AIAO Leadership Summit Report

The 2023 AIA Leadership Summit was just held in Washington DC, February 14-17. In attendance from AIA Oregon leadership – Kaley Fought, AIA (2023 President); John Flynn, AIA (2023 President-Elect); and Rex Prater, AIA (AIA Eugene Section Director). Heather Wilson (AIAO CEO / EVP) and Kathy Wendland were also in attendance to add support to Hill office visits and take valuable education geared toward AIA staff.

In all, the team visited the offices of Representatives Bonamici, Hoyle and Blumenauer; and Senators Wyden and Merkley. AIA National staff provided a really efficient app we used to navigate the capitol hallways, make all of our appointments in time, and talk about our two national policy initiatives – the Resilient America Act (H.R.5689 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Resilient AMERICA Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress) and the Democracy in Design Act (H.R.5291 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Democracy in Design Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress). We also made the request that to whatever extent they could support the appointment of an AIA Architect to the position of Architect of the Capitol, we would appreciate their support.

All in all, it was a whirlwind day of advocacy, a great opportunity to network with other architects from around the world and to learn from amazing keynote presenters and AIA leaders. If you didn’t participate this year, please consider next year – there are already plans for the program to return to Washington DC, and remain focused on leadership level training that supports our chapters’ best practices and prosperity. For more information, please stay connected to the AIA Advocacy Page: Advocacy - AIA