NOMAS (National Organization of Minority Architecture Students) in conversation with YBAA (Yale Black Architecture Alumni) with special guests, YSOA Faculty members Ife Vanable and Mae-Ling Lokko
Friday, November 15 at 1:00 pm EST
Prospective students will have the opportunity to hear what life is like for current students at Yale, and what life can look like after Yale, from alumni perspectives.
Panelists:
Barbara Nasila '24, born and raised in Mombasa, Kenya, is a development associate and Project Owner at JPMorganChase, Global Real Estate in Manhattan, specializing in large-scale commercial office projects and guiding sustainability. She completed the professional M.Arch I degree at Yale School of Architecture (YSOA), where she was a Dean’s Merit Scholar, Fred B. Bland Fellow, and Aga Khan Foundation International Scholar. At Yale, Barbara participated in the Jim Vlock Building Project, was on the leadership team of Yale NOMAS, and served as a Teaching Assistant for "Urban Difference" with Justin Garrett Moore and "Constructing the Racial State" with Jordan H. Carver. She also contributed to the implementation of the school's DEI action plan alongside DEI Dean, Bimal Mendis. Barbara received the William Edward Parsons Memorial Medal upon graduation for her distinctive work and professional promise in city planning and was also a 2023 Gensler Rising Black Designer. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with honors from UC Berkeley,
where she focused her interests on affordable and accessible design and held leadership roles, including serving as President of the American Institute of Architecture Students and Vice President of the Organization of African Students.
Michael Marshall '84 is the design director and principal of Michael Marshall Design (MMD). He manages the firm’s architectural projects with a keen sensitivity to context and environment, and leads each project in design excellence. More recently, MMD completed the design of the National Market in MGM National Harbor, the award-winning Entertainment and Sports Arena in Congress Heights, the Michelle Obama Southeast Center of Bread for the City, and the DC United’s home, Audi Field. He is currently on the design team for a new memorial honoring Frederick Douglass, father of the American Civil Rights movement.
In 2018, Marshall’s work was accepted into the architectural design archives of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Marshall has been recognized as a 2016 “Power 100 Playmaker” and 2014 “Minority Business Leader of the Year” by the Washington Business Journal.
He was also honored with a 2014 Dandi Award for Diversity and Inclusion.
His work has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects (DC and National Chapters), ENR MidAtlantic, Urban Land Institute, National Organization of Minority Architects, The National Housing and Rehabilitation Association, International Design Awards (IDA), and the American Society of Architectural Illustrators, among others.
Josh Greene '23 is a Phoenix-born, African-American architect in training. He received his Bachelor’s of Architecture at Arizona State University, and his Masters of Architecture at the Yale School of Architecture. Josh spent three years as a Global Health Corps Fellow and designer with MASS Design Group in Kigali, Rwanda, and he currently works at Kéré Architecture in Berlin.
Tim Hawkins '23, is a Technical Designer at Gensler. A graduate of The Yale School of Architecture, where he holds a Masters. Working in residential, sports and entertainment, he has experience in various design disciplines. Before working at Gensler, he was a designer at Michael Marshall Design, working on educational institutions, residential, and commercial office spaces. As a junior architect on the path to licensure, he understands the importance and impact of diversity in his profession and is an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Ife Salema Vanable, Faculty is an architect, historian, and theorist who directs i/van/able, a Bronx, NY-founded, Bristol, CT-based (but always Bronx-flavored) architectural workshop and think tank that produces theoretical, speculative, and physical interventions that defy prevailing notions of type, taste, and form. This work has been supported by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), recognized by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), and exhibited at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Ife holds professional and post-professional degrees in architecture from Cornell and Princeton Universities and has studied at the Architectural Association in London and the University College of Lands and Architectural Studies (now Ardhi University) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Ife was the inaugural KPF Visiting Scholar (2021), as well as a Presidential Visiting Fellow (2022) at Yale SoA. Ife is also a PhD candidate in architectural history and theory at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP). Her scholarly work asks questions of and seeks to unearth complex and seemingly banal relationships between the design of architecture, law, and public policy, the performance of domesticity and respectability, and the politics, aesthetics, and materiality of the making of home.
Mae-Ling Lokko, Faculty is an architectural scientist, designer and educator focused on the intersectoral design and research of biobased materials to drive ecological health and generative justice goals. She is an Assistant Professor at Yale School of Architecture where she teaches environmental design and on the history and contemporary design of biobased building technologies. At Yale’s Center for Ecosystems in Architecture, she directs doctoral research on the whole life cycle development, distributed infrastructures design and policy around non-toxic, low-carbon materials.
Given biobased building materials are poised to become part of the rapidly growing 21st century building materials economy, Lokko’s current research and writings aim to understand both the historical patterns, risks and opportunities around biobased material technologies. Her research has been funded by the reARC Institute, Yale’s ASCEND Program, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the SOM Foundation, the British Council, MIT’s Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative, the Luma Foundation, Housing the Human 2019 and NYSERDA. Her work and writings have been featured in the New York Times, Blueprint, ICON Magazine, eFlux, Blueprint, Wallpaper, MOLD, Frieze Magazine, RIBA Journal, DOMUS, Dezeen, DAMN Magazine, and other global design publications.
Registration is no longer available because the registration deadline has passed.
