Heather Wilson
New AIA Oregon EVP/ CEO
“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt led an active, full, and interesting life, if not a sad one. She was immediately stricken at an early age with the loss of her mother, father and brother to illness and depression, only to pull herself back together and have to nurse her husband, FDR, though his presidency and paralytic illness. Despite all of her obstacles, she maintained her drive and developed her voice as a feminist and anti-racist. She became an outspoken (and therefore criticized) woman in the public eye, redefining the role of “First Lady” with her social platforms, speaking engagements, and sometimes outright disagreement with her husband.
I love her example. Considering that in times gone before me, thought pioneers did more with less keeps me going. It reminds me that the fundamental task of finding your voice is the rudimentary first step but learning to flex it is another task entirely that requires dog-headed determination. It is not enough to be in the room if you never speak up – you must decipher a room and speak to your audience clearly, honestly, and sometimes, urgently.
Make no mistake; we find ourselves in urgent times that require the voices in the room to speak with authority. The availability and quality of our air, water, energy, and soil are at the mercy of our “progress” – our ingenuity cutting both ways. Simultaneously, we are asking similar questions around our societal structure: the quality of our schools, cities, public spaces and social capacity hang in the balance of unanswered questions around exactly how we ended up with so much brutality disrupting our ideals of humanity.
There is a deep public outcry for answers.
Forgive me for sounding too optimistic, perhaps, but I believe we – the designers, dreamers, artists, scientists and all-around bad-asses in AIA - can actualize a better future. I also believe the process will be just that – a process. It will require honest, open, clear communication facilitated by creative and inspiring thinkers that get things done. Forgive me again for sounding too naïve, but I believe our design community has the right tools for the challenge. Not only are you equipped by virtue of your training, education and passion; you have a secret weapon: AIA Oregon members and staff who are all dedicated to the same ideal.
And what can you get when you activate over one thousand people to accomplish high-end goals? Well, for the most part, you get ideas; and not all will work, but our job is to generate them, and share them, not judge them.
We will also create some great relationships, some that will serve to connect us to solutions in the near (and not so near) future. We will connect to communities we perhaps have not yet. And we’ll expand our knowledge at the same time we increase a sphere of influence.
Some of the outcomes will look like failures; I assure you they are not. They are continued attempts at success that will help us build resilience and working capacity. We’re going to increase our stamina and strength as a group recovering from COVID and racial unrest, and that will take time, consideration, and measured thought. But I know that if any group of individuals can come together to make it happen, its AIA members. Everywhere I have been in this nation, AIA members are poised and ready to take on tough issues, and now should be no different.
It won’t be easy at first, perhaps, to come back together after over a year apart. We’ll have to relearn some things, and maybe even disabuse ourselves of others. But as I start this week, my first as your full-time EVP, I know I’m looking forward to the journey, and I’m so glad I have the chance to do it with the members of AIA Oregon. As we get to know each other, I hope you’ll reach out by email or phone, and when we are meeting again regularly, I look forward to seeing how your individual contribution can make your membership that much more valuable to you. It’s going to be an exciting time and I thank you for trusting me to lead. Let’s envision and build collaborative solutions to an ever-changing world, together.
Looking forward to it,
Heather Wilson