Amy Eliot
Amy Eliot, AIA, LEED AP BD+C serves as the VP of Education and Professional Development for AIACA and leads the component’s statewide continuing education and professional development programs, focusing primarily on the future of the profession and supporting students and emerging professionals to prepare them to thrive in successful practice. A core principle informing her leadership is to ensure that their diverse voices are included in all areas of component governance, including holding important roles at the executive committee level, and across AIACA's extensive committee and task force structure for all of our 11,000 members. Giving them a platform to express their empassioned and forthright perspectives has been a priority, whether on design or other award juries such as scholarships for the California Architectural Foundation, or as moderators, speakers supporting state advocacy efforts for climate action and social justice, often in the challenging area of housing affordability and access.
A long-term practitioner and firm leader in private practice, she has been a lifelong academic leader and teacher across the broad curriculum of architectural education, with a deep belief in the power of active mentorship to scaffold emerging professionals to find their own voice in whatever aspect of practice they choose to pursue, a traditional design firm or amplifying their impact within or outside the AEC industry, working to represent clients and communities in areas that create and implement critical policies to bring about substantive social, environmental and economic change.
Amy has been a tireless advocate for the future of the profession across multiple roles throughout her career, including as a department chair at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, as studio critic and professional practice leader, collaborating to shift long-entrenched definitions of the value of architects, and how we adapt to a rapidly transforming practice ecosystem.
A long-term practitioner and firm leader in private practice, she has been a lifelong academic leader and teacher across the broad curriculum of architectural education, with a deep belief in the power of active mentorship to scaffold emerging professionals to find their own voice in whatever aspect of practice they choose to pursue, a traditional design firm or amplifying their impact within or outside the AEC industry, working to represent clients and communities in areas that create and implement critical policies to bring about substantive social, environmental and economic change.
Amy has been a tireless advocate for the future of the profession across multiple roles throughout her career, including as a department chair at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, as studio critic and professional practice leader, collaborating to shift long-entrenched definitions of the value of architects, and how we adapt to a rapidly transforming practice ecosystem.