Her Story
About Alexis
I recently pivoted from architecture and design into urban planning, and I now work as an urban planner and project manager with the City of Atlanta in the public space studio. I serve as the program manager for LeVar Places, a design program for the community that's launching in April. My expertise is in design, design thinking, and architectural design. I grew up in Oakland, California, and after completing my education, I moved to D.C. in 2016, where I lived for 5 years and started my architecture career. I worked for a big company for 3 years, then went out on my own, which is not the typical journey - I was doing it more to help the people rather than the recognition. Now I'm back working with people in a big organization with the city. My typical day involves answering emails, communicating with contractors to make sure everything is on track, doing design work in Illustrator, InDesign, AutoCAD, and SketchUp, and having anywhere from 1 to 4 meetings a day with my fellow designers and our design lead. We do public space design in our studio - things that you see every day that you don't even realize affects your everyday emotions and feelings and how you move through the world. I'm currently working on getting my architecture license, which is my main focus right now. Outside of work, I'm a gym fanatic, I have a young daughter who keeps me busy and on my toes, and I dabble in some abstract art using acrylics as my therapy.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Alexis
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best piece of advice I've ever received was never give up on yourself. That's probably the most cliche one, but it really resonated with me. More recently, I read something that said nothing from your past is holding you back, except for maybe you. That just clicked in my head - if they can do it, I can do it. There's no reason why I can't, you know. I think that's really powerful because it reminds me that I'm the only one who can hold myself back, and that I have just as much capability as anyone else to achieve what I want to achieve.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't let them scare you. Don't let them scare you out. We need you. There is support out there. If you think you can do it, then you can. Never give up on you. I think you can do it, and we need you, so do it. Architecture in general is a hard industry - the design industry is a hard industry, but architecture in particular is very hard, and that's for anybody, male or female. It doesn't matter where you come from, it's just a hard industry to survive because burnout is really high. So I would say balance your life. Don't be afraid. Your journey is your own. Don't rush your journey, even if your friend got licensed and y'all are the same age and came out together. Don't rush yourself. If you're not ready, don't go for it. If you're ahead of your friend, don't pressure them. Everybody's journey is their own, so be true to your own architectural journey, be true to your own design journey.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges is that architecture is still a male-dominated industry - I think the percentage of women is like 1%, something really low. It's improved, but improvement on nothing is a slow journey. Just being persistent is another challenge. Architecture in general is a hard industry, and the design industry is a hard industry, but architecture in particular is very hard. That's for anybody - it doesn't matter where you come from, it's just a hard industry to survive because burnout is really high. So the biggest challenge is balancing your life. Your journey is your own, so don't rush your journey even if others around you are at different points. Everybody's journey is their own, so be true to your own architectural journey and your own design journey.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Authenticity is most important to me. I believe in remembering where I came from and using that to help me get to where I'm going. And then there's this other value - have fun. Don't forget to have fun. Life is for living, right? So whatever I'm doing, I want to make sure I'm having fun, finding the laugh, finding the joy in it. You have to have that balance of work and personal time, and I try to keep that in mind in everything I do.
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