A look inside AIA Austin’s Leadership Collective

Want an example of succeeding early in life? AIA Austin’s Leadership Collective program was just two years old when it won the Mentorship Award from the Texas Society of Architects.  

Started in 2018 by Shelby Blessing, AIA, and a team of collaborators, the Leadership Collective formed out of ideas generated within AIA Austin’s Women in Architecture Committee. Today, it offers a unique model for mentorship programs—one that relies on conversations more than advice and replenishes its roster of facilitators by inviting recent participants back to lead. 

The program’s structure

The Leadership Collective doesn’t use the traditional 1:1 mentor-mentee pairings that people often picture when they think about mentorship. Instead, participants join a small group led by one member of the AIA College of Fellows and one past participant. The fellow provides perspective as an accomplished, experienced architect, while the past-participants-turned-leaders are a combination of facilitator and peer, having recently gone through the program themselves.  

After their first or second session, participants also pair off into duos with other participants. These pairings give participants someone with whom to discuss their experiences in the collective, and they can also lead to fulfilling long-term professional relationships. 

Rachel Davis, Assoc. AIA, is a former Leadership Collective participant and the program’s 2026 chair-elect. Of the program’s mix of people, she says, “It really feels so impactful being in a room full of your peers but also learning from people who've been in the industry for a long time.”  

Three modes of leadership

The type of leadership the collective aims to develop isn’t tied to earning promotions or wielding authority. Instead, the collective views leadership as “navigating change, mobilizing others, and experimenting to discover what moves the needle.” In this view, anyone can be a leader, regardless of career stage or job title. 

Each participant takes part in eight sessions over the course a year. Participants learn about leadership in three modes:  

• Leading self, which means learning about your own behaviors and how they affect others
• Leading others with techniques informed by knowledge from the “leading self” module
• Leading systems, which means trying new ideas and seeing if they improve a situation over a long span of time

The program’s 2026 chair, Oren Mitzner, AIA, explains that the collective looks to develop “complete thinkers” who can move beyond solving technical challenges and take on adaptive challenges. For instance, a broken printer is a technical challenge with a one-time technical solution (repairing the printer). 

An adaptive challenge, meanwhile, is a team-wide one, like a consistently slow review cycle that frustrates clients. The issue behind that lag may be disengaged staff or another problem that doesn’t have a quick technical fix—the type of problem that will require trying out new, varied ideas over time to solve.  

As for how it develops people, the collective focuses more on fostering conversations among participants and leaders rather than having mentors deliver heavy-handed directives and advice to mentees. One of the fellows who serves as a facilitator, Jim Susman, FAIA, describes his approach as “Socratic,” meaning that he aims to be a good listener while asking questions to help participants think things through.  

“You have to be a better listener than a talker,” he says of being a mentor. The conversation-based approach gives participants room to bring up topics they may not be able to broach with a supervisor or colleague at their firm. 

Reorienting careers and improving skills

Participants come to the Leadership Collective at different career stages but often find it orienting and clarifying. Prior to joining the collective, Davis had stepped away from architecture and design for a time. She has since returned to the industry as a recruiter, and she says the collective helped her “find my space again within the industry and figure out how to work again with a firm.”  

Davis is optimistic the program can help others approaching career crossroads like the one she faced: “You don’t necessarily realize you’re on the verge of a challenge like burnout in this industry until it’s too late. I think this program can really help people get back on track and figure out the right path.” 

Amy Coulston, AIA, similarly recounts how the collective helped her reengage. At the time she joined, she was 13 years into her career, and she had recently returned to architecture part-time after taking some time away to focus on raising her son.  

When she applied to join the collective, she was looking for “inspiration at that time in my career.” She calls the collective a “great learning experience” that has helped her show up more effectively at work.  

Aside from long-term, career-spanning benefits, there are also practical benefits for participants’ day-to-day professional skills. For instance, Coulston says the program has directly impacted her communication style.  

“As women, we are often trained to qualify what we’re saying,” she says, but her Leadership Collective experience encouraged her to be “more direct and forthcoming.” She ties this back to a lesson from the “leading self” part of the collective: “Say what you mean, and don’t sell yourself short.” 

Coulston strengthened her network through the collective as well. While she was a participant, Coulston’s partner was John Stenzel, AIA, who holds a leadership role with AIA Austin’s LGBTQIA+ Alliance. Coulston says that “seeing how involved he is has inspired me to become more involved in AIA locally as well. That was one of my favorite connections.” Their families have even become close since the two met. 

Benefits for leaders and fellows

Like the participants, the program’s leaders can see rewarding payoffs. From his perspective as participant-turned-program-chair, Mitzner says, “Each time I've gone through the program, whether it's as a participant or a leader, I’ve learned something new because the people who are in it are [always] different.” 

Susman reports that participating in the collective has changed how he approaches his own professional life for the better. Specifically, it has helped him learn to prioritize professional development for others at STG Design, where he is a principal. 

Naturally, Susman encourages other experienced architects to get involved in mentorship. “Our profession is apprenticeship-based. It has been for thousands of years, so we have an obligation to help those people who have less experience than us.” 

His presence has indeed been helpful: Susman worked with one program participant who developed his ability to advocate for himself throughout the Leadership Collective. The participant eventually gained enough self-confidence to successfully argue for an ownership stake in the firm where he worked. “He’s exactly where he should be,” says Susman, “and it’s nice to know that his value was recognized.”

If you’re feeling inspired by AIA Austin’s Leadership Collective, explore AIA’s mentorship resources designed to help you get involved—whether you’re starting a program, serving as a mentor, or seeking guidance as a mentee. Informed by a recent national mentorship inventory, AIA’s mentorship tools offer practical support for building and sustaining meaningful connections across the profession. For those looking to go further, AIAU also offers on-demand courses to help mentors and mentees establish shared expectations and strengthen their approach: Becoming an Inclusive Mentor in Architecture and Becoming an Empowered Mentee in Architecture.

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