Latinas in Architecture –
Stories of Raising the 1% One Latina at a Time
1LU
The AIA Long Island Chapter and the Women in Architecture Committee invite you to participate in a panel discussion with four of the authors of the book “Latinas in Architecture – Stories of Raising the 1% One Latina at a Time,” who will discuss their professional journeys, challenges, and successes.

Hear excerpts from the newly-published book directly from the authors. They will share their stories, followed by a moderated discussion for more in-depth conversations about their careers during various stages starting from emerging professionals to firm leaders and business owners. You will hear about the lessons learned from their paths, and challenges that they overcame.

Join us for what is sure to be an evening of inspiring stories of courage, grit, and determination.

Free Zoom Meeting

Date: Thursday, April 14th, 2022 

Time: 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm EST



Featuring:

Alicia Ponce, AIA

A registered architect in Illinois and Wisconsin, Alicia Ponce is the founder and principal of APMonarch, a Chicago based Female and Latina owned Architecture firm. Her expertise and passion to design healthy buildings and equitable communities have supported many clients in creating architecture that is ambitious, thoughtful and healthy. Under Alicia’s direction, the firm provides architectural services, community engagement and sustainability consulting for projects throughout the Midwest and Latin America.

Alicia refers to APMonarch as the pollinator of the built environment designing healthy environments that look good, feel good and perform great. The firm promises to build zero carbon architecture. Demonstrating that promise is Alicia’s recent architecture commission to design Centro Amazing, a civic youth center located in Aguascalientes, Mexico which is to be constructed from rammed earth.
Alicia serves on the Chicago Landmarks Commission, the United Way Metro Chicago Executive Board, and HACIA’s sustainability committee. She is the founder and chair of Arquitina, a national non-profit organization with a mission to raise the fewer than 1% of licensed Latina architects in the U.S.


Graciela Carrillo, AIA

Originally from Colombia, Graciela Carrillo, AIA, immigrated to the United States in 2003. She works at Nassau BOCES Facilities Services as a Senior Manager where she is in charge of coordinating school’s capital and operational projects serving Nassau County school districts.

Graciela has committed almost a decade of volunteer leadership service to the American Institute of Architects (AIA). She has been involved with the AIA at the local, state and national level, currently serving as AIA New York State representative for the AIA National Strategic Council, the Past President of the AIA Long Island Chapter, and the Chapter’s Women In Architecture Founder and Co-Chair. In 2017-2018 Graciela served as the NYS Regional Director (YARD) for the Young Architects Forum (YAF). Graciela is also the Co-Founder of the Immigrant Architects Coalition, a group committed to helping and providing resources for immigrant architects to achieve a prosperous career in the US. In 2019, Graciela was the recipient of the AIA NYS Young Architect Award and in 2022 she was the recipient of the AIA Young Architect Award. In 2021 she was an honoree of the Top 50 Women in Business in Long Island. Through her volunteering to the AIA, Graciela has had an abundance of career enrichment and professional development. Of particular interest is providing a voice for immigrant professionals established in the U.S., and encouraging and supporting them in their path towards licensure and professional development, since she experienced, first hand, the challenges of being educated in a foreign country while ultimately acquiring a professional license in NYS.

Last year, Graciela founded the Powerful Speeches platform in an effort to champion women architects, to promote, advance, and elevate women in our profession. 


Raquel Guzman, AIA

Raquel is an architect at SmithGroup with a background in planning, architectural and design strategies.Her experience of living in the Dominican Republic and the US has exposed her to different cultures and perspectives which she uses as a tool for her projects. Raquel is a founding mentor of Arquitina. She is a leader of the JEDI committee in her office. Raquel is the co-chair of the AIA YAF Chicago and serves in the AIA Interior Architecture Knowledge Community.
Yiselle Santos Rivera, AIA

Yiselle Santos Rivera, AIA, NOMA, LSSYB, LEED AP, WELL AP is a Principal and Global Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion at HKS, Inc. Yiselle seeks to dismantle barriers, bring visibility and voice to underrepresented designers, and create equitable practices through inclusive workplace strategies. As an architect and medical planner, Yiselle amplifies the voices of marginalized communities encouraging processes of co-creation and designing spaces that provide equitable access to care. She is a trusted advisor to firm leaders and clients as they begin their journeys to build more diverse, equitable, and inclusive organizations.

She is the co-founder of the Latin American Interior Designers, Engineers, and Architects (LA.IDEA) DC Committee and founder of “Women Inspiring Emerging Leaders in Design” (WIELD), which received the 2019 AIA Diversity Program Recognition Award. Yiselle has served on the AIA National Associated Committee (NAC) as 2015-16 Mid-Atlantic Regional Associate Director and 2017-18 At-Large Director of Advocacy and Community Engagement. Later, she served as the 2019 Strategic Council Associate Director and in 2020, served on the AIA National Board as Associate Representative. As a member of the 2020 AIA COVID-19 Health Impact Task Force, Ms. Santos Rivera led the creation of the Additional Considerations section of the AIA Alternative Care Site Preparedness Assessment Tool V2.0 providing measures in support of ethnically diverse and marginalized populations, now translated into 3 languages. 

Currently, Ms. Santos Rivera is the AIA DC Chapter Board 2022 Vice President/2023 President-Elect and the NOMA Chair of Research and Development. Yiselle is a storyteller, a 2015 Christopher Kelley Leadership Development Program Scholar, and recipient of the 2018 AIA Associate Award and the 2022 AIA Young Architect Award.
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