Anthony Jolly
Owner, Hot + Cool Cafe
Currently, Anthony owns Hot & Cool Café in Leimert Park, Los Angeles and Hot & Cool North in Woodland Hills, CA. Through Hot and Cool (HC) Café, Anthony uses the retail outlet as a community hub offering a venue for the community to engage in issues impacting their daily lives. HC customers utilize the venue to share their music, tackle social justice issues, and discuss ways to improve their quality of life. Anthony has been instrumental oftentimes serving as the “tie that binds”. He and HC have been recognized by Governor Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Jolly worked hard to have Hot and Cool serve as a 2020 voting location. When COVID-19 impacted his community, Anthony joined forces with world-renowned chef, Jose Andres’ World Kitchen program. He turned Hot and Cool into a community kitchen providing thousands of meals to senior citizens and those negatively economically impacted by COVID-19. Anthony is always looking for ways to better his community. One such challenge he tackled head-on was food inequalities. Jolly knew that through Hot and Cool he could change the way the community thought about food and provide healthy food options. He changed his menu offering a Vegan-focused diet. He created innovative vegan food options that the community has lauded. Anthony is the pulse of his community and Hot and Cool is the local mecca highlighting the best of LA.

Anthony A. Lee
Retired Lecturer of African and African American History, UCLA / Independent Scholar
Anthony A. Lee, Ph.D. (UCLA, History, 2007) has retired as a lecturer in African and African American history at UCLA. He is now an independent scholar pursuing research on the African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean world. He is the General Editor of the academic series Studies in the Babi and Baha’i Religions (Kalimat Press, 26 vols.). He is a poet and has published five volumes of poetry ass a translator and author. He recently served on the Bruce’s Beach Task Force appointed by the Manhattan Beach City Council, now disbanded. He is currently a member of MB United, working for social justice and anti-racism in the same city.

Brandon “Stix” Salaam-Bailey
Founder, THINKWATTS FOUNDATION
THINKWATTS FOUNDATION is a 501c3 organization founded by Brandon “Stix” Salaam-Bailey, with a primary focus on community grassroots activations along with developing financial literacy programs, custom container housing solutions, and charitable fundraising through entertainment industry efforts. Born and raised in Watts, California, Stix has worked his way to become a rapper, record producer, songwriter, and entrepreneur over the last 16 years. However, his involvement with music is a jumping off point to his advocacy to giving back to his community through his THINK WATTS Foundation. As a staple in the community, Stix has formed deep rooted community relationships building bridges from the community to some of its professional residents such as LAFC, LA Clippers, and the LA Rams.

Chancela Al-Mansour
Executive Director, Housing Rights Center
Chancela Al-Mansour, Executive Director, joined HRC in November of 2010 after having been actively involved in fair housing advocacy for 18 years. For 16 years, Al-Mansour worked at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County as a Directing Attorney, Supervising and Staff Attorney in the housing unit. She supervised the HPRP (homeless prevention) work with L.A. City and L.A. County and she litigated hundreds of cases involving landlord-tenant, housing element, mortgage fraud and fair housing laws. Al-Mansour has extensive experience litigating fair housing cases involving familial status, disability and race, producing training and resource materials, and training attorneys in state and federal fair housing law. In private practice, she and her law partner filed the landmark Roommates.com case, and litigated cases involving predatory lending and fraudulent mortgage broker practices. She was also an attorney with the Western Center on Law and Poverty. She served as President of the Fair Housing Congress of Southern California. Al-Mansour graduated from Vassar College and University of California at Davis School of Law.

Craig Atkinson, AIA, NOMA
Director, California Education Lead, IBI Group and President, SoCal NOMA
Craig is a Director | Senior Principal Architect with more than 3 decades of experience in the design and construction of public projects. He is currently the California Architecture Practice lead in charge of the public-architecture practice with offices in Los Angeles, Irvine, San Diego, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, and Bakersfield. In addition he is a member of the newly formed Inclusion Council and is the Executive Sponsor of the firms JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) Employee Resource Group that is developing recommendations to improve the culture of the firm in these areas and to make sure IBI follows through with the statements made in our response to the tragic and unjustifiable killing of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Regis Korchinski-Paquet, “Working Together to Respond to Systemic and Institutional Anti-Black Racism” ( https://www.ibigroup.com/2020/06/05/working-together-to-respond-to-systemic-and-institutional-anti-black-racism/) He holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. During his time at Cal Poly he studied architecture for a full year in Copenhagen Denmark. He became a California Registered Architect in 1994. His career started with BFGC Architects in 1990 where he became a firm Principal. In 2009 BFGC was acquired by IBI and in 2013 Craig accepted an opportunity to be part of the leadership in the Los Angeles Office. He has been involved with all aspects of complex public project business development, project management, planning, design, quality control and project delivery for public clients throughout California. He is most proud of his ability to build project consensus and become part of the fabric of a client’s organization. His resume includes educational and civic sector projects ranging from programing to new construction to tenant improvements for K-12 schools, Community Colleges, University, and Civic Sector Projects including Libraries, Transit and Public Safety Projects. He is currently the President for the SoCal NOMA chapter. He has also been a part of several boards, commissions, and community groups including a supporter of the SoCal NOMA Chapter. Most recently he led the effort to provide a virtual exhibit space using the IBI Group Digital Foyer to display the work of the participants of the SoCal NOMA Summer Camp – NOMA XXPO 2020 and XXPO 2021.

Danny Bakewell, JR
Executive Editor, Chief of Staff, Los Angeles Sentinel
Danny J. Bakewell, Jr. leads the real estate development and management division of The Bakewell Company, one of the Nations Largest and Most Successful privately held African American Real Estate Development Companies. The Bakewell Family has built, owns and managed over 4,000,000 sq. ft. of commercial, office, industrial and residential real estate throughout California. Danny Jr also serves as Executive Editor and Chief of Staff of Bakewell Media, owners of The Los Angeles Sentinel, The LA Watts Times and previously owned WBOK Radio in New Orleans Louisiana. Bakewell Media also annually presents Taste of Soul the largest free street festival in California bringing over 350,000 people annually onto the historic Crenshaw Blvd. Mr. Bakewell, Jr. is a licensed general contractor in the States of California and oversees the day-to-day operations of Bakewell Development, Bakewell Construction, Bakewell Construction Management and Bakewell Media.Mr. Bakewell, Jr. is a graduate of University of Southern California (USC) Real Estate Development and Finance Program and is a member of the USC Black Alumni Association Advisory Board. Mr. Bakewell, Jr. has been recognized and received several awards and commendations from several cities for his commitment to using local residents as well as minority and women owned businesses in the building of his projects and has been recognized by The Association of Minority Contractors as The Developer of The Year. Danny Jr. also serves as the Executive Editor and Chief of Staff of the Los Angeles Sentinel, the largest African American Owned and Operated newspaper west of the Mississippi and The Los Angeles Watts Times. The Sentinel and the Watts Times each have a circulation base of over 250,000 weekly readers as well as a major web and social media presence. In addition to these media brands Bakewell Media also owns and operates the largest street festival in the country “The Taste of Soul” which features the largest showcase of African American Businesses in the state along the historic Crenshaw Blvd. With over 3,000,000 people in attendance over the past 15 years The Bakewell Family is doing in the media business what they have already done in the real estate development business. All with the same energy and commitment of operating a successful business while “Doing Good & Doing Well” at the same time.

Genelle Brooks-Petty, Assoc. AIA, NOMA
Principal Designer, BPC Interior Design
Genelle Brooks-Petty is the principal designer of BPC Interior Design, a Los Angeles-based interior design firm servicing contract, and residential clients. After years in the fashion industry, her clients in that realm pushed her into interior design. While studying interior architecture at UCLA, she honed skills under a famed designer, and serviced residential and boutique scale commercial clients of her own, developing a unique perspective. Her work bridges gaps as she aims to build community through design. Genelle is a graduate of Howard University’s School of Business, and she holds a Master of Interior Architecture from the UCLA Extension/ California State Polytechnic University, Pomona joint study program. She is an associate member of AIA (American Institute of Architects), Allied ASID (American Society of Interior Designers), AWA+D (Association for Women in Architecture and Design), and a current board member of SoCal NOMA (National Organization of Minority Architects) as well as SCOPE-LA (Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education).

Hernan Diaz-Alonso, NOMA
Director, Sci-Arc
Hernan Diaz Alonso assumed the role of Director at SCI-Arc beginning in the 2015 academic year. He has been a distinguished faculty member since 2001, serving in several leadership roles, including coordinator of the graduate thesis program from 2007–10, and graduate programs chair from 2010–15. He is widely credited with spearheading SCI-Arc’s transition to digital technologies, and he played a key role in shaping the school’s graduate curriculum over the last decade. In 2018, Diaz Alonso ranked amongst the top 25 Most Admired Educators by DesignIntelligence Rankings. In parallel to his role at SCI-Arc, Diaz Alonso is principal of the Los Angeles–based architecture office HDA-x (formerly Xefirotarch). His multidisciplinary practice is praised for its work at the intersection of design, animation, interactive environments, and radical architectural explorations. Over the course of his career as an architect and educator, Diaz Alonso has earned accolades for his leadership and innovation, as well as his ability to build partnerships among varied constituencies. In 2005 he was the winner of MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program (YAP) competition, and in 2012 he received the Educator of the Year award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). He won the 2013 AR+D Award for Emerging Architecture and a 2013 Progressive Architecture Award for his design of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Pavilion/Museum in Patagonia, Argentina. Diaz Alonso’s architectural designs have been featured in exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the London Architecture Biennale, and ArchiLab in Orleans, France, as well as included in exhibitions at such leading museums as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA); the Art Institute of Chicago; and MAK Centre, Vienna. The work has been widely published in magazines, journals, and books, including the Excessive monograph of Xefirotarch. The office is currently working on a new monograph to be published by Thames and Hudson. Diaz Alonso’s work is in the permanent collections of the FRAC Centre, Orleans, France; SFMOMA; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Thyssen-Bornemisza,the MAK Museum, Vienna; and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Isela Gracian
Senior Deputy, Homelessness and Housing, LA County
Isela Gracian serves as Supervisor Mitchell’s Senior Deputy on Housing and Homelessness, leading the Supervisor’s housing, homelessness, and planning policy. She brings to the second supervisorial district over two decades of experience in grassroots community work. She served as the President of East LA Community Corporation, where she led policy campaigns, community wealth programs, and development of affordable housing. Isela is recognized as a leader in community driven development weaving together the intersections of housing, income generation, environmental justice, and culture.

Janiece Williams, NOMA
Executive Director, LeaderFlow/Project Coordinator, Rooted Group
Janiece Williams graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Howard University. Originally from Houston, Texas, Janiece lived in Los Angeles from 2012-2021 where she managed a wide range and scale of architectural project types from adaptive reuse, tenant improvements, and large scale mixed-use and multifamily projects throughout Los Angeles and the San Francisco South Bay area. Janiece developed a strong desire to help shape the experience of developing professionals as they navigate the architecture industry. This passion led her to diversity, equity and inclusion consulting with a focus on employee engagement and leadership development. She believes that in order for this industry to seek and sustain growth in areas of attracting and retaining top talent, we have to create a more inclusive work environment that welcomes diverse paths and invests in well-rounded professional development training for those at various stages of their career. Janiece is passionate about creating a positive impact on the community through her volunteerism and service. She originally joined the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS) while at Howard, and was a longtime volunteer for the SoCal NOMA Annual Project Pipeline Summer Camp. Since then, she has served on the summer camp planning committee for 6 years, and served two terms as the SoCal NOMA Executive Board Secretary. She is extremely proud of the award-winning SoCal NOMA chapter, fellow board members and membership for its tremendous growth and many accomplishments throughout the Southern California region.

Johanna Hauser, AIA
Associate Architect, Page & Turnbull
Johanna Hauser is an Associate Architect at Page & Turnbull, a historic preservation firm with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose. With over 10 years of experience in design ranging from small, painstaking residential reconstruction to large-scale institutional rehabilitation, Johanna is drawn to the most complex inner workings of the existing urban fabric. As the ever-present call for environmental and social justice within the Los Angeles region reaches a crescendo, she has honed a passion for remaking old, sometimes broken systems through her work with the JEDI Committee. Johanna received a Masters of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelors of Arts in Comparative Literature from Bard College.

Jose Sanchez, Assoc. AIA, NOMA
Mixed-Use Design Leader and California Regional Design Leader, DLR Group
Jose Sanchez, LEED AP B+C is DLR Group’s Mixed-Use Design Leader and California Regional Design Leader. Jose has over 20 years of extensive international and domestic project experience. His passion for design, and vision for design excellence, translates to client satisfaction and encourages best practices on all the projects he is involved in. Jose works with the Mixed-Use studio to implement and execute innovative trends, specifically in connecting people and places to create authentic experiences. Jose is focused on creating change in the design community towards a more equitable and positive future. His work reflects his dedication to elevate communities and influence the built environment to emulate a more just society.

Joshua Foster, Assoc. AIA, NOMA
Founder & CEO JAF Creative Solutions
Joshua A. Foster, NOMA, Assoc. AIA, is a Los Angeles County based award-winning architectural designer and Community Design Consultant. He is the Founder and CEO of JAF Creative Solutions, LLC— a community-impact focused strategic partnership and design consultancy firm — and an Adjunct Architecture Professor at East Los Angeles College while currently serving as the NOMA National Historian. A native of the Philadelphia area, Joshua is also a graduate of both Columbia University and the University of Southern California.

Lance Collins, AIA, NOMA
Director, Partner Energy
Lance Collins is a Director at Partner Energy with experience in sustainable design and construction practices including whole-building analysis/benchmarking, energy conservation measures, resource consumption reduction strategies, LEED certification administration, building commissioning, solar project development, and project/construction management. As a licensed architect in the state of California, a LEED Accredited Professional, a Green Globes Assessor, and a Certified Sustainable Building Advisor, Lance holds over 15 years of professional experience in the fields of sustainable design, architecture, and urban design. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), and the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). In addition to his professional experience, Mr. Collins has also been an adjunct professor at Long Beach City College and has guest lectured at the University of Southern California, Santa Monica College, California State University at Long Beach, and Mt. San Antonio College, teaching Green Building Principles and sustainable design strategies to students and industry professionals.

Leslie Sydnor, AIA, NOMA
2022 AIALA Vice-President/2023 President Elect & Director, Cumming
Leslie is a director at Cumming; currently working as a planning and development project manager for LAUSD. She has over 25 years of experience in the design of education, aviation, industrial and low-income housing projects. Leslie is co-chair of the Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion (J.E.D.I.) committee and has been a member of the Design Awards and Long Range Strategic Plan Committees. She has planned and/or moderated the Encompass Conference on Equity and Diversity for the past 3 years. Leslie has a B.A. in Architecture from Yale and an M.Arch from UCLA.

Michael Anderson, AIA, NOMA
Principal & Founder, Anderson Barker Architects
Mr. Anderson, a Principal of Anderson Barker, an architecture and economic development firm in Los Angeles, California with more than 35-years of expertise in transit communities, aviation, education, civic, commercial, residential, and municipal infrastructure projects such as streetscapes, parking structures, community centers, and public parks. His focus is to aid municipalities in placemaking to develop a platform to modernize and increase homeownership in low-income impacted communities utilizing business strategies that are mutually beneficial to all parties. Michael believes in creating balanced communities that magnify and preserves local culture while growing the local market economy, making cities profitable to afford greater qualities of living. Is currently working on accelerated equity housing and transit-oriented development for urban communities (AEHTD) collaborating public funding, private capital sources, and real estate development companies.

R. Steven Lewis, FAIA, NOMAC
Principal, ZGF
Steven Lewis is an architect and a tireless advocate for social justice and diversity within the field of architecture. He is currently a principal with the firm ZGF Architects, where he leads the Los Angeles office’s urban design practice and provides firm-wide leadership over the firm’s justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion programs. Steven is currently serving a 2-year term as president of the Architects Foundation, the AIA’s philanthropic partner. Prior to ZGF, he served as Urban Design Director for the Central Region of Detroit in the City’s Planning & Development Department. During his tenure in Detroit, Steven played an integral role in building a strong multidisciplinary team of diverse professionals, all working together to bring about the most equitable and inclusive urban recovery in history. Steven was also a Professor in Practice at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, where he created and taught a seminar course titled, “Designing With Community,” and co-taught a design studio based on an actual project by the Michigan Department of Transportation to repair the damage done to what was once the epicenter of Black culture and commerce up until it fell victim to a freeway built under the urban renewal policies of the late 1950s and early 60s. n 2011, Steven launched a consulting practice – “Thinking Leadership – What we Do…Who we Are” – aimed at helping clients – particularly civic leaders – attain superior outcomes through his strategic engagement. Steven was recognized and honored by the AIA in 2016 when he received the prestigious Whitney M. Young, Jr. Service Award, while being simultaneously elevated to the AIA College of Fellows.