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As both a licensed architect and certified urban planner, I have gained a deep passion to develop underserved communities and the next generation of designers, architects, planners, and change agents. I have spent most of my career exploring new methodologies, technical and abstract, that led me toward creating stronger designs and solutions at multiple scales while including the community throughout the full design process. My favorite projects include those which afford opportunities to directly engage with local residents, stakeholders, and the extended community at large, as I oscillate between the macro and micro scales to progress projects from preliminary conceptual plans to full construction. I am driven by the belief that one project can change a community – and if we change enough communities, we can change the world.
Today, as a Design Principal and the Global Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) at Gensler, I am focused on leading the firm’s commitment and Strategies to Build a Just and Inclusive Future while furthering the company’s efforts to address unique challenges within each region and community through a global perspective. The principles of DEI are directly aligned with Gensler’s core values and have been embedded in our DNA since the founding of the firm by Arthur Gensler in 1965.
One of the things that first drew me to Gensler over 12 years ago was the people-first culture, which resonated strongly with my own ethos and beliefs. The firm is very intentional in celebrating diverse perspectives, voices, talents, and lived experiences across our teams to enhance the impact of design. This intentional focus on designing for the human experience allows us to tackle the toughest challenges facing cities across the globe and shape a more resilient and equitable future for all.
However, we are not content with being known as the largest architecture and design firm in the world – we actively strive to be the most impactful. To achieve this, we focus our collective efforts on both climate change and social justice, two global crises affecting human living conditions and our quality of life. Exploring this intersectionality shines a light on historic challenges greatly exacerbated for communities of color across the world.
Global Perspective
Gensler operates around the clock as a borderless One-Firm Firm. With over 6,000 of the world’s best talent making up our growing constellation of stars, our global canopy is firmly rooted across 16 countries. As we continue to grow in both new and existing markets, we are committed to growing also in our understanding of the local contexts and their unique challenges.
The global impact of our designs begins with local talent, local roots, and local understanding. We know how important it is to establish a local presence in the countries, cities, and communities in which our designs will live as spaces and places that serve and enrich the human experience.
One of the greatest advantages of an on-the-ground presence is the opportunity to find and recruit local talent. In 1988, we launched our very first non-U.S. office in London, and have continued to expand our global footprint, with offices opening in Paris and Vancouver in 2019; Riyadh, Berlin, and Nashville (Tennessee) in 2022; Kansas City in 2023; and Columbus (Ohio) and the Dominican Republic in 2024.
Our People
Art Gensler founded our firm in 1965 with his wife Drue and business partner Jim Follett. Over the next five decades, he imparted his core values and guiding principles on Gensler, and his legacy lives on in the work that we do, the relationships that we build, and the innovations that we drive. One of my favorite quotes by Art was: “Hire people smarter than you and get out of their way”. He truly believed that in order to grow our firm, we must grow our people. Today, we know that our success as a firm comes from investing in and empowering our people to do their best work and fulfill their greatest potential.
From ensuring the accessibility of tools and resources, to providing ample opportunity for professional development, it is our greatest priority to create a workplace environment that fully supports our team members as individuals with unique needs and evolving aspirations – a workplace where they are safe and they are seen, where their voices are heard, and their concerns prioritized.
It is also our responsibility to understand, enhance, and enrich the individual experiences of all team members. We aim to provide a welcoming, inclusive, and supportive workplace where everybody feels empowered to pursue their passions and grow their careers.
Our Strategies to Build a Just and Inclusive Future
The Western practice of architecture has historically been a profession preserved and overrepresented by older White men, yet in recent years organizations like the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, the American Institute of Architects, and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture in the U.S., and the Architects Registration Board and the Royal Institute of British Architects in the U.K., have reported steady increases in representation for women and underrepresented racial and ethnic groups for both student enrollment and professional licensure. However, while most groups continue to see incremental growth in representation each year, the number of licensed Black architects in the U.S. and U.K. has discouragingly remained flat, hovering slightly above 2%, with the representation for Black female architects at 0.4%. First established in 2020, Gensler’s Strategies to Fight Racism became a transformative framework to address the many injustices facing our world – taking the first steps in our industry to lead by example and drive impactful, collaborative change. The language was carefully crafted by our Global co-Chairs, Diane Hoskins and Andy Cohen, as well as Gensler’s Board Committee, and intended to combat the long-standing challenges underrepresented professionals have faced across the building design industry. Black students and Black professionals were deliberately highlighted, whose group historically has held the largest disparity gap in representation for decades and served as a bellwether for the success of effective diversity strategies and outcomes. Much like the transformative policies of the American with Disabilities Act of 1990, we believe focused support and resources for communities that need help the most will undoubtedly benefit us all.
Over the last four years, we have witnessed tremendous change in the DEI landscape, and our Strategies have been a guiding light in navigating our path forward. Yet, we know that in order to design for a radically changing world, we must first have the courage to think radically about change. As we have finetuned our approach in response to tracked metrics and direct feedback from our people, leaders, clients, and partners, our strategies continue to evolve.
1. Cultivating an inclusive environment at Gensler
We know that our designs are more equitable, inclusive, and impactful when our designers reflect and understand the diversity of the communities we serve. We continuously assess and improve our recruitment and hiring practices by fostering meaningful relationships with future talent and tackling bias in the decision-making process.
Once at Gensler, our team members join a robust community of people empowered to do their best work, grow their careers, and explore opportunities to fulfill their greatest potential. Some examples of our talent development initiatives are our partnership with the Black Women in Architecture (BWA) Network and two local National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) chapters (NC NOMA and SF NOMA). In 2023, our Raleigh (North Carolina) and Oakland (California) offices were honored to host the annual BWA Brunch, which is a wonderful opportunity for members of our Gensler community to connect with Black women practitioners, architecture students, allies, and more. Another great example is our THRIVE program – first piloted in our New York and Washington D.C. offices – that aims to drive engagement of Gensler team members by cultivating our people-first culture with an emphasis on purpose, opportunity, excellence, service, and impact. Since then, THRIVE has successfully begun to roll out in our Southeast region, and is already making a monumental impact with our team members.
2. Supporting education opportunities for untapped students
We are inspiring the next generation of designers by introducing students to the world of design. Empowering students with design education fosters creativity, critical thinking, and designing with diverse perspectives – ensuring a vibrant and inclusive future for our design industry.
Through mentorship, training, and building strong relationships with our partners, we are nurturing the immense talent of students as the next generation of designers and providing opportunities for all students to learn and grow. The Gensler Apprenticeship Program (GAP) is a great example of how we engage students from all walks of life to envision a career in architecture and design. GAP is a two-year, paid apprenticeship that offers an alternate path into the design industry that is equitable, attainable, and rigorous. By way of this program, Gensler apprentices receive real-world design, construction, and business education through hands-on experience. Our inaugural GAP apprentices have recently completed the pilot program and are exploring the next steps on their design journey.
Gensler also sponsors many external programs that cultivate an interest in the design industry, including Hip-Hop Architecture Camp, an immersive weeklong experience designed to expose underrepresented youth to the fields of architecture, urban planning, and creative placemaking; Club Ideate, a three-day immersive design experience where students learn to create spaces, buildings, and experiences for a community that promotes health, wealth, and community engagement; and our annual Student Design Charrette program that takes place across seven Historically Black Colleges and Universities and bridges academia and professional practice, fostering lasting relationships between faculty, students, and Gensler mentors.
3. Pursuing community-based design solutions in our cities and neighborhoods
The inclusion of community voices is vital to our design process – one that is purposeful, collaborative, and impactful. Building relationships with our communities creates an opportunity for all perspectives to be seen and heard when reimagining our cities and neighborhoods.
Recognizing the importance of community feedback and involvement, the Gensler Research Institute established the Center for Research on Equity and the Built Environment in 2020 in an innovative, focused effort to better understand our radically changing world, allowing us to examine the relationship between the built environment and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The Center focuses specifically on research dedicated to addressing systemic racism, unconscious bias, and social justice and has successfully funded 60 research projects since its inception.
4. Creating opportunities for historically underrepresented professionals
Gensler is focused on building strong partnerships with industry leaders and allied organizations to advocate for equitable opportunities in our field. Our growing impact is made possible through the immensely talented people we work with – both within and outside of the firm.
We are committed to working with Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise firms and consultants on more projects across all of our global practice areas. Over the last five years, Gensler has partnered with 1,200+ Minority, Women and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, with a five-year spend of more than 149 million dollars.
Gensler also holds strategic and long-term partnerships with organizations like the International Interior Design Association and served as a founding sponsor for their Design Your World (DYW) program, an educational pipeline summer camp geared toward high school students, with a mission to build equity and diversity in the design industry through hands-on design projects, mentorship, field trips, industry engagement, and more. Launched in 2020, DYW hosts summer programs in several cities across the U.S. that Gensler sponsors, demonstrating that design can be accessible to all, both as a career and as a necessary component of life. Gensler also has a standing partnership with NOMA, which has a shared mission to improve the recruitment, education, training, promotion, and success of architects from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. In addition, we also have a continuing partnership with the ACE Mentor Program of America, in an ongoing mission to inspire high school students to pursue careers in architecture, engineering, and construction. We work with local ACE chapters to connect with students in the community and support their continued advancement in the industry.
5. Partnering with our clients on aligned equity and inclusion goals
By aligning our equity and inclusion goals with those of our clients, we foster a shared vision for positive change. Through intentional collaboration to strengthen our civic engagment, we will help our clients achieve their own missions and focused DEI target goals, as we expand our collective efforts to create a just and equitable built environment for all.
Sustainability
With the buildings sector responsible for almost 40% of global emissions, it is our responsibility to rethink how we construct the built environment, and how we approach it in a more sustainable manner.
Based on metrics established by the Architecture 2030 challenge, since 2021, Gensler’s portfolio has an estimated yearly carbon emission of 8.46 million metric tons CO2e. This is half of the emissions estimated for a comparable portfolio of “average” buildings estimated by the Architecture 2030 baseline.
As a result, our studio has established the Gensler Cities Climate Challenge, an initiative focused on minimizing emissions related to using buildings (operating carbon) and to constructing them (embodied carbon). Through this initiative, we have set a goal of having a zero-carbon impact portfolio by 2030.
Considering our firm’s scale, one of the many tactics we are taking is utilizing cleaner materials in our projects. Recently, we announced our Gensler Product Sustainability Standards, wherein we establish sustainability performance criteria for the top 12 most commonly-used products in architecture. Through these criteria, we aim to lead the way in utilizing greener materials for future projects and moving this forward across our entire industry.
Designing for Racial Justice
True equity and inclusion do not happen overnight, and they require empathy, courage, persistence, and intentionality. A North Star must be defined, robust strategies deployed, and aligned partnerships forged to carry us forward.
Currently, there are active divisive forces pushing to roll back long-standing legislation, and with it, DEI programs and initiatives. I am proud to say that in this contentious moment, while others quietly walk away from bold pledges made in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd and the racial awakening that followed, Gensler remains anchored to our guiding principles and commitment to work toward a more just and equitable future for all.
Together with allied partners and our clients, we are working to create meaningful, lasting change by dismantling systemic forms of oppression in the building design industry. Since 2020, we have seen steady progress across our recruitment and retention efforts for women, the LGBTQIA+ community, and racial and ethnic populations across the firm. This overall increase in engagement and opportunities for all team members shows our rising tide strategy is indeed lifting all boats.
Designing for Impact
Gensler’s unwavering commitment to DEI, sustainability, and equitable design underscores our dedication to creating safe and inclusive spaces for all. By confronting historical injustices and championing innovative solutions, we set a new benchmark for the architecture and design industry, proving that design can indeed be a catalyst for positive change. Yet, this is not a journey we can take on alone.
In collaboration with our partners and clients, we strive to dismantle longstanding barriers and challenges faced by minority professionals within our industry. Simultaneously, we are strengthening our DEI initiatives across each of our 56 offices worldwide. We acknowledge that every community harbors deeply rooted forms of oppression that hinder the advancement of marginalized groups. Thus, we empower each of our local offices to prioritize and implement our Strategies to Build a Just and Inclusive Future that will have the greatest impact in their respective communities. This is where action truly begins, where our efforts meet real-world challenges, and where Gensler leverages the collective power of our people. By harnessing our firm’s scale and influence, we aim to raise awareness of broader societal issues and address systemic oppression head-on. As a global firm, a local-first approach allows us to connect deeply with our communities, understand their unique challenges, and address these through the transformative power of design.
Design can be a beacon of positive change, signaling that a community is valued and supported. For the well-being of our world, we must engage with difficult questions, unravel the complexities between the built environment and injustice, and take collective action. As leaders of the largest design firm in the world, we are committed to fighting racism by championing justice, equity, and inclusion in every project we undertake. We encourage our peers across the industry to follow suit so that we can all make a lasting impact that changes our sector for the better.
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