2021 Directory

14 WYOMING ARCHITECTURE .21 | aia-wyoming.org A IA’s premier chapter leadership training event, AIA Grassroots and Leadership Conference, took place virtually Feb. 16-19, 2021. This year’s theme, Bring It Home addressed critical issues facing the architecture profession, including COVID-19, climate change, and racial equity. Participants observed best practices and strategies that they brought home to implement successfully in their chapter, firm, and community. The event was packed with keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, networking, and the opportunity to advocate for AIA’s legislative agenda with Members of Congress. The event began February 16 with a choice of sessions on developing a partnership between the board of directors and component staff by Bob Harris, CAE, strategically developing the right board and the economy and the pandemic: outlook and implications for the architecture profession. Following the morning session, AIA leadership reviewed the AIA’s Policy Platform 2021 and provided an AIA update by Dan Hart, FAIA, AIA First vice president and Peter Exley, FAIA, AIA President. Keynote speaker Dan Roam began Wednesday with a session on design thinking, tackling challenges of the built environment. Dan is the author of several books, including the international bestseller The 2021 AIA Grassroots and Leadership Conference BY AIA WYOMING LEADERSHIP AND SUSAN MENGHINI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, which was named the innovation and creativity book of the year by Fast Company, Businessweek, and The Times of London. Roam is the founder and president of Digital Roam Inc., a management-consulting firm that uses visual thinking to solve complex problems. His analysis of American health care on 50 napkins was hailed by Businessweek as “The World’s Greatest Presentation of 2009,” and it prompted the White House Office of Communications to invite Dan in for discussions on how to visually clarify complex policy issues. We continued with a roundtable session with components of our own size, 100-199 members. Understanding that our successes and issues are very similar, we enjoyed the conversation with other components. The afternoon keynote speaker was Stacey Abrams, Political leader, nonprofit CEO, author, and serial entrepreneur. Stacey made history and captured the nation’s attention as the first Black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in any state, going on to win more votes than any other Democrat in Georgia’s history. After 11 years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven as minority leader, Abrams became the 2018 Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia. Her book, Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change, is a New York Times bestseller that serves as a powerful guide on harnessing the strengths of being an outsider and using them for success. We ended the day with a choice of a final session that included planning and designing for equitable communities, fostering partnerships to advance equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging, and planning and designing for equitable communities. Design Thinking-Tackling Challenges of the Built Environment Speaker: Dan Roam Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Speaker: Stacey Abrams