Awards + Honors Breakfast

Irene transforms educational architecture design through leadership in evidence-based designs, elevating the importance of architecture in enhancing students’ experiences and positively impacting their communities.

Irene Nigaglioni is a nationally recognized leader in educational Evidence-Based Design (EBD) which is founded on basing building design decisions on the best available research evidence with the goal of improving outcomes and monitoring the success or failure for subsequent decisionmaking. Over the last 30 years, educational facility design has evolved, highlighting the role the environment can play in student success. Irene has been a leader and advocate in ensuring that design and planning of educational facilities is enhanced with the inclusion of research that can profoundly impact student success. Her ability to successfully blend research with design has resulted in innovative and awe-inspiring educational designs that positively impact students, earning her the Association for Learning Environment’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

Irene is a strong proponent of participatory leadership, where she helps guide discussions on the future of learning spaces. Over the last three decades, she has served in multiple leadership roles on international and national association boards that are focused on improving learning environments. She served as International Chair for the Association for Learning Environments, traveling internationally to promote the importance of architectural planning and design on student success. In 2020, Irene convened a steering committee of nationally recognized educational architects to tackle the topic of the future of learning in carefully planned and designed schools after the pandemic. The outcomes of the task force were recently published on behalf of AIA CAE in Learning by Design’s April 2022 issue.

Irene Nigaglioni is a nationally recognized leader in educational Evidence-Based Design (EBD) which is founded on basing building design decisions on the best available research evidence with the goal of improving outcomes and monitoring the success or failure for subsequent decision-making. Over the last 30 years, educational facility design has evolved, highlighting the role the environment can play in student success. Irene has been a leader and advocate in ensuring that design and planning of educational facilities is enhanced with the inclusion of research that can profoundly impact student success. Her ability to successfully blend research with design has resulted in innovative and awe-inspiring educational designs that positively impact students, earning her the Association for Learning Environment’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. Participatory Leadership Irene is a strong proponent of participatory leadership, where she helps guide discussions on the future of learning spaces. Over the last three decades, she has served in multiple leadership roles on international and national association boards that are focused on improving learning environments. She served as International Chair for the Association for Learning
Environments, traveling internationally to promote the importance of architectural planning and design on student success. In 2020, Irene convened a steering committee of nationally recognized educational architects to tackle the topic of the future of learning in carefully planned and designed schools after the pandemic. The outcomes of the task force were recently published on behalf of AIA CAE in Learning by Design’s April 2022 issue.

Mark Vaughan, national champion for empathetic architecture, sensitively innovates complex health environments for life’s most vulnerable patients, elevates the standard by which health architects are credentialed, and inspires young professionals through intensely personal mentorship.

Mark crushes the tyranny of the urgent and emergent by bringing clarity, calm, and piercing sensitivity to health design clients whose work is chaotic and challenging as they help people in life-threatening situations. Mark’s empathy focused planning brings peace and coherence for patients, families, and clinicians who are in the middle of a health crisis, stressed and mentally preoccupied. Patients and families struggle to cope with life threatening moments and are typically not thinking clearly as they attempt to access health services.

Mark elevates the national standard for health design by insisting that design research and thought leadership be integral to the examination process by which architects are board certified in the health design specialty. Mark generously shares his passion and experience with empathy focused planning, lean thinking, patient safety, and research informed solutions. Through public discourse and writing, Mark challenges the healthcare industry with supportive design principles, including patient safe room design to support critical medical interventions in high-risk scenarios. Mark volunteered time and thought leadership on the American College of Healthcare Architects exam content committee. He provided the college with vital input to prepare a new ACHA board certification exam. His innovative insights raised the standard of what it takes to become and practice as a board-certified healthcare architect.

Mark inspires next generation architects to career excellence, challenging them to transform healthcare through better built environments. His personal, unselfish mentoring empowers aspiring architects with self-confidence, high ethical standards, and a sense of duty to mentor someone else.

For the past 32 years, Mark has wielded considerable influence on the profession through his mentorship. He leaves a lasting impression on up-and-coming architects as they build upon his legacy of leadership, knowledge, and inspiration. Beyond his time nurturing multiple young aspiring architects, he has provided leadership in selecting and training 33 recipients of the prestigious and nationally competitive Tradewell Fellowship (TF). This is a unique one-year program offering aspiring healthcare architects’ exceptional career-building opportunities.

One of North Texas’ most prominent voices, Nate Eudaly, Hon. AIA, has helped transform Dallas into an architecturally mindful city, continually enlightening the profession and the public at large. As its executive director for more than 20 years, Eudaly has positioned the Dallas Architecture Forum as an international design exchange that connects the city with the rest of the world.

The forum gathers thought leaders in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, design, and urbanism to foster critical dialogue and educational opportunities concerning the world’s most pressing issues. Featured presenters include a long list of Pritzker and Pulitzer prize winners, as well as AIA and ASLA gold medal recipients. Throughout his tenure, Eudaly has led the forum in organizing over 215 lectures , 100 panel discussions, and 60 special events that have reached more than 70,000 people. As a result of Eudaly’s vision and efforts, the forum has been recognized with an AIA Collaborative Achievement Award, a citation of honor from the Texas Society of Architects, and an AIA Dallas Community Honor Award.

The forum’s lecture series speakers hail from or have completed projects in every continent. They offer their audiences opportunities to discover work in underserved communities in developed nations as well as projects in developing countries. Eudaly works closely with the forum’s programming committee chair to develop the seasonal slate of speakers, relying on an evaluation framework that includes numerous key elements from AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence.

The variety of speakers and projects, which span small-scale residential to significant master plans, bolsters the insight and empathy of lecture attendees while simultaneously highlighting the challenges and opportunities facing communities worldwide. Similarly, the forum’s free monthly panel discussions, the audience for which has grown significantly throughout Eudaly’s leadership, focus on important topics such as climate change, design justice, and preservation in the nation’s cities.

Eudaly is a vital contributor to Columns, AIA Dallas’ award-winning magazine, having penned more than 30 articles and critiques. He also conceived and produced, with a small team of the forum’s board members, Dallas Modern, a monograph that highlights 20 residences in the city that exemplify modern Dallas living at its finest. Eudaly was the primary author and co-design director for the monograph, which is a timeless and vibrant tribute to rigorous architectural design.

Through his role at the forum, Eudaly has proven himself an invaluable ambassador for the architecture and arts communities. He has also prioritized mentorship of emerging professionals, ensuring that the forum’s resources are invested in the lives of its nearly 20 architect and designer volunteers. In addition, he supports the next generation of design leaders by serving on the board of CityLab High School Foundation, which prepares and encourages Latinx and African American students to pursue architecture training in college.

Katie Hitt, Assoc. AIA is the Managing Director at the Dallas Architecture and Design Exchange (AD EX), home to the AIA Dallas Chapter and the Architecture and Design Foundation. In this role, Katie oversees a wide range of activities including exhibitions, tours, K-12 educational programming, community outreach, and scholarships. Her work centers on forging meaningful connections between the design community and North Texas, establishing AD EX as a dynamic learning laboratory and a hub for all things architectural. Previously, Katie was Communications and Government Relations Director at AIA Dallas, where she also served as Managing Editor of Columns magazine.

Katie has served on several national, state, and local boards and task forces, spoken at conferences related to social media, grassroots advocacy, and K-12 outreach, and serves as an ambassador and advocate for the profession through cultivating relationships with media and policy makers. She is a recipient of the TxA Associate of the Year Award, AIA Dallas Associate of the Year, and has received two AIA Dallas Presidential Citations.

A career Associate AIA member, Katie exemplifies the value and versatility of a design education. Through her communications, policy, and education outreach work, she works to dismantle barriers and ensure that architecture becomes accessible to everyone.

Audrey Maxwell, AIA, aims to advance AIA’s structures and policies as she seeks to transform the future of the profession. With a deep belief in the architect’s social contract, she consistently amplifies diverse voices, builds community, and champions the role of design professionals as changemakers. She is also a lifelong volunteer to the benefit of AIA Dallas, the Texas Society of Architects, and numerous community organizations.

Maxwell’s interest in architecture was piqued in high school, where a drafting class swayed her from pursuing journalism. Maxwell graduated at the height of the Great Recession after completing her graduate studies at Arizona State University. After working for Americorps and the nonprofit bcWORKSHOP, she became a project designer for Michael Malone Architects in Dallas. Today, Maxwell is a principal at Malone Maxwell Dennehy Architects, where her design skills and keen understanding of how architecture shapes communities are essential to the firm’s work. Her projects span educational and religious spaces for mission-driven nonprofits as well as corporate and retail spaces.

At the Texas Society of Architects, Maxwell steered the nation’s third-largest AIA component through a period of unprecedented change and sought to make the chapter more transparent, inclusive, and equitable. She joined its board in 2017 and guided the chapter through the COVID-19 pandemic as its president-elect in 2020 and president in 2021. In every role, Maxwell has been a disruptor and catalyst for change. As the Me Too movement swept the nation, she demanded awareness around issues of sexual harassment in the workplace and helped the board adopt a code of conduct and implement new mechanisms for reporting.

Issues of racial justice and the pressures of the pandemic shaped her terms as president-elect and president. In response, Maxwell instituted changes to the chapter’s strategic plan, bylaws, and policies and oversaw the transition of two key staff positions. Her ability to build consensus was invaluable, and the chapter’s strategic plan, which was an aspirational document with too many goals, became a clear list of priorities to be executed and evaluated.

Maxwell has also been a champion for AIA’s JEDI initiatives, and she worked to build trust among the Texas Society of Architects’ diverse membership, which represents 18 chapters from the remote, far West Texas to the state’s border with Louisiana. She conducted an assessment of membership demographics and participation in committee and leadership roles, which helped spur greater diversity among the chapter’s volunteers and leaders. Maxwell has also overseen key EDI efforts, includeing an audit of the chapter’s honor awards recipients and a seminar focused on implicit bias that was shared with all of Texas’ local component leaders.

Maxwell has eagerly addressed the challenges facing today’s profession. As she listens and synthesizes ideas, she continues to find innovative ways to demonstrate the critical role that architecture plays in shaping more just and caring communities.

An architect, researcher, and renowned thought leader, Erin Peavey, AIA, focuses her work on the health and well-being of all people, especially those who reside in vulnerable communities. As a purpose-driven design professional, she leverages the powers of good design, community building, and advocacy to enrich the built environment for those who need it most.

Peavy is a vice president and health and well-being design leader at HKS, where she empowers teams and projects to shape places that foster not only good health but also social connections. Before joining HKS, she was a senior researcher and medical planner in HOK’s New York studio, a research consultant for the Center for Health Design and Georgia Institute of Technology, and a visiting scholar with the Center for Advanced Design Research and Evaluation.

Her active engagement and leadership emerged during her undergraduate studies at Texas A&M University, where she forged strong connections between students and health care design professionals. In her second year, she co-founded and led SHEA, the first student group in the nation focused on environments for health. In 2009, channeling the pain she endured while caring for her mother, who was facing terminal cancer, she founded and chaired AIA Austin’s Architecture for Health committee to serve others through thoughtful health care design and research. In 2012, she became the youngest trustee in the history of the Academy of Architecture for Health Foundation, where she served for nearly a decade and increased research funding and quality.

With her reputation as a pioneer, numerous nonprofit organizations have turned to Peavy for assistance. She was a founding member of the successful EDRA-CORE Program, which awards design projects that integrate research into practice and contribute new knowledge to the profession. She also regularly contributes to the Center for Health Design in several roles, including as an advisory board member for its Knowledge Repository.

Peavy’s advocacy for design that combats loneliness and fosters social connection has prompted major organizations, such as Cigna and the Urban Land Institute, to seek partnerships with her. In that capacity, she has spoken with countless public administrators, physicians, and fellow architects to boost awareness about prioritizing social connection in architecture and how it can accelerate community building.

She also shares her knowledge through publications and speaking engagements across the world. Early in her career, she was published in the Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice, 15th Edition, contributing insight for the first known time on the budding role of researchers in architecture practice. Additionally, she has contributed to numerous peer-reviewed journals and popular press outlets, such as Environment & Behavior, American Medical Association Journal, Fast Company, Bloomberg, and Psychology Today, where she was the first licensed architect to have a regular column. On her podcast Shared Space, which is available on numerous streaming platforms, Peavy has shed light on architecture’s role in supporting mental health across its two seasons.

Peavey’s young career has been marked by grit, determination, and resilience, three traits that always made her proud. She has established herself as a visionary leader fueled by enthusiastic curiosity and striving for a higher level of design excellence.

2023 Edward C. Kemper Award winner and 2023 TxA Medal for Lifetime Achievement in honor of Llewellyn W. Pitts, FAIA recipient — helped shape the values and professional standards at AIA and demonstrated an enduring commitment to excellence and advocacy that elevates architecture’s importance in society.

Through his seemingly countless contributions, Jeff Potter, FAIA, has played a critical role in shaping the values and professional standards of today’s AIA and profession. A dedicated leader at all levels throughout his career, including his service as AIA’s 88th president, Potter has demonstrated an enduring commitment to excellence and advocacy that elevates architecture’s importance in society. His vision for the profession has energized emerging professionals and established architects alike, challenging them to continue to make AIA a proactive and progressive organization.

A native of Shreveport, LA, Potter completed his studies at Texas A&M, and founded his namesake firm in Longview, TX, quickly establishing himself as a sought-after strategic planner and designer of educational facilities. Later, he and his wife, Shelley Potter, opened their studio in Dallas.

Potter began his involvement with AIA with the AIA Northeast Texas Chapter—now a section of AIA Dallas—where he served in nearly every office in the all-volunteer component. In 1994, he was invited to join the Texas Society of Architects’ Publications Committee, where, for seven years, he helped shape the profession through the society’s award-winning magazine, Texas Architect. His work on the committee inspired him to volunteer on the society’s executive committee, serving as vice president, secretary, president-elect, and its 66th president in 2004.

In 2006, Potter was selected to represent Texas as a member of AIA’s Board of Directors, where he focused on the development of a strategic communications initiative. He envisioned a comprehensive examination of AIA’s brand that was launched at the 2011 Communication Summit in Kansas City. He spurred AIA to partner with celebrated marketing and design firms LaPlaca Cohen and Pentagram while strengthening AIA’s communications staff and enhancing messaging across three publications.

This work continued into his AIA presidency, during which Potter led the initiative that repositioned AIA to more effectively communicate the value of architecture and its benefit to society. His transformational agenda gave rise to a bold and innovative communication strategy, including the widely viewed I Look Up video series and a closer focus on highlighting AIA members and their work.

Throughout his AIA leadership tenure, Potter grew increasingly concerned that AIA’s philanthropic avenues were suffering after parting with the American Architectural Foundation (AAF) in 2008. To remedy that, he joined the Architects Foundation, AAF’s successor, and later served two terms as its president, focusing on opportunity scholarships. His leadership resulted in increased support from corporate and private donors, as well as AIA’s board, that grew the opportunity scholarship program from three to 25 students enrolled in architecture programs across the country. The scholarships profoundly impact students who can change the face of the profession.

Architecture is where art & science merge.

As a result, our design philosophy is one of exploring and evaluation the variables that are part of every project, combining them to ultimately and at a unique and appropriate solution.

GSR Andrade Architects is a Dallas-based, Hispanic-owned architectural firm founded in 2001 by a group of passional, driven individuals. We provide responsive, innovative architectural services to the local community and beyond. Our mission is to re-imagine spaces that are functional yet inspiring, and we stop at nothing to find creative solutions to each puzzle. GSR Andrade believes every person deserves to be reflected and known by their surroundings, and our approach always begins with humanity.

We are a client-focused firm, committed to building and maintaining relationships with our clients, our employees, our consultants and the community. It is our pledge to deliver quality work and workmanship, implement the best and most appropriate technologies available, and incorporate sustainable planning into our work.

W.J. “Bud” Melton has focused on active-transportation infrastructure, urban planning and urban design for more than 20 years as part of Halff’s Planning and Landscape Architecture practice. As a lifelong advocate for active transportation, Melton spearheaded funding to convert the MKT Rail right of way to what’s become one of the Dallas park department’s foremost civic spaces. Soon after, he reinvented himself as a bicycle and pedestrian planning specialist and joined his wife Annie’s transportation consulting firm, Bowman-Melton Associates.

In that role from 1995 to 2016, he managed scores of large-scale bikeway, trail and transit-oriented development planning and design projects. He helped dozens of Texas cities, plus several counties, with concept development, master planning, funding partnerships and design assistance for micro-mobility infrastructure.

Melton is an expert at finding innovative, creative solutions to complex problems and has achieved unprecedented success with stakeholder buy-in. He was instrumental in shaping North Central Texas’ Veloweb, an interconnected network of greenway trails and bikeways defined in the region’s long-range mobility plans.

He helped create the Dallas County Trail Plan: Trails for the 21st Century, a master plan that continues its implementation by Dallas County and its partner cities. Halff produced a similar plan for Collin County, which quantified connections between Dallas, Collin, Tarrant and Denton counties. Melton helped the City of Dallas with its nationally acclaimed Renaissance Plan in 2000–01, which undertook comprehensive inventories of every park in the Dallas system.

Patrick Kennedy is a Principal and Regional Director for Urban Planning within the Cities & Communities practice at HKS. He is an award-winning planner with decades of experience tackling complex urban challenges through design and policy at all levels of government. His passion is helping to plan, design, and build cities of choice, empowerment and upward mobility through infrastructure, urban design, and economic development.

CEO of Downtown Dallas Parks Conservancy (DDPC), Amy leads this nonprofit organization to advance the long-term development and support of public parks within the urban core. The DDPC promotes a livable, environmentally resilient city center through advocacy for parks and green space.

Their vision is to nurture and protect Downtown Dallas neighborhood parks, creating an urban environment that spurs moments of inspiration and restoration. As park stewards and advocates, we strive to engage and serve the community by maintaining high-quality public amenities and horticulture. Everyone deserves access to the benefits of nature and play in their downtown spaces.

When DDPC was formed in 2015 (then known as Parks for Downtown Dallas), they had one mandate: implement the city’s 2013 Downtown Parks Master Plan Update, creating a new neighborhood park system by converting surface parking and vacant lots into city parks in Dallas’ central business district.

The Priority Parks program, a public-private partnership between the Conservancy and the Dallas Park and Recreation Department, has converted more than 14 acres of surface parking lots and vacant land into Pacific Plaza, West End Square, Carpenter Park and Harwood Park. The end result is a network of public spaces that makes the city center a more walkable, healthy, green and dynamic experience.

Following the completion of four Priority Parks downtown in fall 2023, the Conservancy’s focus has shifted from park design and construction to championing and nurturing this new urban park network. As the nonprofit developer of five Downtown Dallas parks, the Conservancy has extensive knowledge of these parks and is wholly devoted to ensuring that they are maintained at a high level in partnership with the Dallas Park and Recreation Department and Downtown Dallas, Inc., the manager of the Public Improvement District.

The Conservancy is continuing its efforts to build a $50 million permanent endowment to fuel its mission and aspiration to cultivate exceptional parks that provide nature and play in the middle of Downtown Dallas.

This is an ambitious undertaking. Please consider showing your support for your Downtown Dallas neighborhood parks — both new and existing — with a tax-deductible donation of any size.

Campos Engineering provides MEP engineering design; testing, adjusting and balancing; commissioning, and building wellness solutions. Their work is customized to their client’s needs and is leading the industry.

Campos Engineering is committed to dignity, integrity, uncompromised client service, and excellence. To fulfill this mission, the Campos team seeks to first understand, then to be understood. They seek only win-win relationships with those they serve, and to improve the financial well-being of all stakeholders.

BufordHawthorne is a custom luxury home builder with an impeccable reputation. Our dedication to our clients extends far beyond the construction of their homes. From the pre-construction phase to long after the finished home presentation, BufordHawthorne maintains a commitment to our homeowners’ complete satisfaction, and to making the experience of building a home an exceptional one. We are honored to have built several homes for some of our clients, a high compliment to our service, our project management and the quality of the homes we build.

With decades of experience, we seamlessly orchestrate the homebuilding process for projects both large and small. At the beginning of the process, we collaborate with the homeowners, their architect and their interior designer to help ensure the smart use of resources and to establish an achievable budget. Our transparent billing ensures clients are always in the know. And our relationships with a carefully selected, time-proven team of craftspeople mean we always have the right resources for every project.

The Stewpot serves individuals and families experiencing economic, housing, and food insecurity by offering programs in the areas of housing, stabilization, education, nutrition, and enrichment.

The Stewpot is a community ministry of First Presbyterian Church of Dallas. Established in 1975, it began with a concerned group of church members who started preparing lunch for the congregation’s homeless and hungry neighbors. By 1991, Stewpot programs included a wide range of social services, including casework services for those experiencing homelessness and programs for at-risk children and youth, and the agency moved across the street to a donated two story office building that continues to be “home.” Over the years, The Stewpot has helped to “birth” new organizations to meet community needs including Austin Street Center, Genesis Women’s Shelter, Interfaith Housing and The Bridge.

The Stewpot – along with the FPC Day School, Encore Park, and the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas Foundation – represents First Presbyterian Church of Dallas’ enduring commitment to its downtown Dallas location and its neighbors.

For the past 47 years, the Lakewood Early Childhood PTA (LECPTA) has hosted the Annual Lakewood Home Tour weekend. This beloved, community-wide event features a tour of treasured Lakewood homes. The Lakewood Home Tour primarily raises funds for Lakewood’s feeder schools in DISD.:​

• Lakewood Elementary School
• J.L. Long Middle School
• Woodrow Wilson High School

The home tour ensures the LECPTA can continue to raise funds for our East Dallas public schools.

Founded in 1952, the LECPTA is a non-profit organization that is part of the local, state, and national PTA. Current Lakewood Elementary boundaries are Abrams to the west, Patrick Drive and Northwest Highway to the north, White Rock Lake to the east, and East Grand and Glasgow to the south. While most parents live in the Lakewood Elementary school zone, our membership is open to anyone who wants to get involved in the East Dallas/Lakewood community and make the area a better place for children and families.

Alex Pharmakis is the Sustainability Manager for the City of Farmers Branch. Since joining Farmers Branch, Alex worked to create the City’s first Sustainability Plan and has overseen a number of projects to increase renewable energy within the City. He has also worked to increase electric vehicle infrastructure, reduce energy consumption, and increase waste diversion. Alex holds a B.S. in Environmental Geoscience from Texas A&M University and a Master of Public Administration degree from Columbia University.

The Republic National Bank Building, located in the heart of downtown Dallas, has a compelling legacy in advancing the skyline of Dallas and on the city’s status as the financial center in Texas. Known today as the Republic Center, the Republic National Bank Building is a unique example of rich architectural advancements and design.

The 36-story building served as the headquarters for the Republic National Bank upon its completion in 1954 and instantly became a Dallas landmark. It was also the first significant office building to be completed after the Second World War in downtown Dallas. Its height has earned it the titles of “tallest building in Dallas” and “tallest building west of the Mississippi River.” The gentle setback of the building’s design provided a pedestrian feel along the street.

According to David Dillon, award-winning former architecture critic for the Dallas Morning News, the Republic National Bank Building was considered a ‘prototypical fifties building,’ rising straight from the street to a flat top with minimalistic decoration. The distinct architectural style and form drove other banking institutions across Texas to follow suit with their own high-quality, modern, high-rise buildings. The building was one of the first in the United States to specifically utilize aluminum cladding, with most of the façade comprised of aluminum panels that remain intact today. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 and designated a Dallas Landmark in 2004.

Believing in Design as catalyst for improving human experience – Lorena is regarded as a design leader, mentor and diversity+inclusion activist, exemplifying servant leadership in Architecture.

A practicing architect, interior designer, educator and social entrepreneur, she has 15+ years of experience in higher education, museums, aviation, and corporate interiors. Her rich portfolio demonstrates a broad range, from bespoke interventions to monumental facilities, recognized in AIA National Design for Decades Exhibition, Woodbury University School of Architecture 13.3% Exhibition, ArchDaily US/MX, OBRAS, ITESM-CONECTA, AIA Dallas Columns and the Dallas Morning News.

Lorena is Co-Founder of CityLab HS – the first public high school with a Design focus in downtown Dallas. She holds a 2004 Masters in Architecture from Texas A&M and a 2001 B.A. Architecture from ITESM-CEM.

Lorena has lectured at AIA National Convention in Washington D.C. & Chicago and the renowned Rowlett Lecture at Texas A&M. She served on AIA Dallas Board of Directors, expanding exposure, membership diversity and is recipient of AIA National 2014 Young Architect of the Year Award, for exceptional leadership and significant professional contributions. Her efforts towards a diverse and inclusive design industry include AIA Dallas Latinos in Architecture, a grassroots initiative recipient of AIA National 2012 Diversity Award.

Recent honors include ENR Young Professional, Greater Dallas Planning Council Mark Goode Urban Pioneer and The Links Inc. Women who STEAM, for extraordinary professional contributions while serving and mentoring in workplace and community. She is an Outstanding Alumna of Texas A&M College of Architecture for her humanitarian work in the design industry.

CityLab HS is Dallas ISD’s Transformation urban high school where students utilize the city of Dallas as their learning laboratory. Collaborating with organizations and industry experts, CityLab prepares students for Architecture, Urban Planning and Environmental Science careers. Lorena served as founding President of the CityLab Foundation, a 501[c][3] that enhances its mission. Through her vision and sense of social impact, CityLab HS has welcomed 300+ students. By erasing barriers for entry, increasing awareness of a career in Design, creating opportunities for future generations of leaders that are a reflection of the cultural, geographical and socio-economic diversity of North Texas and the communities we serve, Lorena is committed to Architecture’s social contract.