Save the date!
This year's AWA+D Symposium, Next Generation: Engage, Empower, Elevate, is less than a month away!
All are welcome as we gather to connect with each other and uplift one another as we explore all the paths the world of architecture and design have to offer. In crucial times like these, it is important we work together and toward a better future for ourselves and our communities. We will be joined by fantastic speakers, listen to insightful projects, and be guided by thoughtful community leaders, all while meeting new people and discovering the places architecture, art, and design can take us. Walk away with career or personal prospects ahead.
Learn more about the event below - you don’t want to miss it!
Artwork by Loisse Ledres of geezloisse studios
Help us make this event as accessible and amazing as possible! Become a sponsor by clicking here.
DATE
Saturday, June 6, 2026 from 8:30am - 4:00pm
VENUE
ASU California Center Broadway, 1111 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90015 (you may also know the venue as the Herald Examiner Building, designed by Julia Morgan)!
TICKETS
$80 | AWA+D Members
$160 | Non-Members
$50 | Pre-Professionals (Students)
Register here.
PARKING
Metro – The California Center is a 10-minute walk from the Pico Metro Station – 18th street exit (A and E Lines).
There are several surface and structure lots surrounding the venue. Please plan ahead and pay for your parking spot ahead of time to avoid any issues. We strongly encourage carpooling!
PROGRAM
We’re thrilled to unveil our speakers for the 2026 Symposium. At AWA+D, we’re proud to highlight trailblazers driving meaningful change, and this year’s lineup truly delivers:
Catherine Hernandez (she/they) is a built-environment designer and first-generation professional whose work centers on shaping more equitable and resilient cities through housing and urban landscape design. Her experience spans multifamily and supportive housing development, with a focus on creating thoughtful, human-scaled environments that integrate architecture, landscape, and ecological systems while responding to the cultural and social fabric of communities. Guided by a commitment to housing access, environmental stewardship, and decolonial design practices, her work explores how the built environment can help repair historic inequities while honoring place, land, and community knowledge. In her role as associate director at Brilliant Corners she brings a multidisciplinary perspective that bridges design, policy, and development to advance housing solutions that support vulnerable populations and strengthen neighborhoods in the state of California. In addition to her professional practice, Catherine serves as a Planning Commissioner, helping to guide local land use decisions and long-term planning strategies that shape the future of her community. She also serves on the board of the American Institute of Architects, contributing to broader conversations about the future of the profession and the role of design in advancing equity and climate resilience. In recognition of her leadership and advocacy, she was honored as a California Woman of the Year, reflecting her ongoing commitment to expanding access to housing, elevating community voices in planning processes, and building more inclusive and regenerative urban futures.
Bz Zhang 张迪, NOMA, AIA (they/them) is an architect, artist, organizer, and educator in Tovaangar (what we currently call Los Angeles). In their professional practice, Bz is a licensed architect in California and a project manager with Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, where they work with communities across LA County toward environmental justice through design, construction, and stewardship of public green spaces. Their design and research practice traces migration, labor, capital, and empire through visual representations of extraction and resistance, particularly through the lens of Chinese diaspora building solidarities throughout the Americas. Bz organizes with the Los Angeles Chinatown Community Land Trust locally and the Design As Protest Collective and Dark Matter U nationally. Bz is a 2025-2026 Visiting Critic at Carleton University, 2022 Journal of Architectural Education Fellow, and 2021 USC Citizen Architect Fellow. Previously, they have taught architecture at the University of Southern California, California College of the Arts, University of Michigan, and University of California, Berkeley. They hold degrees from University of California, Berkeley and Brown University. In their free time, they look for birds and trash in the Los Angeles River.
Moderator Ismaelly Peña (they/them) is an architectural designer at Practice. Alongside their professional work, they are an independent researcher and educator whose practice is grounded in community engagement and social justice. Their work explores how architecture can operate as a critical and participatory medium to address political, environmental, and spatial inequities. They hold a Bachelor of Architecture from Woodbury University and a Master’s degree in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Their graduate research focused on the representation and curation of socially engaged architecture, with an emphasis on expanding how architecture is represented and understood by broader publics. Ismaelly has collaborated with artist-activists on public projects in New York City, including workshops, walks, and installations addressing domestic workers’ rights and climate justice. They currently serve as Chair of Advocacy and Education at AWA+D (Association for Women in Architecture + Design), and have previously held roles with the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design and as a mentor with Design Like A Girl. They have also taught at Woodbury University and Santa Monica College.
Dr. Keith D. Dorsey is a researcher, author, advisor, and active board member focused on issues of diversity, governance, and strategic growth for private and public corporate boards. His recent research examined women executives' pathways to securing corporate board seats, yielding powerful insights about the barriers and facilitators unique to women candidates seeking these positions. His book, The Boardroom Journey: Practical Guidance for Women to Secure a Seat at the Table, combines his research insights with his extensive executive, board, and industry experience. He speaks on topics related to governance and navigating the path to the C-suite and boardroom. As an executive advisor, he is focused on increasing Optimal Diversity within corporate senior management, executive, and board-level roles. Keith has a Doctor of Education in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California. His dissertation research examined gender and ethnic diversity on corporate boards. He also holds an MBA from Pepperdine University and a BS in Business Administration from Charter Oak State College.
Karen Compton has served as the Founder and Principal of A3K Consulting, an integrated management advisory firm specializing in the business of practice. Her depth of field includes organizational priorities - growth, profitability, and cultural alignment - that aligns to key operational areas like systems, financial best practices, intellectual capital, and succession planning. Her consulting practice has been pivotal in shaping governance and succession for non-profit and for-profit companies and organizations.
A seasoned advisor, Karen works closely with C-suite executives on corporate governance, succession strategy, and business expansion initiatives. As a Board member herself currently with HMC Architects and formerly with a transportation planning firm, she has served and led various committees including Governance, Ad Hoc Search, Nominating, ESOP Plan, and Compensation.
Before lunch, attendees will break out into one of the four groups of your choosing to learn and engage with fellow architecture and community organizers. Please read along to help you decide which group you’d like to sit with!
Adobeisnotsoftware was founded in 2009 to inform, enable, and advance adobe construction in California. It is the education and advocacy arm of Terrain, a California-based architecture firm specializing in earthen construction, adaptive reuse, high-performance workplace, and technical environments.
Altadena Rebuild Coalition was formed within SoCal NOMA in response to the devastation of the Eaton fires in 2025 on Altadena’s historic Black community. They recently awarded $300,000 in community regrant funding from the Los Angeles Conservancy, and will share what this one year journey has been.
Immigrant Architects Coalition are committed to helping and providing resources for immigrant architects to achieve a prosperous career in the U.S. through mentoring, public speaking, authorship and contribution. They have established a nationwide network of support, mentorship, and professional opportunities.
Nova Cottage Co. was co-founded by previous AWAF scholarship winner Karin Najarian. It is a social impact technology company dedicated to addressing the nation’s housing crisis by building the housing industry’s first, permanent, scalable cottage communities.
Sydney Rogers, MSW, is an award-winning keynote speaker, public leader, and cultural strategist whose work bridges policy, community transformation, and lived experience. As Chair of the Los Angeles County LGBTQ+ Commission and Senior Manager of the Trans Wellness Center at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Sydney leads efforts advancing equity, workforce development, and systems change for Trans and gender-expansive communities. Sydney combines grounded storytelling with structural insight - offering audiences a practical, human-centered lens on dignity, access, safety, and belonging.
Leslie Sydnor, AIA, LEED AP is a Senior Director of Public Project Management at Cumming Group and a Design Manager at Los Angeles City College. With more than 30 years of experience, she has led the design and delivery of education, industrial, aviation, and affordable housing projects. A committed advocate for equity in the built environment, Leslie believes that visibility and mentorship are essential to strengthening and diversifying the architecture profession. She is the founding co-chair of the AIA Los Angeles Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (J.E.D.I.) Committee and serves as Chair of Obsidian, Cumming Group’s employee resource group for Black employees. Leslie also teaches architectural project management at Cal Poly Pomona and served as the 2023 President of the AIA Los Angeles Board of Directors.
We’d love for you to join us. Register here.