Career StagesNational Associates Committee

California Region

Haley M. Gipe, Assoc. AIA, currently works and resides in Fresno, CA. She graduated in 2006 from California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo with a Bachelors of Architecture and Minors in Art and Design, Sustainable Environments and Environmental Design. She believes strongly in maintaining an active alumni role with current architecture students and co-hosts a weekly pod-cast for architecture students, faculty, alumni and enthusiasts called “The Studio” at SLOarch.com.

Haley joined Darden Architects in 2008 and has worked on Education, Transportation, Master Planning and Healthcare projects with a variety of teams and clients. While at Darden Architects she also helped to establish the firm’s formal IDP program resulting in the 2009-2012 National IDP Firm Award, the 2011-2014 National IDP Firm Award and 2011 AIACC Academy for Emerging Professionals Firm Mentorship Award.

As a member of the AIA since 2008 Haley first became involved with her local AIA San Joaquin Chapter and then statewide with the AIA California Council serving on the Academy for Emerging Professionals Council of Advisors. As the 2009-2011 California IDP State Coordinator, Haley conducted licensure outreach to California students, interns and candidates for licensure as well as worked directly with the California Architects Board and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. She oversaw the planning committee and final implementation of the 2011 Architectural Education Summit, beginning a 5 year initiative to improve communication and collaboration regarding Architectural Education in the state of California. She has also participated on the 2011 AIA California Council Foundational Issues Committee, the Future of AIA in California Taskforce, and various Emerging Professionals Strategic Planning Sessions.

Haley has recently completed her IDP and is actively working towards obtaining her own architectural license, currently studying for her ARE divisions with the goal to pass them all and be licensed in the state of California in 2012.

Central States Region

April O. Trojniak, Assoc. AIA, is currently working as an intern at BCS Design, Inc. Throughout her career, she has had experience in the student sector. Designing universities, academic buildings, unions, dormitories, and master planning. Her job includes many diverse roles which has helped her in completing her IDP hours.

April studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. She had the privilege of learning in the historic Crown Hall. She took a year off to grow her family with the birth of her first child and finished her studies at the University of Kansas, where she graduated from the five year Bachelors of Architecture program.

April officially became a member of the American Institute of Architects in September 2005. Her involvement with the AIA started during her college studies where she served as her university’s AIAS Chapter president, vice-president, and secretary. April is involved in her local Construction Specifications Institute (CSI). She served on the board for two years; during her time on the board she helped organize many events which included the annual Design Expo. April is also involved in the Women in Design chapter in Kansas City. She enjoys serving the youth by being a Youth Friend and also volunteers her time teaching at the local schools.

Florida-Caribbean Region

Esteli Capote, Assoc. AIA

Gulf States Region

Jared Hueter, Assoc. AIA, is an intern architect with Mathes Brierre Architects in New Orleans Louisiana. He joined the team at MBA in 2011 to focus on educational design.

Jared has been an out spoken advocate for responsible design and a community volunteer since 2005. As Cofounder and President of Re_Vision he organized Design/Build projects for the homeless. As the Project Manager of Redeemer Relief Jared over saw the renovation of 60+ Katrina damaged structures in New Orleans. In 2008 he served as the Program Coordinator of The CITYbuild Consortium of Schools, facilitating 20+ Design/Build projects throughout New Orleans. Jared also served as the New Orleans Design Corps Fellow and board member of the Gertown Revival Initiative to rebuild Gertown. For three years Jared served as the Dean of Design at the Priestley Charter School of Architecture and Construction developing a design/build based high school curriculum for academically at-risk youth.

Jared completed his Bachelors of Architecture at the E. Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas. He is currently in the process of completing the IDP and is preparing for the Architect Registration Examination.

Illinois Region

Erin O’Keefe, Assoc. AIA, is an architectural intern with Rockford Architects in Rockford, Illinois. She is currently venturing through the Intern Development Program with the hopes of becoming licensed in Illinois. While with Rockford Associates Inc., Erin assisted with designing an addition to Rockford’s Discovery Center Children’s Museum; several retail, commercial, and restaurant build outs around the Rockford region; and a new community nutrition and food distribution center for the Northern Illinois Food Bank in Geneva, Illinois, including furnishings selection for the Food Bank’s offices and community areas.

After earning a BSAS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Erin was an assistant interior project manager with Korte Interiors, a division of The Korte Company, in Highland, Illinois, providing Haworth contract furniture to a variety of clients including the American Association of Orthodontists’ St. Louis headquarters and a network television station in Las Vegas, Nevada. She has a passion for interiors and ensuring all areas have the necessary functional furnishings to allow all users to enjoy their experience within a space.

Erin moved to Northern Illinois in 2008, joined the AIA in 2009, and has been involved in the AIA Northern Illinois chapter’s student scholarship competition, golf play day, and Honor Awards. She has served on the chapter board since 2011.

Michigan Region

Amanda Harrell-Seyburn, Assoc. AIA, is a passionate designer dedicated to creating sustainable built environments. She has been working, for the past two years, with several Michigan based architecture and planning firms on a variety of projects from single-family home renovations to full-scale urban designs including most recently, the Green Lake Township Gateway Masterplan in Michigan’s Northwest Region with Gibbs Planning Group.

Amanda is a fulltime faculty member at Michigan State University’s School of Planning, Design and Construction where she teaches courses on the integrated sustainable built environment and computer modeling. Her research focuses on energy and high performance buildings in the Great Lakes Region including her role as a member of the team that is developing and implementing innovative retrofit technologies primarily for cold and mixed-humid climate regions in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Program.

Amanda joined the AIA to participate in the advancement of the profession and for mentorship. She has served on several committees and the sponsorship task force. She is involved in the Center for Emerging Professional Resources and the Emerging Professionals Committee. In addition she serves as a commissioner for the East Lansing Historic District Commission and alternative energy subcommittee. She also writes a weekly column on architecture and sustainability for the City Pulse Newspaper.

Amanda holds a Master of Architecture degree from Andrews University and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Kalamazoo College. She was a recipient of the Congress for the New Urbanism 2009 Charter Award for excellence in architecture and urban design for Planning Abaco: A Proposal to Restore a Sustainable Settlement Tradition in the Bahamas. She is accomplishing her IDP requirements and will begin taking the ARE in 2012.

Middle Atlantic Region

Mandy Blair Palasik, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP BD+C, is an architectural intern at ArchPlan Inc., Philipsen Architects in her hometown of Baltimore. Mandy graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2009, with a Bachelor of Architecture and a Minor in Construction Management from Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, Georgia.

Currently, Mandy serves as an active member of Baltimore’s Young Architects Forum, while also volunteering her free time to several local organizations such as One Less Car, Neighborhood Design Center, and BARCS Animal Rescue and Care Shelter. She resides in downtown Baltimore with her two rescued cats and a dog. She is in the process of completing the IDP and is preparing for the Architect Registration Examination.

New England Region

Casey L. Nicholson, AIA, is a newly licensed architect with The S/L/A/M Collaborative in Boston, Massachusetts. While her primary focus is programming and planning for the Higher Education market, Casey previously worked as an intern architect in S/L/A/M’s Atlanta & Connecticut offices. At the office, Casey frequently assists with in-house internship programs and various community outreach events, such as mentoring summer college interns or hosting Career Days for local high school students

Casey earned her B.S. Architecture from Georgia Tech (which included a year of studies at L'école Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris la Villette) and her M. Architecture from The University of Hartford. As an inaugural NAAB-candidate program student looking for professional guidance and support, Casey wrote an essay and won a scholarship to the 2005 Internship Conference, ‘Designing Tomorrow’s Architect’, which was a joint symposium supported by the five architectural collaterals. It was here that Casey developed an interest in working with the AIA. Since then, her AIA activities have followed locally as AIA/Connecticut’s Emerging Architectural Committee chair and the Board of Directors Associates representative, and nationally as a member of AIA’s Practice Academy. She is now a member of the Boston Society of Architects.

Outside the office, Casey volunteers her architectural skills with Simply Smiles, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of impoverished children – in past years, she’s both designed and constructed (with American high school student volunteers and the Mexican home recipients) several houses in Oaxaca, Mexico. The current design project is modularly-constructed homes on an Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Casey’s regional AIA focus for 2012 will be working collaboratively with New England’s Young Architects Forum liaison and the College of Fellows representative to discuss licensure and mentorship in the region and how we can help facilitate these efforts to engage local emerging professionals.

New Jersey Region

Clair M. Wholean, AIA, has resided in New Jersey since graduating with a B-Arch from the Cooper Union Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture in 2007, where she served on the Student Council and Senior Council. Prior to transferring to the Cooper Union she attended the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago for two years as the Crown Scholar. She began her career at the New York office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and is currently a Project Manager at Kenny & Khan Architects PC. Kenny & Khan is a 5-person firm focused on K-12 education and other public projects. Clair works closely with the two partners and clients, juggling a wide variety of roles on a day to day basis, usually working on 3-7 projects at once. Her professional portfolio includes healthcare, education, commercial projects, and freelance work. While not forgetting design, she is grateful to have had the opportunity to learn about the more technical aspects of design and construction within the past several years.

Clair joined both the New York and New Jersey Chapters of the AIA as an Associate member in early 2010. Her involvement began by attending events organized by the Emerging Professionals and YAF Committees in both states and the Health Facilities Committee in NY. As Regional Associate Director she serves at both the national and regional levels, on the National Associates Committee (NAC), the NAC Communications portfolio, and in the AIA NJ Emerging Professionals Committee and Executive Committee.

Clair has completed IDP and the Architecture Registration Exams, receiving her initial license in New York state in March 2011. Beyond licensure, her professional goals include taking an active role in business development and working LEED projects. She became a LEED Green Associate in 2009, and hopes to become a LEED AP after having the opportunity to work on a registered project. Clair approaches architecture as a humanitarian; she strives to use the field as a means to benefit local communities in tangible ways. Clair is originally from Madison, Wisconsin, and currently resides in Jersey City, NJ. She is a lifelong vegetarian and enjoys exercise, gourmet food and the natural world.

New York Region

Venesa Alicea, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, is the 2011-2012 NAC Regional Associate Director for the AIA New York Region and Co-Chair of the AIANY Emerging New York Architects Committee. A Registered Architect in New York, she holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the City College of New York. She has worked at Dattner Architects for over three years working on a variety of projects, including a Community Center for the Salvation Army, a new Public School for Battery Park City, and the New Housing New York Legacy Project Via Verde, a sustainable affordable housing project currently under construction in the South Bronx. She is also the firm’s IDP Coordinator and serves an important role in the office wide professional development activities.

She has extended her involvement beyond the AIA by getting involved with the local USGBC chapter’s Emerging Professionals committee, and by serving on the board of directors for the City College of New York Architecture Alumni Association. She continues to nurture the future of the profession by teaching a co-op Internship course at the City College of New York Spitzer School of Architecture with a focus on the IDP process.

North Central Region

Devin Little, Assoc. AIA

Northwest & Pacific Region

Joseph Mayo, Assoc. AIA

Ohio Valley Region

Gregory Spon, Assoc. AIA, joined PSA Architects in August of 2006 as an intern and has become the leader of the Focus Studio, concentrating on quick service and fast casual restaurant design. Overall, Gregory has 12 years of experience working for engineering and architecture firms that concentrated on designing bridges, waste water treatment facilities, educational facilities, retail design centers and local municipality projects. He also served in the United States Army Corp of Engineers.

Gregory joined the AIA in 2007 and has become an active member, first serving as an associate director for the local Eastern Ohio component and then being elected as Ohio Associate Director and board member. The Ohio Valley Regional Council selected Gregory so serve a two year term as the Regional Associate Director. Recently he served on the Regional Convention Committee and helped organize the "UnConvention" and selective programming for Emerging Professionals.

He studied at the Pittsburgh Technical Institute in Pittsburgh, PA majoring in architectural drafting and design. Then moved to San Diego, California to study architecture at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design. He has completed the IDP requirements and is continuing to pursue his registration and preparing to take the LEED Green Associate Exam.

Gregory was born near Pittsburgh, PA and currently resides in the Warren/ Youngstown, Ohio area with his beautiful wife, 2 year old son and 2 dogs. His leisure and free-time consist of spending time with his family, sketching, playing basketball, and serving on the Warren G.R.O.W.S. Design Committee.

Pennsylvania Region

Melissa G. Bernstein, Assoc. AIA, obtained a Bachelor of Architecture from Temple University. During school, she gained an interest in structural engineering and joined KlingStubbins’ Structural Engineering department for a summer internship. After spending a semester abroad in Rome, Melissa joined KlingStubbins’ architecture department where she continues to work. At KlingStubbins, her experience includes working on office towers, laboratory buildings, hotels, and various other commercial projects. Melissa has completed IDP and has begun taking the AREs.

In the past, Melissa served as Temple University’s AIAS Chapter Secretary and President. For 2009-2010, she served as the AIA PA Associate Director. In this role, she visited the six universities in Pennsylvania with accredited architecture degrees to present to the students about IDP, the AREs, and the path to licensure. Melissa ran the AIA PA Associate’s Committee and served on several committees through the State Board. She also attended AIA National Convention and AIA Grassroots, at which she gained the motivation to begin a group mentoring program for her local chapter. The purpose of the program is to create a dialogue and network for aspiring and licensed architects in Philadelphia. In each group is a college student, a graduate on the path to licensure, a recently licensed architect, and an experienced architect. This program has successfully run twice in 2011 in Philadelphia, and will continue to run in the future.

South Atlantic Region

Matthew S. Hart, Assoc. AIA, has been with IPG Architects in Valdosta, Georgia, since 2005. He is currently engaged in the Education Studio of the firm and is project manager for Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, The Technical College System of Georgia, and K-12 projects.

Matt has been actively involved in the AIA since joining in 2007. He has served on his local Chapter’s Board (Southwest Georgia) as the Communication/Education Chair (2007-2008) and is currently serving as Secretary (2009-Present). His responsibilities include publishing the bimonthly AIA SWGA Angle, scheduling chapter meetings, and advocating for AIA SWGA and AIA Georgia on the local and state level.

Texas Region

Cesar Gallegos, Assoc. AIA, serves as project manager in a medical and ADA accessibility specialized firm. Based in El Paso, Texas, Fokus on Architecture, Inc. (FoA) serves the far west Texas region and the immediate New Mexico vicinity.

Cesar performs work as a Registered Accessibility Specialist specializing in ADA issues as well as a designer in all areas of medical planning including multidisciplinary fields pertaining to everyday architecture. From 2009 through 2010, he served as the El Paso AIA Chapter Associate Director expanding the knowledgebase and aiding all those seeking to become registered architects reach their goal of completing IDP and preparing them for the ARE.

Mr. Gallegos has been a Registered Accessibility Specialist in the State of Texas since February 2009, and is currently taking the ARE to achieve his architect registration in Texas. He studied at the University of Washington and received a Masters Degree in Architecture in 2004.

The Virginias Region

Michael F. Haslam, Assoc. AIA, is a skilled and dedicated designer. His work is driven by a desire to see every person benefit from thoughtful design. He believes in the pursuit of a better world through development that is at once careful, healthy, positive, and sustainable. Michael’s architectural practice endeavors to create environments that provide catalysts for resonant experiences. To Michael, the successful design is one that improves the human condition and challenges individuals to care for, engage in, and be proud of their communities.

A graduate of Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies, Michael considers himself a lifelong student of design and the arts. He completed his Master’s degree abroad as an exchange student at the Università della Svizzera Italiana’s Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio Switzerland, where he studied under the direct supervision of Pritzker Prize-winning architect, Peter Zumthor.

He is very proud to be a part of the team at Peyton Boyd Architect, a diversified practice in religious, institutional, commercial and residential architecture.

Western Mountain Region

Sydney Hamilton, Assoc. AIA, has been with RNL since 2007.  She is currently the Project Coordinator for several projects at the Air Force Academy and Ball Aerospace.

She has been a member of the AIA since 2007 and has been active in the AIA Denver Committee on the Environment since joining. Other involvement includes volunteering for the Denver Architectural Foundation CAL Project and serving as Trustee to the Downtown Denver Partnership Leadership Program. She was recently featured in the Denver Business Journal for her involvement in RNL’s Green Team.

Sydney was born in Atlanta, GA, and resides in Denver, CO. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 2000 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and then received a Master of Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2003.

Erin Murphy, AIA, LEED AP, is a Director for the AIA Center for Emerging Professionals. Erin is a staff liaison to the AIA National Associates Committee (NAC) and the AIA Young Architects Forum (YAF). She also identifies and researches trends regarding the path to licensure and integrates this knowledge into programs, initiatives, and advocacy efforts for emerging professionals.

Erin previously worked as a Project Architect at Bowie Gridley Architects in Washington, DC, and as a Project Manager and Staff Architect for Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP in New York. Erin earned a Bachelor of Architecture from Syracuse University’s School of Architecture.