Message from AIA Strategic Councilors

Molly Jacobs, AIA, Oregon Strategic Councilor
Senior Associate at Integrus Architecture

Corey Squire, AIA, At-Large Strategic Councilor
Sustainability Director at Bora Architecture & Interiors

Greetings! We’d like to introduce ourselves as the Oregon members of the AIA Strategic Council. For those unfamiliar with the Council and its work, it was established 10 years ago as the representative leadership body of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The Council is composed of representatives from each state and select U.S. territories, along with future and past AIA presidents and at-large members who bring unique perspectives and expertise to benefit the Council’s work.

While the AIA Board of Directors is responsible for leading the Institute today, the Strategic Council looks ahead—mapping out where we want to take the profession over the next decade. The Council also serves as a conduit between the National AIA and state chapters, reporting on AIA initiatives while bringing ideas from Oregon to the national organization, and vice versa.

Molly Jacobs serves as Oregon’s Strategic Councilor, appointed by AIA Oregon’s Executive Committee. She is an Architect and Senior Associate at Integrus Architecture in Portland and also serves on the National Committee on Architecture for Education (CAE).

Corey Squire is an At-Large Strategic Councilor, elected for his expertise in sustainability. He is currently Sustainability Director at Bora Architecture & Interiors in Portland and previously served on the National Committee on the Environment (COTE) Leadership Group, where he co-created the AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence.

With over 60 members, the Strategic Council is divided into study groups that function much like congressional committees. These groups explore new ideas and solutions to critical issues affecting the profession and its role in society, focusing on ideation, research, and generative thought-based activities to advance key topics.

Corey is serving on the Climate Responsive Design study group. This year, the group is focused on providing accessible and practical content to help practitioners design healthy, efficient, and resilient buildings. One initiative is a monthly “Climate Corner” newsletter, which will be shared with each state chapter. Look out for February’s edition on designing to mitigate extreme heat.

Molly serves on the Resilient Practice Model study group. With advancing technology, evolving industries, and a record number of firm owners retiring, the profession must adapt to remain strong. This group is exploring the future of architectural practice, focusing on firm culture and leadership, ownership models, and mentorship to ensure firms continue to thrive.

We are honored to serve as your Strategic Councilors and represent AIA Oregon. Our goal is to be a bridge between our state and the National AIA, fostering collaboration and bringing your insights forward. We want to hear from you! Please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions, concerns, or feedback.

We will also be hosting a “Meet Your Strategic Councilors” coffee hour at Water Avenue Coffee on April 15, 2025 at 9am. We’d love for you to join us, share your thoughts on AIA and the Strategic Council, and discuss our study group topics. We look forward to connecting with you!

Corey Squire

Molly Jacobs

Message from John Flynn, AIA Oregon President

John Flynn, AIA
AIA Oregon Board President

Hello, Colleagues –

The latter half of February always presents a unique set of opportunities for AIA members. It’s a time when we organize ourselves with an eye towards legislative affairs, what that means to architects and firms, and how we can be a voice in our state and national governments. Involvement in legislative advocacy goes beyond our practice and includes support of energy efficient buildings, emergency preparedness, healthy environments and building materials, public contracting, building codes, and affordable homes. Even though this is February focus, we are “Citizen Architects” all year round.

Two weeks ago, about 18 AIA Oregon members gathered in Salem for our statewide Leadership Summit. Oregon’s State Senate and House are in full session and there are nearly 2,500 bills in the works! Our Legislative Affairs Committee, supported by our Legislative Lobbyist Cindy Robert (Rainmakers LLC), have been tracking most of these bills. This year’s Leadership Summit began with an in-depth review of 3 legislative actions that are of importance to our organization.

• HB 2124 – Commercial Interior Designers

• HB 2854 – New School Safe Space

• Oregon Safety Assessment Program (OrSAP)

 Our delegation spent the balance of the morning in the halls of the State Capitol, meeting with selected Representative’s legislative teams to advocate for our positions on these bills. The afternoon session was dedicated to an interactive session with members of the Oregon State Board of Architect Examiners. Many thanks to John Webster AIA, Eugene Section Director-Elect, for moderating the panel discussion.

And then last week, I attended the 2025 AIA (National) Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. This is a three-day conference focusing on leadership and advocacy, highlighted by Capitol Hill Day. As with our state-focused efforts, we prepared ourselves to advocate for several issues that Congress is legislating.

• Federal Tax Policy

• Resilient Design Policy

• Housing Policies

• Federal Design Policy

• Federal Design Fee Policy

Our team consisted of AIA Oregon members Isaac Hadnutt Assoc. AIA, Alex Salazar AIA, AIAO President-Elect Jacob Zander AIA, AIAO EVP/CEO Heather Wilson, and me. We met with the legislative teams of our 2 Senators and 3 of our Representatives. In all, nearly 500 Citizen Architects participated in Capitol Hill Day.

If you are interested in learning more about any of the bills or policies noted above, please feel free to contact me or AIA Oregon staff.

These conferences provide important means for architects to engage with government officials as informed and advocating professionals. Throughout the year, we continue to help local, state, and national governments with volunteer efforts after disasters, and with building for people and organizations in need, as we seek to make positive contributions to society.

For example, while we were advocating for our Federal and State agendas, Mayor Kaarin Knudsen was still keeping us all informed of Eugene's ongoing building projects in her "Minute with the Mayor" (I suggest you follow @MayorKaarin!) and her activity creating over 200 new affordable (at or below 60% median income) units for citizens in Eugene. Congratulations, Mayor!

On the heels of a very active two weeks of legislative advocacy, I urge all our members to get involved and make a difference in our communities. Be a Citizen Architect!

Message from the new CoEDI chairs

Evon Calabrese, Assoc. AIA
CoEDI co-chair

Angel Lopez Sanchez, Assoc. AIA
CoEDI co-chair

Given recent executive orders from the current administration, it feels especially timely to resurrect the Committee on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (CoEDI). Prior to 2024, it was an extremely active community and we owe much gratitude to past chairs Mohamed Fakhry, Octavio Gutierrez, and Kelly Chanopas as well as many others for creating a robust framework to build from. We are eager to pick up where they left off with Future Vision and DEI training as well as develop new programming with NOMA PDX. If you are not already a NOMA member we encourage you to join.

If justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion are important to you, we urge you to:

• Provide feedback on shaping the CoEDI Committee via this SURVEY

• Attend our first committee meeting on Tuesday Feb. 25th at noon, LINK to join

• Review the AIA Oregon Social Justice Action Plan which was developed in June 2021, and is currently serving as the AIA Oregon Strategic Plan.

• Check out the Equitable Practices section of the AIAO Resources page

• Look around your office, do you have an internal DEI committee or initiatives? Who is running it? Often this emotionally heavy labor is done by our female and BIPOC teammates.

Meet Evon:

I grew up in rural Vermont, raised by an architect and landscape architect with a small residential practice, so I swore I would never be an architect. That changed quickly when I got to MassArt and stole all my parents' drafting supplies and books. As an undergrad, I was one of those students that would pride themselves on living in the studios leading up to reviews and embracing the ""architetorture"" culture. I considered myself more dedicated than my classmates who didn't do the same without recognizing they commuted into Boston, worked off campus, or had family obligations, all things I didn't have to worry about. I was quickly humbled while trying to find a job with a pre-professional degree and no experience at the height of a recession.

In the 10+ years since then, my interests have shifted from "starchitects" to social sustainability and becoming a citizen architect. I am now a healthcare designer at NBBJ specializing in trauma-informed and evidence-based design and conducting research on designing for neurodiversity. I'm passionate about trauma-informed design because it fuses design psychology with intensive community engagement.

Meet Angel:

I was born here (in Portland) and grew up in a small town name Woodburn. Growing up I dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player, playing in both soccer and track throughout school. As a first generation mexican-american I knew I had to pursue a post secondary education, and with my father working in construction that is where my love for design and construction grew. I attended the University of Oregon, where I was part of creating and establishing the Latinx Male Alliance, participated in some AIAS events and studied abroad in Rome. I graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelors of Architecture and Minor in Landscape Architecture in 2021.

I am currently a design professional at Integrus Architecture. Where I am able to practice my passion to create innovative experiences built on social, natural environments and economic conditions for humans. All by curating a vision throughout the life of a project.

Thank you for being a part of our community, we are so excited to resume this vital committee and engage with you all in this important work.

Your CoEDI co-chairs,

Evon Calabrese and Angel Lopez Sanchez