First, I’m a mom.  My son, Xavier, just turned one in January – and my life revolves around him!  It’s so amazing to see a little person grow up and to be able to teach him so much about the world!  Everyday I am fascinated!  So when I’m not reading Dr. Seuss, going to Little Gym classes, or heading to the park- I love the beach (and grew up surfing and sailing), tennis, photography, and painting.  I also enjoy my roof garden.

A little about my work experience and history – I graduated with a professional Bachelor of Architecture from Hampton University and with a post-professional Master of Architecture II from the University of Virginia.  My professional experience has been in base building, planning, and international architecture.  Before coming to DBI, I worked at RTKL in DC on some notable local projects: the Capitol Visitor’s Center (CVC), the Food and Drug Administration in White Oak, Maryland, and the American Trucking Association in Capitol Hill.  My experience is broader than Washington,DC- during my time at RTKL I made the transition to international architecture doing conceptual design and master-planning for projects all over the world including a luxury resort in Ras Al Khaimah (an Emirate north of Dubai), retail, residential and hotel towers in Shanghai, and master planning and architectural design for a city-scale live-work community in Qatar.

Although I have worked on high-design projects all over the world, my real passion for architecture lies in the realm of underserved and under-represented communities: specifically in mitigating the effects of disasters.  I have designed live-work communities for fair-trade coffee manufacturers in the rainforests of Ecuador, as well as the fishing villages of the southwestern coast of post-tsunami Sri Lanka, and worked with a team to reclaim the landscape in post-Katrina New Orleans.  The roots of projects like these and their inherent preconditions become the foundation of architecture- and I find so much joy in this type of work.  It’s much more of a “grassroots” type of architecture: you must go out and find it- it won’t come to you… but the opportunities are endless.