Mohamed Fakhry, Associate AIA
Chair, Committee on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (CoEDI)
Co-Chair Emerging Professionals Committee (EPC)
Hope these first few months of summer have been as warm and sunshine filled as ever!
I have never been more optimistic about the future of design as I am today. I know and believe that each of us are beautiful and amazing humans in our own ways, in how, we each contribute and challenge the profession of architecture, and push for more diversity, more equity, and more inclusion, within and beyond the walls and barriers that reflect architecture as a whole.
Over the course of the past few months, I have been pondering many questions regarding the AIA Oregon Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (CoEDI) commitment to DEI efforts in Oregon and beyond. Earlier in the Spring, I remembered that our opportunities to share spaces, sit together, engage, and critically discuss DEI have always been a challenge. This idea of us being able to better the profession from many different perspectives and many different experiences made me ask, what can we, as architects and designers do better and more? Why do we as architects and designers need to do better and more?
I realized that asking these questions together to find solutions will not just reflect what CoEDI stands for, but further help us address some of the many challenges the design profession faces to this day! These thoughts and questions, combined, made we wonder, can we "Elevate" design? and more specifically, what will it take to “Elevate” design as the future stays ever brighter on the horizon?
My hope and commitment as chair of the CoEDI is and will remain the same - to give us all a platform to engage, learn together, and ask questions, acknowledging and pushing for DEI education as much as we aim to answer and solve historical problems. That is why I am extending you all an invitation to attend this year’s Future Vision Symposium, which will be held Virtually on August 17 & 18, 2023, followed by an in-person evening social on August 18 at DLR Group in Portland to celebrate our learning together!
CoEDI has been able to reach out to and invite 16 amazing humans that include the AIA 99TH President Emily Grandsatff Rice, FAIA and many more. This will give us all an opportunity to be in the room, and listen, and ask, and learn about the many different ways we can approach this idea of how to "Elevate" design.
From panel sessions discussing Women in Leadership, Women in Sustainability, the importance of understanding the challenges of accessibility, and the Pipeline Between Academia and Practice, this year Future Vision has me excited, and it is my hope that you are as well. As August gets close and the sun keeps beaming its golden rays, I am very much looking forward to meeting some, if not, many of you at the virtual symposium and in-person reception. We have so much to learn together.
Warmest Regards!