothy Wright is the national curricula coordinator at the National Building Museum. His duties include conceptualizing, writing, and distributing STEM related teaching kits for K-12 educators. He has worked in the experiential education field for more than 10 years, including teaching the Children’s Museum of Richmond and the Close Up Foundation, a civics education organization. Tim acquired a bachelor of arts in political science from the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

Katja Zelljadt – Vice President for Education, National Building Museum

Katja Zelljadt is Vice President for Education at the National Building Museum, where she oversees programming for families, children, youth, teens, and adults. She received a B.A. from Yale University and a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University and has worked at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the Getty Research Institute, and the Stanford Humanities Center.

 



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