SOM Foundation Announces Jury for the 2025 Robert L. Wesley Award

Teri Canada is the Principal and Cofounder of EVOKE Studio. She is a fervent advocate for exceptional architectural design within each community she has served. For over twenty-eight years, she has thoughtfully and efficiently guided award-winning projects from pre-design through construction administration. As a Project Manager, she carefully guides key stakeholders through the development of esteemed projects for their communities by crafting a unique design process for each of her clients. For Canada, coupling her ability to communicate design ideas with meaningful community engagement is essential to her role in the design process. Her talent for leading the architectural design process has been recognized and celebrated throughout her career. After graduating from North Carolina State University, she became one of the first five African American women to become a Registered Architect in the state of North Carolina. In 2007, she joined the Freelon Group and rapidly advanced to Senior Associate as a result of her exceptional client management skills. After serving as Lead Project Manager on award-winning projects like the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and Emancipation Park, she was selected to participate in Perkins+Will’s Leadership Institute and appointed to the firm’s Diversity Council. As an insightful mentor to young architects, Canada shared her personal and professional experiences as a minority architect during the 2015 National Organization of Minority Architects conference as a seminar panelist.

Lisa C. Henry is an artist, associate professor, and associate dean of the College of Architecture + Planning at the University of Utah. Her research is focused on how critical gender, race, queer, and disability theory intersect with architectural education, pedagogy, design, and production. Henry holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design. Henry is a past recipient of both a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant and a Graham Foundation grant to support “The Urban Gallery Project” in 2008. She also participated as an artist for the “The Dresser Trunk Project,” which was funded by both the NEA and Graham in 2005. Henry is a member of DMU and just published her book, as a member of that collective, titled Challenging Patterns of Supremacy: Provocations from Collective Pedagogy, Practice, and Organizing in 2025.

Camille Martin-Thomsen is the Dean of Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs and professor of architecture and interior architecture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). An accomplished architect, researcher, and educator, Martin-Thomsen is responsible for creating and sustaining a compelling vision of faculty excellence and education at SAIC. She oversees the quality and coordination of SAIC’s academic programs, faculty research, and professional practice activities, and SAIC’s engagement with the broader creative community, all in pursuit of maintaining SAIC’s high standards of teaching, scholarship, and creative production. Martin-Thomsen previously served as acting associate provost for academic affairs at Pratt Institute, where she guided curricular development, review, and assessment, and also taught in the Interior Design and Art and Design Education Departments. Martin-Thomsen is a registered architect and principal of Martin-Thomsen Architecture, PLLC and TCM Studio Inc, both based in Chicago. She is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the National Organization of Minority Architects.

Robert L. Wesley (Chair) 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.

Amber N. Wiley is the Wick Cary Director of the Institute for Quality Communities in the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma. An award-winning scholar, Wiley has over fifteen years of experience in teaching, research, and professional practice in historic preservation, architecture, and community engagement. She has dedicated her career to advancing the history and narrative of design and preservation in Black communities, as well as advocating for theoretically rigorous, thoughtful, and inclusive expansions of preservation policy and practice. She currently serves on the board of World Heritage USA (formerly US-ICOMOS) and the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence. She has also served on the National Park System Advisory Board Landmarks Committee, and on the boards of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, Latrobe Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, and the Yale Black Alumni Association. Her first book, Model Schools in the Model City: Race, Planning, and Education in the Nation’s Capital, was released by the University of Pittsburgh Press in April 2025. Her second book, Collective Yearning: Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli Art Museum, is scheduled for release by the Rutgers University Press in May 2026.