Opening Doors to a Career in Architecture for Young People of Color through Mentoring

In today's episode, we are talking to LoriAnne Jones about her work as one of few Black women in the field of architecture in the United States and her efforts to bring in candidates from underserved communities into the profession through long-term mentoring.

LoriAnne is a licensed architect, and project manager at DIGroup Architecture, one of the largest black-owned firms.  DIGroup is driven by the philosophy of architecture for change. 

During her 14-year professional career, she's been responsible for design through delivery of a variety of projects, including those in K-12, higher education, the healthcare industry with a focus on community health center design With her affinity for design technology, Lorianne has helped strengthen her firm's capabilities in Building Information Modeling and Information Technology to grow the firm's competitive advantage.

• LoriAnne Jones is currently President of the Central New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

• Last year, LoriAnne Jones became the first black female to be named the 2020 Young Architect of the Year, a coveted AIA title.  The award acknowledges LoriAnnes' exceptional leadership and significant contributions in the field of Architecture.

• Balancing motherhood with two children, ages five and 10 months, is no small feat as a working professional and during a pandemic.  However, LoriAnne Jones is not only juggling motherhood and work, but she is also making time to mentor young minority high school students who want to become architects and college students in architectural programs to navigate and manage the rigor of the Architect Construction & Engineering (ACE) program to realize their dream as registered architects.

• To encourage the love of learning and interest in careers in architecture, LoriAnne is a reader in AIA New Jersey Storytime for children to introduce them to the profession and real architects.  While the pandemic has limited in-person contact to many activities, it has not stopped storytime. The program, LoriAnne explains, has gone virtual.  "We're doing online storytime, and architects are reading books about architecture and posting them on YouTube and making it, you know, something that families can enjoy together." 

• LoriAnne says she is passionate about her mentoring role to open the door to more people of color in the field of architecture. She has spoken on the issue of diversity in the profession as a panelist in AIA New Jersey's six-part Diversity in Architecture Series.

• According to recent research, less than 2 % of architects in the U.S. are Black; and many students who study architecture do not become licensed architects often because they graduated from non-accredited programs.   

• LoriAnne grandmother is an architect who owned and operated an architectural firm in Georgetown, Guyana long before the professional started recognizing women.

• LoriAnne is a graduate of Rutgers University with an MBA from its business school and a Bachelor of Architecture from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.