Iker Gil has been the executive director of the SOM Foundation since 2019. He is the founder of MAS Studio and editor in chief of the nonprofit MAS Context. Gil has edited or coedited several books, including Radical Logic: On the Work of Ensamble Studio and Shanghai Transforming. He has curated multiple exhibitions, including Nocturnal Landscapes, Poured Architecture: Sergio Prego on Miguel Fisac, and BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, part of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. He was cocurator of Exhibit Columbus 2020–2021 and associate curator of the US Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. He has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Leo Chow is a design partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)’s San Francisco office. Chow has led a broad range of projects in the United States and Asia, including headquarters and commercial office buildings, residential and hotel towers, higher education facilities, and the planning of urban districts. Chow created the SOM Integrated Design Studio, an academic studio that focuses on tall building design and fully integrates structural engineers as co-instructors. He is a member of the San Francisco Arts Commission, serving on the Civic Design Review and Executive Committees.

Scott Duncan is a design partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)’s Chicago office, where he leads the design of high-rise and mixed-use projects locally and around the world. Duncan serves as chair of the Height and Data Committee of the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and is a leader of The Earth Project, SOM’s multidisciplinary research project on planetary health.

Laura Ettelman is a managing partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s New York office. Ettelman’s management approach is to maximize the integration of the architectural design and technical development with the engineering requirements of the project to meet the client’s goals. In 2020, Ettelman was one of two architects appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to New York City’s Advisory Council in the Construction and Real Estate Sector.

Kent Jackson is a design partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s London office. Jackson’s creative approach to design responds to individual context and enables the integration of the natural and built environment. He is a leading advocate of the firm’s pledge to meet the AIA 2030 Commitment toward a carbon-neutral built environment. He serves on the UK Advisory Board for the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and is also a member of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects and the British Council of Offices.

Paola Aguirre is the founder of Borderless, an urban design and research practice based in Chicago. Aguirre has been trained as an architect and urban designer, and her professional experience includes working with government, universities, and architecture/urban design offices both in Mexico and the United States. She is also founder of Borderless Workshop, a research and collaborative platform focused on rethinking cities within the US–Mexico border region. On that front, she is the creator-producer of Mapeo Workshops that work with multiple universities and students from different programs to research, critically discuss, and creatively think about urban challenges using mapping as a main tool. She has been acknowledged by Next City Vanguard’s 40 Under 40 (2016), Impact Design Hub’s 40 Under 40 (2017), and Newcity Design 50: Who Shapes Chicago (2018).

Germane Barnes’s award-winning research and design practice, Studio Barnes, investigates the connection between architecture and identity, examining architecture’s social and political agency through historical research and design speculation. Mining architecture’s social and political agency, he examines how the built environment influences black domesticity. Born in Chicago, Barnes received a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Architecture from Woodbury University where he was awarded the Thesis Prize for his project “Symbiotic Territories: Architectural Investigations of Race, Identity, and Community.” Currently he is an assistant professor and the director of the Community, Housing & Identity Lab (CHIL) at the University of Miami School of Architecture, a testing ground for the physical and theoretical investigations of architecture’s social and political resiliency.

Danei Cesario is the 333rd Black woman in American history to earn her architectural license. Cesario is a project manager at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, overseeing dynamic mixed-use development and healthcare projects. Her passion for architecture and advocacy has led her to become a champion for design professionals. Cesario served as chair of AIA New York’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee for over five years. Currently, she serves on the AIA New York State Board (representing nearly 10,000 members across thirteen chapters), the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization and the AIA New York Nominating Committee. She is an ambassador to organizations vested in equity, diversity, and inclusion, including Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, and nycobaNOMA Executive Board. Cesario is dedicated to fostering mentorship, sponsorship, and leadership within the design community. She founded WALLEN + daub to expand on these principles.

Leo Chow is a design partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)’s San Francisco office. Chow has led a broad range of projects in the United States and Asia, including headquarters and commercial office buildings, residential and hotel towers, higher education facilities, and the planning of urban districts. Chow created the SOM Integrated Design Studio, an academic studio that focuses on tall building design and fully integrates structural engineers as co-instructors. He is a member of the San Francisco Arts Commission, serving on the Civic Design Review and Executive Committees.

Chris Cornelius is a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of New Mexico. He is the founding principal of studio:indigenous, a design practice serving Indigenous clients. Cornelius was a collaborating designer with Antoine Predock on the Indian Community School of Milwaukee. Cornelius is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the inaugural Miller Prize from Exhibit Columbus, a 2018 Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Award, and an artist residency from the National Museum of the American Indian. His work has been exhibited widely, including the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Cornelius was the Spring 2021 Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professor at Yale University. Studio:indigenous received a 2021 Architect’s Newspaper Best Of Practice Award–Best Small Practice, Midwest.

Iker Gil has been the executive director of the SOM Foundation since 2019. He is the founder of MAS Studio and editor in chief of the nonprofit MAS Context. Gil has edited or coedited several books, including Radical Logic: On the Work of Ensamble Studio and Shanghai Transforming. He has curated multiple exhibitions, including Nocturnal Landscapes, Poured Architecture: Sergio Prego on Miguel Fisac, and BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, part of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. He was cocurator of Exhibit Columbus 2020–2021 and associate curator of the US Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. He has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Roberto Gonzalez is an architect currently working as a project manager and office lead for SchenkelShultz in Sarasota, FL. Previously, he was the principal and owner of RGB-Architects and worked for Arquitectonica in Miami, Perkins+Will in Chicago, and Touzet Studio in Coral Gables, FL. He has extensive residential experience, from luxury condominiums to single-family homes as well as aviation and educational projects. Gonzalez graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design/Interiors from Syracuse University and a Master of Architecture from the University of Miami. He was previously the chair and currently is the vice chair of the Historic Preservation Board for the City of Sarasota, FL.

Jia Yi Gu is an architectural historian, educator, and curator. Her work focuses on histories of representation and display practices in architecture, with an emphasis on models, exhibitions, and document history. She is currently director and curator of MAK Center for Art and Architecture. From 2014 to 2020, she served as director of Materials & Applications, a Los Angeles-based project space for experimental architecture. In 2016, she cofounded the architecture research & design studio Spinagu with Maxi Spina. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles Critical Studies program. Her doctoral research investigates the instrumentality of models in the postwar architecture office as a site of demonstration for architectural expertise.

Joyce Hwang is an associate professor and director of Graduate Studies of Architecture at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and the founder of Ants of the Prairie, an office of architectural practice and research that focuses on confronting contemporary ecological conditions through creative means. She is a recipient of the Exhibit Columbus University Research Design Fellowship, the Architectural League Emerging Voices Award, the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and the MacDowell Fellowship. Hwang is on the Steering Committee for US Architects Declare and serves as a core organizer for Dark Matter University. She received a MArch degree from Princeton University and a BArch degree from Cornell University, where she was awarded the Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Bronze Medal.

Ojay Obinani is an associate principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)’s New York office. He is a registered architect with over seventeen years of experience in workplace strategy, large-scale commercial interiors, hospitality, residential, and media projects. Obinani is passionate about issues of equity and social justice in the profession. As a cofounder of SOM’s Equity Design Lab, he has focused on integrating equity-driven principles in the firm’s work and on pursuing new projects and partnerships to benefit underserved communities and underrepresented constituencies. In addition to managing large-scale building projects and leading social impact initiatives, Obinani serves as an educator and mentor to high school and college students. He was recognized with a service award by the late Congressman John Lewis for his advocacy work in empowering and mentoring young architecture enthusiasts through the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) New York chapter’s Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) achievement program.

Quilian Riano is assistant dean at Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture, working across the school’s architecture, landscape, and planning programs to develop and manage programmatic and pedagogical projects. Prior to this, he served as the associate director of Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC), where he provided strategy and design coordination for the CUDC’s urban design, applied research, publication, and academic activities. Riano has worked in and with public institutions, such as New York City’s Department of Design and Construction as a lead design strategist and the National Park Service as an urban design consultant. Riano is also the founder and lead designer of DSGN AGNC, a design studio exploring new forms of political design, processes, and engagements through architecture, urbanism, landscapes, and art.

María Villalobos Hernandez is an assistant professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology and coordinator of the second year of the Master of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism program. She obtained her PhD at the School of Landscape Architecture of Versailles, France and a Master in Design Studies from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. From 2005 to 2009, Villalobos worked for the recovery of Lower Manhattan after 9/11 at the New York Department of City Planning. She joined Arup to develop world-class public projects in New York, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro the following years. In 2017, she won the first prize in the Venezuelan Architecture Biennial for the rehabilitation of the Botanical Garden of Maracaibo, the first time that a landscape architecture entry and woman received this award. As cofounder of Artist Creator at Botanical City, Villalobos calls attention to preserving endangered cultural landscapes and performative research methods where practice and research co-occur. In 2020, Villalobos became a core member of Dark Matter University to advocate for antiracist design education and practice models. In 2021, Villalobos joined the inaugural Committee on Design for the Department of City Planning in Chicago.

Robert L. Wesley joined the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 1964 and became its first Black partner in 1984. During his nearly four decades with the office, he worked on an impressive range of civic, commercial, entertainment, master planning, and infrastructural projects in the United States and internationally, including Algeria, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. As lead project administrator and liaison with clients, Wesley managed and coordinated the execution of several complex projects—working closely with the client’s representatives, the construction manager or general contractor, and special consultants to ensure each project’s successful completion. Wesley retired from SOM on September 30, 2001.

Amanda Williams is a visual artist who trained as an architect. Her creative practice employs color as a way to draw attention to the complexities of how race shapes how we assign value to space in cities. The landscapes in which she operates are the visual residue of the invisible policies and forces that have misshapen most major cities in the United States. Williams’s installations, paintings, and works on paper seek to inspire new ways of looking at the familiar and in the process, raise questions about the state of urban space and ownership in America. She has been recognized as a Joan Mitchell Foundation grantee, a USA Ford Fellow, an Efroymson Arts Fellow, and a Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow. Her work is in several permanent collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art.