Amy Vohs, AIA
AIAO President
Happy New Year everyone! I am looking forward to quite a few things this year as we close the book on 2020, a year of more crises and threats to our safety as a community than most of us would ever like to see again. We have two new executive committee members joining Misty Nelmes and myself. Kaley Fought, AIA of the Salem section is our new President-Elect. She has extensive experience as former Salem chapter president and is also the chair of the Oregon Design Conference. Stephanie Morales, Associate AIA has been elected as the new treasurer. She has been heavily involved in the CoEDI committee and is currently on our Executive Director search task force. We look forward to their leadership over the next few years. This will be my last year as president and I have high hopes for this year. Please view our website announcement “Meet your 2021 AIA Oregon Board” for more information on the new executive committee.
We also welcome several new Section Directors this month. Samuel Uccello, AIA moves up to the Southern Section Director and Sara Bergby, AIA is the new Bend Section Director. Both have been extremely involved over the last year in program development and leadership as Directors-elect. Lastly we welcome Kathy Austin, AIA of Bend as the Director-at-Large. She has an extensive housing background and has been extremely involved in shaping the Bend Section. We look forward to her insight as we work to create a new Housing Committee this coming year.
As a chapter, we will continue to move AIA Oregon to a better normal with on-line education programming, expanding the People’s Choice Awards to all sections and getting to improved hybrid events when we are able to meet in person. There are several different technological advancements we have learned of from the successes of other chapters with digital programming we hope to adopt.
We are also looking forward to expanding upon the Social Justice Action Plan. Last year the board voted to spend time on Bias and Equity training to better understand where we are as a board to assist in moving forward the Action Plan to move our industry to a better, more inclusive and diverse profession. The AIA SJAP Framework further defines our goals as a chapter to expand our network, influence and education. This will be a heavy focus for several of our committee members and we welcome any and all interested in getting further engaged. This is a long and expansive process to work towards changing the Architecture community with avenues for all to explore.
I write this on the same day that we have protestors storming the Capitol building and I pray we all get a little peace for 2021. I look forward to seeing you all again in person as the state rolls out vaccinations and maybe we will only have one or two major crises to work through this year. We will also say goodbye to Curt Wilson later this spring but will move forward with a solid foundation for the new Executive Director. One thing is for sure, being resilient has never been more important for AIA Oregon.
I wish you all a healthy and prosperous New Year!
Amy E. Vohs, AIA