AIA Women’s Leadership Summit Scholarship Recipients

2025 Scholarship
Alexis Meyer, Assoc. AIA

2024 Scholarships
Angela Varpness, AIA
Jyotsna Sivaguru, Assoc. AIA
Greta Norris, AIA

2023 Scholarships
Alexa Deppeler, AIA
Jena Quast, Assoc. AIA
Kaitlin Schalow, AIA

2022 Scholarships
Ashley Mitlyng, AIA
Katie Merten, Assoc. AIA
Megan Schires, AIA

2019 Scholarship Recipients
In 2019 the BHB fund offered fourteen (14) scholarships in honor of the fourteen (14) women in Minnesota who have been elevated to the College of Fellows.  
Amanda Aspenson, AIA
Jasmine Countney
Jessica Holmes, Assoc. AIA
Neva Hubbert
Aishwarya Karunanidhi, Assoc. AIA
Erin Kindell, AIAS
Emily Little, Assoc. AIA
Joy Rackley Martin, AIA
Amanda Pederson, AIA
Dana Saari, AIAS
Marta Snow, AIA
Rebecca Staley, Assoc. AIA
Elizabeth Turner, AIA
Ellie Ziaie, Assoc. AIA

2017 Scholarship Recipient
Katie Kangas, AIA

2015 Scholarship Recipients
Andrea Hammel-Wollak, AIA
Damaris Hollingsworth, AIA

AIA Minnesota Conference Leadership Keynote Speakers Sponsored by BHB Fund

2025 – Unleashing the Power of Hope: The Science Behind Transformative Leadership, Molly Kawahata is an award-winning speaker, strategist, and host of The Full Spectrum Podcast. A former climate advisor in the Obama White House and founder of Systemic Impact Strategies, she helps organizations harness evidence-based practices and the science of hope to drive performance and transformative change. 

2024 – Breaking Free of Leadership, Tabitha Montgomery, is the executive director for the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association (PPNA) and co-executive director for the Flourish Placemaking Collective in Minneapolis.

2023 – Blueprints of Beagles: Will Artificial Intelligence Drive Design and Construction?, Phillip Bernstein, FAIA, is an architect and technologist who has taught at the School of Architecture at Yale University since 1988.

2019 – Designing with Intention: How We Might Make Spatial Justice a Reality, Liz Ogbu a designer, urbanist, and social innovator. 

2018 – Design Justice: Design as Protest, Bryan Lee, a designer and design justice advocate; he is the founding organizer of the Design Justice Platform and organized the Design As Protest National Day of Action.

2017 – The Collaboration Imperative, Emma Birchall, is head of Insight and Forecasting with Hot Spots Movement, a specialist research consultancy.

2016 – Redesigning Leadership, Courtney E. Martin, author, entrepreneur, and weekly columnist for On Being.

2015 – Telling Tales: Creative Change and Disruptive Leadership, Kaywin Feldman, Duncan and Nivin MacMillan Director and president of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia).

2014 — The Loyalty Switch, James Kane, world’s foremost expert on what makes someone truly loyal – to another person, to an organization, or to a cause.

2013 — The Trust Edge, David Horsager, MA, CSP, is a business strategist and author of the national bestseller The Trust Edge: How Top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line. 

2012 — Design on the Future, David Zach, futurist

2011 — Working with Integrity, Nan DeMars, an internationally recognized thought leader and practitioner in the area of workplace ethics for more than 30 years.

2010 – Geoff Webb, Vice-President of Graceworks, gave a wonderfully animated presentation that was well received by those in attendance.