Board of directors
Meet the people that lead our philanthropic efforts to attract, inspire, and invest in the next generation of architects.
Bill E. Roschen, FAIA
President
Bill Roschen’s career manifests the new paradigm of “citizen architect” as civic leader who can engage communities in the thoughtful conversations required to advance infill and redevelopment projects that make neighborhoods sustainable, affordable, livable, and healthy. His appointment as President of the City of Los Angeles Planning Commission culminated three decades of practice. Bill opened a storefront office at the famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine in 1987 with his partner, Christi Van Cleve, and they immersed themselves in the community, serving on the boards of local arts, civic, and youth leadership organizations, while establishing a “place-based” urban architectural practice working on affordable housing, historic preservation and mixed-use transit-oriented development projects that are providing density, gravity and vitality to revivify Hollywood’s once magnetic downtown. It is work that has provided Bill with a critical skill set at a time when Los Angeles and the nation are turning away from suburbanization and privatization toward urbanism, collectivism and a renewed interest in and recognition of the value inherent in the public realm.
Bill holds a Masters degree in Architecture from Columbia University, with an emphasis on city planning and urban architecture, historic preservation and philosophy of aesthetics, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Arizona State University, with an emphasis on sustainable design. He trained in civic engagement leadership at CORO in Los Angeles. In 2013, Bill was honored for his eight years of city-changing leadership on the LA City Planning Commission with an AIA/LA Presidential Citation and with the American Planning Association Los Angeles and California Chapters’ Distinguished Leadership Award for Citizen Planner of the Year.
Dan Kirby, FAIA
Vice President
Dan Kirby, FAIA, FAICP, LEED AP BD+C, NCARB, NOMA is Vice President and Director of Cities and Places (Southeast) at Jacobs, a leading global provider of professional and technical services. His project experience includes corporate and industrial buildings, hotels, sustainable design, smart cities, emerging technology and real estate development. Kirby was the first African-American to serve as President of the Florida Association of the American Institute of Architects and was also member of the AIA Strategic Council. He is former Commission President for the Orlando Utilities Commission, was a two-term planning and zoning commission chair, and previously served as a member of the Orange County Urban Design Commission. He has been an adjunct instructor for design in the architecture program at the University of Central Florida. In addition, Kirby has the rare distinction of having been honored as a fellow in both the American Institute of Architects and the American Institute of Certified Planners. He has been a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and is a graduate of the University of Florida and the University of Michigan.
Sharon Liebowitz
Treasurer
Sharon Liebowitz is Director of Innovation & Strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, focusing on opportunities and emerging technologies in financial services. Prior to that, she founded Meritam, a robo-advisor platform designed to bring low cost investment solutions to nonprofits and related institutions. Earlier in her career, Sharon built trading systems at large global banks including JPMorgan Chase, UBS and Deutsche Bank. Sharon earned an M.Arch from Columbia University and a BA with honors from Harvard University. She’s a committed volunteer and currently serves on the board of directors of the Center for Architecture and the Columbia Alumni Association, and is a Columbia University Senator.
Vaughn Lewis, Assoc. AIA
Secretary
Vaughn Lewis is an assistant project manager at DBI Projects. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from The Cooper Union and is a recipient of the 2019 Architects Foundation/McAslan Fellowship, 2018 William Cooper Mack Thesis Fellowship, 2017 Palmer Hayden Travel Fellowship, and the 2015 AIA/AF Diversity Scholarship. These fellowships enabled him to travel through North America, Europe, Asia and Africa to develop a better understanding of how architecture engages with different cultures and communities. With diverse academic and professional experience, his design sensibility is crafted by a complexity of issues pertaining to the reinterpretation of memory, equity, and sustainability.
Kathy Dixon, FAIA
Kathy Dixon, FAIA, NOMAC, LEED AP+, NCARB, CDT is Principal of K. Dixon Architecture and a licensed architect with nearly 30 years of experience involving various building types and facilities. She has been involved in every stage of the construction process and has experience in educational, commercial, and government projects. A graduate of Howard University’s School of Architecture, Ms. Dixon continued her secondary education at UCLA, matriculating with a Master’s degree in Urban Planning, with a focus on Housing and Community Development. During her career, Kathy has worked on a number of educational facilities in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area. She spent several years working on national contracts with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) projects including Potomac TRACON and several Air Traffic Control (ARTCC) facilities. Prior to moving to government and institutional projects, she worked four years with McDonald’s Corporation developing new restaurants, site planning, designing commercial kitchens, and creating child oriented play areas. Recently Ms. Dixon is designing civic facilities and faith-based institutions including fire stations, churches, family life centers, schools and senior housing. Ms. Dixon has been certified by the USGBC’s LEED Program, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), as well as CSI’s Certified Documents Technologist (CDT) program. She is licensed in Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. In August 2010, Ms. Dixon joined the faculty at the UDC in the Department of Architecture and Community Planning as an Assistant Professor.
Kathy served as the President of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) from 2012-2014. Ms. Dixon is active in her church as a Trustee and is an executive board member for the Harambee Community Development Corporation which recently developed the Beasley Square Senior housing complex in Alexandria, VA.
Laura Flusche
Laura Flusche serves as Executive Director of the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA). She joined MODA in 2010 as Associate Director and became Executive Director in 2013. As Executive Director, she leads all of the museum’s strategic initiatives and oversees the creation and implementation of exhibitions and programs that demonstrate the power of design to effect positive change in the world.
Prior to joining MODA, Laura lived for fifteen years in Rome, Italy, where she served as Assistant Academic Dean for an American academic program and was part of the Palatine East Excavation team, supervising excavations and contributing to the publication of archaeological findings.
In 2016, Laura received the Business Design and Arts Leadership Distinguished Alumni Award from the Savannah College of Art and Design where she earned a master’s degree in Arts Administration. In 2014, she was selected to attend the Getty Leadership Institute’s Executive Program for Museum Professionals.
Laura holds a Ph.D. in Ancient Roman and Etruscan Art and Archaeology and fiercely maintains that design is archaeology backwards. She also holds an M.A. in Italian Renaissance Art.
Laura serves on the Midtown Alliance Board of Directors and is a member of the steering committee for Atlanta’s Arts Marketing Roundtable. She is also a member of the College Art Association’s Museum Committee and the Council for Innovation at Mt. Vernon Presbyterian School in Sandy Springs, GA.
Sharon Haar, FAIA
Sharon Haar, FAIA, NOMA is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Her research spans topics that include the history of architectural practices devoted to social activism, equitable housing and urban design, and university campuses. Haar’s publications include: The City as Campus: Urbanism and Higher Education in Chicago and Schools for Cities: Urban Strategies. Her articles and book reviews appear in journals including the Journal of Architectural Education, the Journal of Planning Education and Research, the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Architect’s Newspaper, and Architectural Design. Her recent book chapters appear in: The Urban Ecologies Reader, Embodied Utopias, Shanghai Transforming and On Location: Heritage Cities and Sites. She has presented her research in conferences and lectures across the United States, Latin America, Asia, and Europe.
Haar is active at a national level as a member of the Board of the Architects Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Institute of Architects, and as the President of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture in the 2022-2023 academic year. She is the recipient of numerous grants from institutions including the Graham Foundation, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Fannie Mae Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and American Architecture Foundation. She is also the former Reviews Editor for the Journal of Architectural Education.
Haar has taught at Parsons School of Design in New York and at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she was professor of architecture and the Associate Dean for Research at the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts. She served as the Architecture Program Chair at Taubman College from 2014 through 2019. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University and her Master of Architecture from Princeton University.
Timothy Hawk, FAIA
Tim joins the Architects Foundation board after years of service as a national leader of the American Institute of Architects where he was the Treasurer, head of Government Advocacy, and a liaison to the architecture student organization, AIAS. Tim is a champion of design advocacy and has focused his career mentoring emerging professionals and students. He is both an architectural educator and a practice leader and looks to connect emerging talent to prosperity and opportunities for community connection. As an Architects Foundation board member, Tim will focus on expanding the mission and diversifying engagement.
Ken Higa, AIA
Ken Higa, AIA, IIDA, MBA, LEED AP joined The Beck Group in 2017 and leads the Higher Education practice for the Atlanta Office. A registered architect with nearly thirty years of experience, his passion for design began with creating places for learning and has led to a career designing facilities for higher education. Equally passionate about business, professional practice and marketing, Ken has also previously held business development and marketing positions in the AEC industry and eventually earned an MBA from the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. Today, he works with institutional clients to define and achieve their goals by bridging the processes of strategic, business and physical planning.
Throughout his career, Ken has been engaged in the not-for-profit community, becoming a professional fundraiser, active volunteer and skilled board member. He is a past board member of the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), where he led the creation of the SCUP Annual Fund and the SCUP Fellows program, and is the past-chair of Georgia State University’s Panther Athletic Club, the primary fundraising arm of Georgia State Athletics. Ken continues to volunteer his time and talents with local organizations that create educational opportunities for students and have a mission to positively shape the future of education.
Ken received a Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Science in Building Sciences from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He was the designer for the improvements to the Jim Thorpe Memorial in Jim Thorpe, PA and worked with students from the Carbon County Vocational Technical School on its construction, which was dedicated in 1998.
Ching-Hua Ho
Since joining Payette in 1996 and 2000, Ching has been devoting her efforts to healthcare practice and has led Payette’s major healthcare projects from new facilities, additions and interior renovations in various scales. Besides healthcare planning and design, her passion is to explore exterior building envelopes working with specific contexts and programs, and to complete the total building expression.
Ching believes there shall be no boundaries in design between different project typologies. Designers’ sensibility and skills on crafting spaces, the implementation and problem solving can be applied to all building types. From working with specific clients/programs to internal project teams, the highest performance is expected through her leadership.
Ching has received her Bachelor degree from Chinese Cultural University and a Masters degree in urban design at Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan. Her post-professional graduate degree from Yale School of Architectural was the essential in freeing Ching from the norms and going beyond conventional boundaries.
Milan Jordan, Assoc. AIA
With a background in architecture and a passion for nonprofit management, Milan’s career is the intersection of mission-driven work for built and cultural environments. Milan is currently the Director of the HOPE Crew at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. HOPE Crew is bringing Hands-On Preservation Experience to the next wave of preservation tradespeople. Under Milan’s leadership, the program has developed partnerships with all seven Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with colleges of architecture. Expanding from traditional trades training, the program now also engages architecture students on documentation methods and technology that builds on architecture education and supports the preservation movement. Milan looks forward to continuing Katherine Malone France’s bridge of preservation and architecture on the Architect’s Foundation board of directors.
Prior to joining the National Trust, Milan was Director of Workforce and Emerging Professionals at the American Institute of Architects where she developed programming and resources for early-career professionals as well as women architects. She served on the inaugural advisory committee for the 2023 AIA Women’s Leadership Summit and enjoys other civic leadership including the Traditional Trades Training Task Force and Preservation Priorities Task Force. Milan holds a Master of Architecture degree from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Bachelors of Arts in American Studies from University of Maryland, College Park. In her spare time she is a Pilates instructor and enjoys tending to a large collection of indoor plants and exploring natural wonders.
Kenneth Lewis, AIA
In his 35+ years building in New York and beyond, Ken has realized projects that inspire, enhance the public realm, and cement the city as a place where the most daring, complex ideas can be built. Ken’s work includes One World Trade Center—the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere—and its neighbor, 7 World Trade Center, both built under extraordinary circumstances. Ken led SOM’s work at 35 Hudson Yards, an undulating residential tower and home to the first Equinox Hotel. More recently, Ken led construction of Manhattan West, a seven-million-square-foot mixed-use master planned development built above active railroad tracks, encompassing four new towers and reuse of an existing loft building. Today, Ken is leading the most significant renovation and reuse project in New York’s history, the complete transformation and ground-up renovation of the landmark Waldorf Astoria.
Ken is the President of AIA New York, charged with leading the organization with optimism and pride through one of the AEC industry’s most challenging periods in recent history. He also serves on the Urban Green Council Board of Directors, the Center for Architecture Board of Trustees, and the Architectural Review Board of Irvington, New York.
Michael Marshall, FAIA
Michael Marshall 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. In a career that spans more than three decades, Marshall has completed commissions on a wide range of building types including commercial, corporate, cultural and urban design, as well as mixed-use developments. His skills have facilitated numerous successful partnerships with developers, architects, governmental agencies, and private companies. Marshall has designed a number of iconic projects throughout the District of Columbia and beyond, including The Howard Theatre, The University of the District of Columbia’s Student Center, Chuck Brown Memorial, a number of the city’s public and charter schools, and the urban destinations City Vista and Reunion Square. More recently, MMD completed 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.
Marshall volunteers his time presenting lectures on architecture and serving on architecture advisory boards. He has served as a juror for the DC Historic Preservation Awards, serves on the Dean’s Council for the Yale School of Architecture and is a member of the landmark Cultural Heritage Stewardship Initiative, a pilot program with the nation’s leading historic preservation groups to plan for cultural resources, buildings and landscapes at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) nationwide. He was selected as the University of Maryland School of Architecture’s Fall 2018 Kea Distinguished Professor, serving as critic and lecturer in the Architecture Program. He has personally mentored more than 150 young architecture students. He received a Masters degree in Architecture from Yale University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from The Catholic University of America. He began his studies at the University of the District of Columbia in 1975.