Graciela Carrillo, FAIA, on why she attended AIA’s Women’s Leadership Summit

Graciela Carrillo, FAIA, NOMA, is vice president, treasurer, and a cofounder of the Immigrant Architects Coalition (IAC). She is also a huge fan of the Women’s Leadership Summit (WLS), an event dedicated to accelerating women into leadership positions in architecture, design, and the allied building industries.
 
AIA caught up with Carrillo just after this year’s WLS to learn about IAC’s work, why she enjoys WLS so much, and the book she recently coauthored, Prospering in the U.S.: A Handbook for Immigrant Architects.

Can you share a little bit about what IAC does?

Our mission is to support immigrant architects by providing the resources and guidance they need to build successful careers and thrive as leaders in this country. We accomplish that through mentoring programs, public speaking, publishing articles and setting up authorship opportunities, and other contributions. 

IAC began as a grassroots effort, and it evolved into a nationally recognized platform that now is the support system for any immigrant architect that is either thinking about coming to the States and practicing or is already here and needs some guidance.

Do you see any ways that WLS and IAC’s work intersect?

Yeah, definitely. One really important way is leadership development. We go to WLS to improve our leadership skills or to learn how to be a leader. I think that’s one of the main objectives of the summit, and that’s what we do at the coalition. We strive to provide support, guidance, mentoring, and resources for immigrant architects who may have been leaders in their home countries but often have to start over when they arrive here. Our goal is to help them rebuild their path and become leaders once again.

Another part where WLS and IAC cross is storytelling and visibility. I think it's really important for WLS to provide that platform for women to have stage presence through storytelling, and IAC does the same in our own way. We have a podcast where we interview immigrant architects in different stages in their career. We want to give them that voice so they can share their story, and other immigrants can listen to them. We want listeners to feel inspired if they are struggling and also feel that they’re not alone.

How has WLS benefited your career? 

When I attended for the first time in 2017, I was one of the first Sho-Ping Chin grant recipients, and it gave me the opportunity to connect, to meet, and to see and get inspired by all these amazing leaders. That now are my friends, my mentors. Now I speak with them on the same stage—[people like] Rosa Cheng, FAIA; Natasha Espada, AIA; and Yiselle Santos Rivera, AIA. I met a lot of them during that first session at the summit. It's a complete circle that doesn’t close because now I'm providing that inspiration to others who maybe in the future will be on the stage with me. 

I learned from seeing other women at the summit that I did have the potential to become a leader, to do great things. I realized that I had a voice. [Before my first WLS], I was the only immigrant woman architect within a male-predominant firm, an immigrant of course. And I always felt that I didn't have much of a voice. But after attending, I was like, “No, I do have a voice. I can use that to influence others, to create impact.”

Every time I talk to someone, I say my life really has two phases: before attending the summit in 2017 and after. Everything that I have done after that is because of all the connections that I made at that time, all the mentors that I gained who now are my peers. I love this conference.

What inspired the writing of Prospering in the U.S.: A Handbook for Immigrant Architects?

[My coauthors and I] got together with more than 20 contributors, all immigrant architects. When we came to the U.S., we faced many challenges and obstacles as we worked to build our careers—navigating the profession, pursuing licensure, and finding our place within the industry. And we struggled because we didn't have that community. 

Specifically, I made a lot of mistakes for licensure at the beginning because I didn’t have that knowledge at that time. The guidelines weren’t too clear for immigrant professionals, so I spent a lot of money that I didn't have to spend. I spent a lot of time that I didn't have to spend because each state has different requirements, and the person that was guiding me was in another state where the requirements were different from where I was.

So because of all these things that we did wrong or that we struggled with, we said, “Why don't we create a guideline for anybody that is coming?” And at least they will have a roadmap to what they should be doing. 

The book talks about the things you will be facing when you come here: cultural change, language, education—there are a lot of things that you have to navigate. The book is a compilation of everything you are supposed to do from day one when you come here until the day that you want to open your own firm. The coauthors share their personal journeys, reflecting on the challenges they faced and how they overcame them.

You did a book signing at WLS this year. Any favorite memories from it?

This specific one gave us the opportunity to connect with more people that we don't know—people that are from other states or from other countries. You get the chance to talk to that person at least for two minutes and exchange emails or phone numbers. They always have questions. We always open up opportunities for future collaboration. 

At conferences, you have sessions of 30, 40, or 70 people, so it's difficult to connect to everyone personally, one-on-one. But when you have a book signing, you're right there with that person, and in 2 –3 minutes, you can really create a connection.

What's your big takeaway from WLS this year?

[Keynote speaker] Vernice Armour kept repeating: “Engage, engage.” And she's completely right. If you don’t engage, you will never have a seat or a voice at the table. You need to be intentional. You need to engage because you’re going to miss opportunities if you are just quiet and in a corner.

I also loved the speeches by Yiselle Santos Rivera and Evelyn Lee. Yiselle specifically said we have to build our village. And Evelyn also highlighted the importance of building communities and being vulnerable.

There’s nothing wrong with being vulnerable when you’re a leader, and I love that she communicated the importance of being vulnerable as a leader. We as women understand that that’s not bad. Sometimes we’re not engaging because we feel vulnerable.

Is there anything else you'd like to share about WLS?

It’s a one-of-a-kind experience you won’t find anywhere else. I haven’t missed a single summit since I first attended in 2017. Every time I come back, I’m energized. I’m empowered. I’m like, “I can do this.” And I connect with others to collaborate and make things happen together.

Along with her positions at IAC, Graciela Carrillo is one of the AIA Board’s at-large directors and a senior manager at Nassau BOCES. The other coauthors of Prospering in the U.S. are Gloria Kloter, AIA; Saakshi Terway, Assoc. AIA; Yu-Ngok Lo, FAIA; and Oyuki Sulu, Assoc. AIA.

Danielle Steger is AIA’s senior manager, editorial and publications.