AIA President to Keynote at NZ24

By: Celeste Yun Zhou, Marketing & Events Intern at Verdical Group

We are pleased to announce Kimberly Dowdell as a keynote speaker for NZ24! Dowdell is currently the President of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and has served as the national president of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMAC) in 2019-2020.

With an impressive array of achievements, Dowdell has devoted her career to laying foundations for architects to create positive social and environmental change on a local, national and global scale. She has intentionally connected a diverse array of built environment stakeholders to help advance her professional mission, which is “to improve people’s lives, by design.” 

At HOK, Dowdell co-chairs the firm’s Diversity Advisory Council (DAC) and co-founded HOK Impact, the firm’s social responsibility program. She also co-founded Social Economic Environmental Design (SEED), an organization that promotes design for healthy communities in 2005. Dowdell earned her Master of Public Administration at Harvard and her Bachelor of Architecture at Cornell, where she was elected by her fellow alumni to serve on the board of trustees in 2022.

We are excited to hear her perspective in sustainability and diversity at the 2024 Net Zero Conference!

Join Dowdell by registering here.