Design Achievement Award

Established in 1988 to recognize outstanding creative and professional achievements of alumni in all of the college’s disciplines.

2022

Tobin N. Tracey
BA 1985 / BArch 1986 Architecture
Alexandria, Virginia

Tobin Tracey has worked extensively in the field of preservation for more than 25 years.

After receiving his MA in historic preservation from Goucher College in 1997, he was principal of Turk, Tracey, and Larry Architects LLC in Portland, Maine, from 1998-2004. For the next decade, he served as assistant director of design and construction for the Office of the National Park Service Liaison to the White House, a high-profile position that helps oversee the White House and adjacent buildings and grounds.

In 2015, Tracey became the first director of the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Overseas Building Operations Office of Cultural Heritage in Washington, D.C. He is responsible for the protection and preservation of the U.S. government’s historic buildings, archaeological sites and interior collections at diplomatic facilities across the world. He is also charged with development of the Department of State’s preservation policies and protocols.

Tracey is actively engaged with Iowa State University and the College of Design. Through the ISU-U.S. Department of State Cultural Heritage Documentation Project and the preservation and cultural heritage certificate program, he has led groups of Iowa State students and faculty from multiple colleges and majors to undertake projects at U.S. embassies, chanceries and ambassadors’ residences around the world.

Tracey is a member of the American Institute of Architects; the Association for Preservation Technology International, serving as director from 2001-2004, treasurer in 2005, and conference chair in 2003 and 2007; and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which presented him its National Preservation Honor Award in 2001. He is a life member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2021

Brian H. Hurd
MCRP 1997 Community & Regional Planning
St. Louis, Missouri

Brian H. Hurd is a leader at the center of racial equity planning and development and trauma-informed community building. As the director of community planning and implementation for Rise Community Development, Inc., Hurd helps Rise bring together nonprofit organizations, banks, foundations, institutions and government offices in the Greater St. Louis region to make successful neighborhood revitalization possible. He is also an administrator of Rise CDFI, Inc., which provides loans and business support services to minority contractors, developers and businesses.

Hurd extends his passion for equitable community planning and development as a field instructor for Washington University in St. Louis, where he supervises social work students with a concentration in social and economic development. Also an adjunct professor for WUSTL’s University College, he teaches a class on planning sustainable and racially equitable urban communities.

Hurd serves on several boards and commissions, including Alpha Terrace Development Corporation, East Side Aligned, Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority – St. Louis County, STL VentureWorks and U.S. Green Building Council Missouri Gateway Chapter. He was a member of the ISU Department of Community and Regional Planning’s Planning Advisory Council from 2007–2010.

For his project management work with Rise, Hurd received the 2018 Outstanding Plan Making Award, 2020 Outstanding Plan Implementation Award and 2020 Dwight F. Davis Outstanding Planning Advocate Award from the American Planning Association Missouri Chapter St. Louis Metro Section. He is a best-selling author with his 2020 book, Dream It! Plan It! Be It!: A Playbook for Today’s Youth.

2021

Ruki Neuhold-Ravikumar
MFA 2003 Graphic Design
New York City, New York, and Washington, D.C.

Originally from Chennai, India, Ruki Neuhold-Ravikumar draws from her international experiences as a designer and educator to inform her human-centered approach to reimagining education at the Smithsonian Institution. She is acting director of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, where she oversees 100 full-time employees and a collection of more than 215,000 design objects spanning 30 centuries.

From November 2019–May 2021, Neuhold-Ravikumar was the Smithsonian’s acting under secretary for education, responsible for defining the institution’s educational priorities as it prepared to mark its 175th anniversary this year. She focused on sharing the vast resources of the Smithsonian to support the needs of K-12 educators and students at the local and national levels, and led a Smithsonian-wide team that specifically responded to the distance-learning needs of teachers, students and families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Neuhold-Ravikumar previously served as the Smithsonian’s interim associate provost for education and access. Prior to that, she was director of education at the Cooper Hewitt.

Before joining the Smithsonian in 2017, Neuhold-Ravikumar was the associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and Design at the University of Central Oklahoma, where she had advanced from undergraduate professor to director of graduate programs and chair of the Department of Design.

An award-winning designer, Neuhold-Ravikumar has served in leadership roles at all levels of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), including the AIGA Design Educators Community and local and national boards. In 2015, she was named an AIGA Fellow by the Oklahoma chapter for her advocacy and leadership as a design educator.

2020

Susan (Loan) Hoffman
BA 1973 Interior Design
Wayzata, Minnesota

Susan Hoffman is the studio owner and lead designer of DESIGNS! (Susan Hoffman Interior Designs). She specializes in both new home construction and in remodeling/renovation, which she defines as “seeing possibilities where others see problems.” Her portfolio of residential interior design work crosses the United States from California to New York and extends to the Caribbean. Her projects frequently are photographed for publication, including a recent designer showhouse interior featured on Houzz.

Hoffman’s interior design career began with Tom Klemuk Interiors in Cedar Falls. She later worked with Dayton’s interior design studio in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, prior to earning her National Council for Interior Design Qualification certification and founding her own interior design firm.

An active member of the American Society of Interior Designers, Hoffman has served multiple roles on the board of ASID Minnesota and the Dakotas, including chapter president in 1998-99. She received the ASID Minnesota Presidential Citation seven times in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, and was awarded the national ASID Presidential Citation in 1999.

Hoffman has been a tireless supporter of the ISU Department of Interior Design, providing design studio field trip opportunities and curated learning experiences in residential design. She reviewed and judged a campus fraternity’s competition to renovate their resource center and inspired an ongoing series of aging-in-place wellness projects in the College of Design.

Hoffman served on the ISU Interior Design Advisory Council from 2007-10. She is a member of the College of Design Dean’s Advancement Council, ISU Foundation Order of the Knoll and ISU Alumni Association.

2020

Rod Kruse
BA 1974 Architecture
Des Moines, Iowa

Rod Kruse heads the Des Moines office of BNIM Architects, where he is recognized nationally for creating client-focused solutions that demonstrate the responsible use of natural and financial resources, enhance client performance, and win accolades for design excellence. His portfolio includes more than 110 higher education projects and studies on 14 campuses, among them, Iowa State University’s Troxel Hall and the University of Iowa’s Stanley Museum of Art; corporate office and research facilities; parking structures; cultural facilities; and private residences.

Kruse’s work has received nearly 80 design awards, including three national American Institute of Architects Honor Awards for Architecture, an AIA Honor Award for Interior Architecture, an AIA Committee on the Environment Top Ten Award, and an AIA COTE Top Ten Plus Award. He is a fellow of the AIA. In 2014 he was awarded AIA Iowa’s Medal of Honor, the highest honor bestowed by the chapter.

Prior to joining BNIM in 2005, Kruse was a founding principal of HLKB Architecture for 18 years. He began his career at RDG Bussard Dikis (now RDG Planning and Design).

In addition to his design work, Kruse is a mentor, educator, leader, advocate, and volunteer. He served on the AIA Fellows jury from 2002-2004, chaired the AIA National Honor Awards jury in 2012, and was a member of the AIA COTE Top Ten jury in 2013. He served on the ISU Department of Architecture’s advisory council for many years and recently was hired as the department’s first full professor of practice. He is an ISU Alumni Association life member.

2019

John Likens
BFA 2008 Graphic Design
New York, NY

John Likens is a multidisciplinary director and motion designer with a focus on design and animation for film and television. Well known for crafting memorable visuals, he won the 2018 Emmy Award for Outstanding Graphic Design and Art Direction for his work on Red Bull’s first feature documentary, Blood Road; a 2018 SXSW Title Design Award for Netflix’s “Godless;” and a spot on Shots’ 2017 Rising Stars list.

Likens started his career in New York creating stunning motion graphics for commercial, film, and gaming clients. His passion for film has led him to design cinematic title sequences for Deadpool 2, HBO’s “The Night Of,” Cinemax’s “Warrior,” “The Twilight Zone” for CBS, and FX’s “Taboo,” among others. He provided design direction for the Netflix documentary Mission Blue.

Likens’ work also includes the holographic user interface designs that appear in Iron Man 3, RoboCop, and Transformers: Age of Extinction. Currently the creative director for Method Made, he has worked as a freelance designer and art director in many top New York design studios.

2019

Jade Liska
BLA 1994 Landscape Architecture
Kansas City, Missouri

Since 2018, Jade Liska has served as the deputy director of the Kansas City Aviation Department’s Planning and Engineering Division. As the project manager for the $1.5 billion new passenger terminal at Kansas City International Airport (KCI), he coordinates with the outside design and construction team and the Aviation Department leadership team to keep the project on track for completion in 2023. He also manages other design and construction activities at both KCI and the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport.

Liska has worked for the City of Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO) for nearly 15 years, serving in a variety of management roles. He started as a senior planner, then was promoted to division manager of the Citywide Planning Division in 2007. In this role, he dealt with long-range preservation and transportation planning along with census/GIS and population planning. Liska was instrumental in implementing the area plans for the entire 317-square-mile city. In 2013, he joined the Aviation Department as the manager of airport planning and part of the leadership team advancing the new terminal program.

Liska served as president of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Prairie Gateway Chapter in 2008, and from 2013–2016 he served as an ASLA trustee representing that chapter. He currently serves on the Platte County Economic Development Committee, Northland Regional Chamber of Commerce, and King of Kings Lutheran Church board of directors. He is a licensed Professional Landscape Architect in Kansas and Missouri and a life member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2019

Robert B. Reinders
BA 1977 Architecture
Washington, DC

Robert Reinders, vice president of design and project management for Marriott International, recently joined the company’s Global Design Strategies team to focus on innovation initiatives after eight years based in Frankfurt, Germany, leading the Global Design Europe team.

In Europe, Reinders managed a team of three dozen design and project management professionals across the continent who work collaboratively with internal disciplines, owners, franchisees, and their design consultants to manage a pipeline of new development and renovation projects. During his tenure, Marriott realized dramatic growth in Europe, both organically and through the acquisition and integration of Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

Reinders joined Marriott International in 1987 as a project designer, moving through several roles at Marriott headquarters in Washington, DC, until beginning his role in Europe in 2011. Over the past 30 years he has overseen the successful completion of more than 1,000 hotel projects.

Prior to Marriott, Reinders worked for 10 years with architectural firms specializing in full-service hotel design. He is a licensed architect and a member of the American Institute of Architects. Reinders holds a master of architecture degree from Rice University.

He is an ISU Alumni Association annual member.

2019

Bethany Wilcoxon
BS 2008 Community & Regional Planning
Graduate Certificate 2009 Geographic Information Systems
Des Moines, Iowa

Bethany Wilcoxon, AICP, serves as senior adviser at McClure, where she manages a multimillion-dollar beautification initiative for the Iowa Great Lakes and provides strategic direction to help clients implement placemaking action plans. She previously served as McClure’s vice principal of community planning, helping build the placemaking team and working to revitalize small communities across the country.

Wilcoxon began her career with the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, where she led development of The Tomorrow Plan, a $3.1 million initiative to advance sustainability in Greater Des Moines. She then became director of Capital Crossroads, managing development of the next regional vision plan for Greater Des Moines and Central Iowa before joining McClure in 2017.

Wilcoxon is an alumna of Leadership Iowa and the Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute’s Community Leadership Program. She was named an Iowa STATEment Maker by the ISU Alumni Association in 2012, and a Business Record “Forty Under 40” and Royal Town Planning Institute International Award for Planning Excellence finalist in 2016.

Wilcoxon’s passion for the community carries into her volunteer activities. She helped raise $10.3 million for the Jester Park Nature Center and started the US Green Building Council’s ADVANCE program in Iowa, working to enhance equity in sustainability.

Wilcoxon is an annual member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2018

Steve Foutch
BA 1988 Architecture
Weatherby Lake, Missouri

After a successful career in architecture, Steve Foutch co-founded Foutch Brothers with his brother, Scott (BS 1986 Farm Operations / Animal Science), in 2004, and serves as chief executive officer. The Kansas City-based development and construction firm is now a recognized name in the historic renovation industry, having saved and repurposed nearly $300 million in historic buildings.

Most recently, the firm completed a $39 million renovation of the former Kemper Arena — now Hy-Vee Arena — into a multilevel 10,000-seat sports complex for amateur and professional teams with retail shops and restaurants. Other notable projects include the adaptive reuse of vacant schools and factories into loft housing, senior apartments, mixed-use residential and commercial facilities and new business incubator spaces.

Foutch received the Kansas City Business Journal’s Capstone Award in 2015 and 2017. He also has been honored by the Kansas Preservation Alliance and the Missouri Historic Preservation Program. He and his wife, Mary Jane, received the ISU Foundation’s Order of the Knoll Emerging Philanthropist Award in 2016.

Foutch holds a Master of Architecture and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in real estate, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to founding Foutch Brothers, he was a partner with Gastinger Walker Harden Architects in Kansas City.

Foutch is vice president of the Missouri Growth Association and serves on the board of directors of Christ Lutheran Church in Platte Woods, Missouri. He is an ISU Foundation governor, a member of the Order of the Knoll and the Cyclone Club, and a life member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2018

Matt Nielson
BS 1984 Community and Regional Planning
Miami, Florida

Since August 2017, Matt Nielson has served as the senior director of operations and campus planning for the National YoungArts Foundation, which identifies and nurtures the most accomplished young artists in the visual, literary, design and performing arts and assists them at critical junctures in their educational and professional development. Nielson oversees operations and management of the organization’s Miami campus and provides support for its programs in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC.

For nearly two decades, Nielson was the deputy commissioner for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, where his responsibilities included the management and operation of the city’s municipal arts and cultural venues like the multiple award-winning Millennium Park, Chicago Cultural Center, and Historic Water Tower/Water Works complex. Nielson also helped implement the 2012 Cultural Plan of Chicago — which received the Metropolitan Planning Council’s Burnham Award in 2013 — as well as the City Markets/Farmers Markets program.

Nielson previously was a planner for the city of Savage, Minnesota, and for Planning Resources, Inc., in Wheaton, Illinois. He also served as the zoning/code enforcement planner for Winnetka, Illinois; economic development coordinator for the Chicago Department of Planning and Development; and senior project coordinator for the Habitat Company in Chicago.

Nielson is a member of the APA and its LGBTQ chapter; Beta Omicron Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity; Underline Facility Advisory Committee and Howard Brown Health External Affairs and Development Committee. He serves on the ISU Department of Community and Regional Planning’s Planning Advisory Council and is a life member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2018

Dana (Willig) Wilkinson
BA 1978, Interior Design
Bettendorf, Iowa

Dana Wilkinson is co-owner and chief executive officer of Paragon Commercial Interiors in Davenport, a firm she founded in 1983 with the goal of creating designs that influence how people live, think, and work, and make a lasting contribution to the community.

Paragon has completed significant local and global projects including corporate offices, healthcare facilities, banks, restaurants, libraries, senior-living environments and higher education facilities. Certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, the firm has been named one of the Best Places to Work by QC Magazine and honored for Excellence in Commerce by the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce. Paragon regularly donates interior design services to area nonprofits, including United Way, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Gilda’s Club.

As executive director of the Museum of Art Foundation, Wilkinson led fundraising for the $47 million Figge Art Museum building project, completed in 2005. She received the 2008 DavenportOne Larry Reed Volunteer of the Year Award and a 2009 Athena Women’s Business Award. She was named Outstanding Philanthropist by the Association of Fundraising Philanthropists in 2015.

Wilkinson serves on the boards of directors of the Figge Art Museum, Downtown Davenport Partnership, John Deere Classic, Regional Development Authority, Scott County Family YMCA, Unity Point Trinity Hospital, and ISU Alumni Association. She is a member of the International Interior Design Association and the ISU College of Design Advancement Council, and a life member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2017

Patrick Dillon
BA 1986 Graphic Design
Studio City, California

An entertainment professional for more than 25 years, Patrick Dillon is an owner and one of the creative directors of B O N D, a Los Angeles creative services firm with clients including 20th Century Fox, Disney, Focus Features, Freeform, HBO, Lionsgate, Marvel Studios, Sony Pictures, Starz, Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers, among many others.

Since launching B O N D in 2012, Dillon and colleagues have produced print and digital art and audiovisual elements for television (Black Sails, Empire, Game of Thrones, Vikings, American Gods, etc.), film (Divergent, Doctor Strange, Mad Max: Fury Road, Passengers, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Straight Outta Compton, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Wonder Woman, etc.), HE and gaming (Batman Arkham Origins, Borderlands, Battleborn, etc.).

Dillon previously served as art director of Enigma Records (1986-1990), Restless Records (1990-1995) and Dawn Patrol Inc. (1995-1999). In 1999 he co-founded creative boutique agency Art Machine LLC, quickly growing the startup into an award-winning print industry leader that merged successfully with Trailer Park in 2007. Dillon served as principal of Art Machine, a Trailer Park Co., from 2007-2010 and as executive creative director of video games for Trailer Park from 2010-2012.

Dillon was honored with 2011 PromaxBDA MI6 Competition Gold Awards for Standout Print Campaign and Print Advertisement for Batman: Arkham City; 2009 Key Art Awards Teaser Poster for Terminator: Salvation; 2007 Key Art Awards Drama Poster, Golden Trailer Awards Drama Poster and Posterwire.com Poster of the Year, all for Hard Candy; and 2006 Key Art Awards Action Adventure Poster and Golden Trailer Awards Teaser, both for Lord of War.

2017

Larassa Kabel
BFA 1992 Craft Design
Des Moines, Iowa

Larassa Kabel is a visual artist who often uses photorealistic drawings, paintings and prints to address issues of loss, fear, compassion, gender and feminism. She wants her work to start conversations about the “sad, hard parts” of human experience and help people “support one another in a difficult world.” Her work — which also includes mixed media, sculpture and collaborative projects with other artists — has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout Iowa and the US, including Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, Kansas City, Miami, New York City, and other cities in Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana and New York.

In 2015 Kabel co-founded Chicken Tractor, a nonprofit organization that creates professional development, exhibition, networking and micro-funding opportunities for emerging and mid-career Iowa artists. In 2016, she received the first Dave Hurd Innovator of the Year Award from the Des Moines Arts Festival. The new award recognizes an individual or organization that demonstrates the pursuit of innovation in the arts.

Kabel was an Iowa Arts Council Artist Fellow in 2015 and one of the Des Moines Art Center’s Iowa Artists 2010. Her painting of the Obamas’ dog, Bo, was selected for the White House Christmas card in 2012, and her colored-pencil portrait titled “Don’t Stop Believing” was acquired by the Des Moines Art Center for its permanent collection in 2014.

2017

Vaughn Rinner
BS 1974 Landscape Architecture
Seattle, Washington

Vaughn Rinner, FASLA, recently completed her term as president of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the 15,000-member professional organization for landscape architects in the United States. A pragmatic visionary with a collaborative leadership style, Rinner has spearheaded the society’s effort to increase diversity and broaden the understanding of landscape architects’ role in addressing climate change through green infrastructure and resiliency planning and design.

Rinner’s involvement in the ASLA has been an integral part of her landscape architecture practice. She served as president-elect in 2015-2016 and vice president for finance and investments from 2010-2012. She previously chaired the finance and audit committees and the Professional Practice Network Council. Her chapter involvement includes service as chair of various committees as well as treasurer, president and trustee of the Virginia chapter. Since relocating from Norfolk, Va., to Seattle in 2014, she has been an active member of the Washington chapter.

During her 40-year career, Rinner — who retired from private practice in 2014 — worked for firms small and large, including as owner of Vaughn Rinner Landscape Architect and vice president of LandMark Design Group in Virginia (1987-2010). She was active on the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards and served six years on the Virginia landscape architecture licensing board (2004-2010). She is a past president of the Virginia Urban Forest Council and former member of the Council for New Urbanism and Urban Land Institute Hampton Roads District Council management committee.

Rinner has received numerous honors and awards, including the Virginia Chapter ASLA President’s Award (1992, 1993, 1995, 1996), Virginia ASLA Distinguished Service Award (2002), Virginia Beach Stewardship Awards (2009, 2010), Hampton Roads Woman of Achievement Award (2012), election to the ASLA Council of Fellows (2013) and ASLA President’s Medal (2014).

2016
Michael Braley
BFA 1993 Graphic Design
Lexington, Kentucky

Michael Braley, creative director of Braley Design, has more than 20 years of experience in brand, print, book and package design. His work has been recognized with more than 400 professional honors and awards and is in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, the Denver Art Museum and the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany.

Among Braley’s clients are Aeropostale, Alliance for American Manufacturing, AIGA, Effen Vodka, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Future Partners, IBM, Pando Populus, the People’s Music School and Skadden. His work has appeared in numerous publications and exhibitions, including AIGA Communication Graphics, Art Directors Club of New York, British Design and Art Direction, Cannes Design Lions, Clio Awards, Communication Arts, Graphis, I.D., London International Awards, the One Show, Print Magazine and Type Directors Club.

Braley began his career in San Francisco, working as a designer at Stone Yamashita (1994-95), senior designer at Elixir Design (1995-97) and art director at Cahan & Associates (1997-2005) before moving to New York for six years, including two years as design director at VSA Partners. He was the creative director of Shatterbox Studios in Lexington from 2012-14.

As a member of the American Advertising Federation Lexington since 2013, Braley has served as director of communications (2016-17), vice president of programming (2015-16) and awards show judges co-chair (2015). He will complete a three-year term on the ISU Department of Graphic Design Advisory Council in 2016.

2016
Thomas R. Gerend
BS 2000 Community and Regional Planning
Kansas City, Missouri

Since 2014, Tom Gerend has served as the first executive director of the Kansas City Streetcar Authority (KCSA), a nonprofit corporation established to oversee the operation and maintenance of the KC Streetcar system. He also chairs the city’s Smart City Advisory Board, where he works to help advance Smart City implementation in downtown and along the streetcar route, and is a member of the Downtown Council, Missouri Public Transit Association and Kansas City Regional Transit Coordinating Council boards of directors.

From 2006-2014, Gerend served as the assistant director, then co-director of transportation planning for the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), where he led regional transportation planning, streetcar planning and public transit coordination across the eight-county, bi-state Kansas City region. While at MARC he led the region’s efforts to win a $50 million federal Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER I) Program grant and secured critical funding to launch KC Streetcar’s initial planning. The MARC Transportation Outlook 2040 long-range transportation plan was a Best Planning Practices in Metropolitan Transportation Planning case study by the Federal Highway Administration in 2012.

Prior to joining MARC, Gerend was a regional planner and program manager for the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission in Peoria, Ill., for six years.

Gerend holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Illinois Springfield. He received the Kansas City Economic Development Council’s 2016 Cornerstone Award for the KC Streetcar project and Innovation Award for the Smart City Advisory Board. He is an annual member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2016
Matt Ostanik
BArch 2001 Architecture / MBA 2009 Business Administration
Dallas Center, Iowa

Matt Ostanik is the chief executive officer of FunnelWise, a company he founded in 2014 to provide revenue predictability software and expertise to help companies increase revenue growth by optimizing their marketing and sales funnels. Ostanik also is the founder and lead investor in Charrette Venture Group, an investment firm that helps entrepreneurial architects and design professionals grow their own businesses.

Ostanik previously founded and led an online construction software company, Submittal Exchange, which he sold to Textura Corporation in 2011. He served on the executive team at Textura when the company completed a successful IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in 2013.

Before starting Submittal Exchange, Ostanik was an intern architect and later project architect with Frevert-Ramsey-Kobes Architects-Engineers (2001-06) and Walker Architects (2006-07), both in Des Moines. He has served on the American Institute of Architects Iowa chapter board of directors since 2011, including as vice president in 2016 and treasurer in 2013-14.

Ostanik was named one of the Des Moines Business Record’s Forty Under 40 in 2013. His businesses have received numerous recognitions, including the Technology Association of Iowa’s 2016 Outstanding Startup Company of the Year, 2012 Clean Technology Company of the Year, 2011 Software Company of the Year and 2010 Top Growth Company; the Des Moines Register’s 2013 Top Iowa Workplaces; the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s 2013 Economic Impact Award; Inc. Magazine’s 2011 Top Small Company Workplace; and the Construction Specification Institute’s 2011 Construction Technology Award.

He is a lifetime member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2015
Jeremy Caniglia
BFA 1993 Art & Design (Drawing, Painting, Printmaking)
Omaha, Nebraska

Jeremy Caniglia is a professional artist and illustrator whose work has been published and exhibited internationally and is in private collections around the world. Perhaps best known in the horror genre, he is equally prolific in fantasy art and portraiture. His work has appeared in numerous books and movies produced by Bantam Books/Random House, Cemetery Dance Publications, Dorcester Publishing, Easton Press, IDW Publishing, Anchor Bay Entertainment, IDT Entertainment, Industry Entertainment, Showtime Networks and Warner Brothers.

Caniglia received the 2004 International Horror Guild Award for best artist in dark fantasy and horror and the IlluXCon 2012 Illustrator Artist of the Year award.

Caniglia also teaches art at Creighton Preparatory School and at the Joslyn Art Museum’s Kent Bellows Center for Visual Arts, both in Omaha. He regularly teaches and lectures at museums and universities throughout the US. He was named Iowa Western Community College 2014 and 2015 Art Teacher of the Year, Creighton Prep 2015 Teacher of the Year and Scholastic Art & Writing Awards 2015 National Outstanding Educator.

Caniglia holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a professional teaching certificate from Creighton University. He serves as a state trustee of the Sons of Italy in America, a trustee of Omaha’s Santa Lucia Festival and a mentor with the Kent Bellows Mentoring Program. He is a member of the ISU College of Design Advancement Council and ISU Department of Art and Visual Culture Advisory Council.

2015
Prem Sundharam
MArch 2004 Architecture
Gilbert, Arizona

Colleagues call Prem Sundharam one of the most knowledgeable experts on sustainability and energy in the architectural community. A principal with DLR Group in Phoenix, Sundharam serves as the firm’s sustainability team leader and the southwest regional sector leader of its Practice Forum, which focuses on integrated design processes such as building information modeling and energy modeling. As the regional practice leader, Sundharam collaborates with 100 employees on business practice innovations to provide the best design solutions and design service experiences for DLR Group’s clients.

Sundharam is a comprehensive thinker, planner, designer and researcher who led the development of DLR Group’s national Sustainability Opportunities Matrix tool and is creating a “lessons learned” database of best practices within the southwest region. He has more than a decade of experience in K-12, higher education, correctional, justice and corporate design project management, including 12 completed LEED-certified/registered projects. Among his notable projects are Fireside Elementary School, a near net-zero-energy school in Phoenix; West-MEC Southwest Campus, a net-zero-energy campus in Buckeye, Arizona; and Arizona Department of Corrections 500-Bed Maximum-Security Facility in Buckeye. Sundharam also is writing a book on net-zero energy design.

Sundharam, who holds a Bachelor of Engineering in civil engineering from Bharathiar University in Coimbatore, India, is a LEED Accredited Professional in Building Design and Construction, a Building Energy Modeling Professional and a Certified Energy Manager. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects and was named a Design Futures Council Emerging Leader in 2014.

2014
Matthew Getch
BLA 1998 Landscape Architecture
London, England

Matthew Getch serves as design director and partner with Martha Schwartz Partners, a leading international firm dedicated to creating and refining urban landscapes and helping to ensure cities’ sustainability. Getch, who initially enrolled at Iowa State to learn how to design golf courses, headed west after graduation and worked as a landscape architect in both Salt Lake City and Tucson. Six years later, he reinvented himself and moved to London.

Today, Getch focuses his talents on the contextual landscapes of cities around the world. His work spans from site-specific, small urban spaces to large, regional and strategic landscape planning projects in 22 different countries. His award-winning designs the past 16 years have included the Natural History Museum Civic Realm in London, the Detroit Riverfront, Place de la Republique in Paris, the Mosque and Museum of Religious Harmony in Tirana, Albania; Market Square in Tel Aviv, Austria’s Vienna Regional Hospital, Abu Dhabi Financial Center and the 2002 Olympic Welcome Plaza in Park City, Utah.

Though he once took a yearlong hiatus from landscape architecture to play on the professional golf circuit, Getch today relishes the opportunities to push the boundaries of contemporary design through the infusion of color, pattern, movement, art, cuisine and language. His goal is the creation of valuable public space that provides identity and a sense of place while bucking the global trend of uniformity and homogeneity.

2014
Michael Wagler
MCRP 2006 Community & Regional Planning
Ankeny, Iowa

For nearly 20 years Michael Wagler has helped revitalize hundreds of Iowa’s downtowns, most recently as state coordinator of the Main Street Iowa program, part of the Iowa Economic Development Authority. In this role, Wagler provides comprehensive technical assistance in historic commercial district revitalization, historic preservation and nonprofit development. He also manages the implementation of the National Main Street Center’s Four Point Approach® (organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring) for the State of Iowa.

Wagler discovered his passion early in life—he began volunteering for Bloomfield Main Street while a high school student, thanks to a teacher’s suggestion. He went on to earn his bachelor of fine arts in historic preservation and architectural history from the Savannah College of Art and Design and his master’s degree in community and regional planning from Iowa State. He is a member of Preservation Iowa and the National Trust for Historic Preservation and serves as a trustee of the First United Methodist Church in Des Moines. He has been recognized with the Iowa Governor’s Volunteer Award from the State of Iowa and the Emerging Leader of Main Street Award from Main Street Iowa.

He is an annual member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2014
Derek Anderson
BFA 1991 Art & Design – Drawing/Painting/Printmaking
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Derek Anderson creates vibrant characters and worlds that delight young readers, parents and teachers.

Earlier this year, Hot Rod Hamster (written by Cynthia Lord and illustrated by Anderson) received Mississippi’s Magnolia Award and Wyoming’s Buckaroo Award, both children’s choice awards. It also won the 2011-2012 South Carolina Picture Book Award and was named one of Bank Street College of Education’s “Best Children’s Books of the Year” for 2011. The sequel, Happy Birthday, Hamster, earned the same accolade in 2012.

The New York Times-bestselling Little Quack, written by Lauren Thompson, has been translated into nine languages and continues to captivate children with Anderson’s colorful images of the title character and his siblings. Books in the series have won the National Parenting Publication Award and the International Reading Association/Children’s Book Council Children’s Choice Award.

Of the 21 books Anderson has illustrated, five are his own original stories: Gladys Goes Out to Lunch, Blue Burt and Wiggles, How the Easter Bunny Saved Christmas, Romeo and Lou Blast Off (named one of the best books of 2007 by Parent & Child magazine), and Story County: Here We Come!

A member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Anderson regularly speaks at schools, libraries and conferences throughout the U.S.

2014
Danielle C. Hermann
BArch 2001 Architecture
MArch 2008 Architecture
Waukee, Iowa

Erin Olson-Douglas
BArch 1997 Architecture
Des Moines, Iowa

LaDan Omidvar
BArch 1982 Architecture
MCRP 1985 Community & Regional Planning
MArch 1996 Architecture
Ames, Iowa

Ann Sobiech Munson
MArch 2000 Architecture
Slater, Iowa

With more than 50 years of combined experience as practitioners and educators in architecture and urban design, Danielle Hermann, Erin Olson-Douglas, LaDan Omidvar, and Ann Sobiech Munson in 2011 established Iowa Women in Architecture (iaWia), a nonprofit educational organization to support and promote women involved in the design and construction of the built environment.

Through activities such as networking, peer mentorship, professional development, research initiatives, and community outreach programs, iaWia seeks to empower its members, celebrate the contributions of women design professionals, and serve as a resource for women at all stages of their careers. The group holds major quarterly events and engages in activities to increase the visibility of women in design and related fields, advocate for issues relevant to these women, advance women in leadership positions, and lead discussion about cultural change in design professions. A student chapter at ISU extends these opportunities to students and faculty and responds to their particular needs.

Hermann is a project architect for OPN Architects, Inc., in Des Moines and past director of archives for iaWia. She is a member of the American Institute of Architects and serves on the “I Have a Dream” Foundation Board. Hermann was named one of the Des Moines Business Record‘s 40 Under 40 in 2012 and received Excellence in Historic Preservation Awards from the City of Des Moines in 2007 and 2011.

The economic development coordinator for the City of Des Moines, Olson-Douglas serves as chair of iaWia and director of communication and outreach. She was the vice chair in 2011-12. She is a member of Consortium, a professional women’s breakfast club, and the AIA. Olson-Douglas was named one of the Des Moines Business Record‘s 40 Under 40 in 2011. She received a master of architecture in urban design from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 2004. She is an annual member of the ISU Alumni Association.

An architect in the state of Iowa and a lecturer in the ISU Department of Architecture, Omidvar chairs the iaWia education and programs committee. Prior to joining the Iowa State faculty, she was a project architect and project manager with Brooks Borg Skiles Architecture Engineering in Des Moines. Omidvar is a LEED Accredited Professional and a member of the AIA and the Iowa chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. She served on the AIA board of directors for three years. She received the Margaret Sloss Gender Equity Award from Iowa State in 2011.

Sobiech Munson is an architect and specifier with Substance Architecture in Des Moines and previously was director of the ISU College of Design’s first-year Core Design Program. She is the past chair of iaWia and served as chair in 2011-12. She also is the certification chair for the Central Iowa Chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute and a liaison for the CSI award jury with the ISU Department of Architecture. Along with Thomas Leslie, Pickard Chilton Professor in Architecture at Iowa State, Sobiech Munson received a 2005-06 Creative Achievement Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

2012
Tim Hickman
BA 1985 Architecture, with distinction
Des Moines, Iowa

Tim Hickman, AIA, LEED AP, is a founding principal of Substance, a multidisciplinary design firm in Des Moines that has grown from a staff of five to 23 in just seven years and has received more than 20 state and national design awards. Prior to forming Substance in 2005, Hickman worked with Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck Architecture, where he was named an associate in 2000.

Hickman has completed numerous projects for the Iowa Board of Regents, including the University of Northern Iowa’s Multimodal Transportation Center, winner of a 2011 Design Award from the American Institute of Architects Central States Region, and the University of Iowa’s Blank Honors Center, winner of 2005 Design Awards from both AIA Central States and AIA Iowa.

Hickman also led the design of the John and Mary Pappajohn Higher Education Center in Des Moines and now heads the design effort for the University of Iowa football program’s new athletic training facility.

Hickman frequently teaches design studios for the ISU architecture department. He serves on the Des Moines Arts Center Building and Grounds Committee and volunteers for the Des Moines Playhouse and the AIDS Project of Central Iowa. Hickman received a Master of Architecture from Yale University in 2000. He lives in Des Moines with his spouse, Frank Vaia, and is a life member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2012
Dale Saylor
BFA 1995 Interior Design
New York City, New York

As Limited Brands’ associate vice president for store design and construction, Dale Saylor is responsible for new retail concept development and implementation for various high-profile stores and for new company business initiatives. He led the design work for the first Victoria’s Secret international retail store in London earlier this year.

Saylor previously was the director of store planning and design for Burberry in New York and Hong Kong for five years, implementing the brand’s global concept for all new retail and wholesale locations in the Asia Pacific region and all duty-free locations worldwide. He has a further decade of management and consulting experience with Victoria’s Secret, Calvin Klein Cosmetics, Saks Fifth Avenue, Henri Bendel and David Yurman, among others.

Saylor’s work has been published in Elle Décor and numerous design and trade publications. He received the Visual Merchandising and Shop Design Retail Shop in Shop Award in 1998.

Saylor is a member of Friends of the High Line, Columbia/Greene County ASPCA, Old Chatham Hunt Club and Columbia County Historical Society, all in New York State. He is an annual member of the ISU Alumni Association.

Saylor lives in New York with his husband, Joseph Williamson.

2011
Rachelle Schoessler Lynn
BFA 1990 Interior Design
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Rachelle Schoessler Lynn, FASID, CID, LEED AP BD+C, is a co-founder and partner with Studio 2030, Inc., in the Twin Cities, and a national leader in sustainable design solutions. Her firm’s name refers to the goal of reaching carbon-neutral buildings by 2030.

Schoessler Lynn is a member of the Minnesota Environmental Fund board, and past member of both the American Society of Interior Designers board and the Minnesota Board of Architecture, Engineering, Land Surveying, Landscape Architecture, Geoscience and Interior Design. She also chaired the ASID Sustainable Design Council. She was a founding member of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Minnesota chapter and helped create Minnesota’s Sustainable Building Guidelines.

An adjunct faculty member at the University of Minnesota, Schoessler Lynn is a frequent lecturer on sustainable design, indoor air quality, workplace issues and material development. Before co-founding Studio 2030, she led the interior design practice for two major Minnesota design firms.

Schoessler Lynn was named the ASID MN Designer of Distinction in 2004, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal honored her as one of Minnesota’s “Forty under 40” influential business leaders in 2006. She was inducted as a Fellow of the ASID in 2010.

Schoessler Lynn served on the ISU Interior Design Advisory Board from 2002 to 2008, including two years as chair. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, Kevin Lynn, and is an annual member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2011
Sally Cooper Smith
BFA 1983 Graphic Design
Des Moines, Iowa

Sally Cooper Smith is the president and creative director of Cooper Smith & Company in Des Moines. She formed the company in 1993 with a commitment to integrate honesty and intelligence into marketing communications, and believes there is an intrinsic correlation between staying small and maintaining a high level of quality.

Smith’s work has appeared internationally in Communication Arts, Creative Quarterly, Graphis and Studio (Canada). She has earned national and regional recognition with Creativity International Awards, Addy Awards, Davey Awards, and awards from the American Advertising Federation of Des Moines and the Art Directors Association of Iowa. A poster sequence she created for the State Historical Society of Iowa is still in use and remains the most popular series created.

Prior to founding her own firm, Smith was design director for Design Group, Inc., for six years. She has served on the boards of the Rotary Club of Des Moines, A.M., and Ballet Des Moines, and is past president of the Civic Music Association, Des Moines Symphony Ambassadors and Art Directors Association of Iowa boards of directors. She is a member of the American Advertising Federation of Des Moines and the Des Moines Leadership Institute. She taught the graphic design professional practice course at Iowa State for several years. Smith is parent to one daughter, Emily.

2011
Donald R. Young
BS 1976 Landscape Architecture
San Rafael, California

Don Young is the president of D. R. Young Associates, which offers professional services in corporate and institutional real estate development and project management. Young specializes in project organization, direction of entitlement and approval processes, and design and construction management.

Young applies an innovative approach to design practice that transcends the production of physical artifacts by guiding decisions that shape the built environment. His clients have included E*Trade Financial, The Gap, Google, Symantec and Adobe Systems. He has been involved in the redevelopment of the California Academy of Sciences and the Walt Disney Family Museum. Presently, Young is leading the expansion of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which, upon completion, will become the second-largest contemporary art museum in the United States.

Before establishing his consulting firm, Young was the director of corporate real estate and development for Silicon Graphics, Inc., where he led projects such as the award-winning Shoreline Entry site (now the Silicon Valley Tech Museum), the Crittenden Campus (now the location of Google’s management team), and SGI’s European manufacturing headquarters in Switzerland.

Young is an active member of Lambda Alpha International, the Urban Land Institute and the San Francisco Urban Planning and Research Institute. He received a Master of Landscape Architecture with honors from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1978. Young resides in San Rafael with his wife, Susan.

2010
Bryan Berg
BArch 1997 Architecture
Santa Fe, New Mexico

At the age of 17 in 1992, Bryan Berg broke the Guinness World Record for the World’s Tallest House of Freestanding Playing Cards, with a tower 14 feet, 6 inches tall. Since then, he has been commissioned to break his own record more than 10 times, with his latest structure reaching over 25 feet. In 2004, Guinness created a new category for the World’s Largest House of Cards to further recognize Berg’s work. He continues to hold both records, which require that the builder use no tape, glue or tricks in his constructions.

Through his firm, Cardstacker LLC, Berg has completed projects worldwide for such clients as Lexus, Walt Disney World, Holiday Inn, Fed Ex, National Hockey League and San Francisco Opera. He also collaborates on the design and construction of projects in New Mexico using alternative building materials such as straw bale, adobe and rammed earth.

Berg and his work have appeared in countless television, print and online media, including CNN, MTV, The Discovery Channel, ESPN, USA Today, Fast Company and the Wall Street Journal.

Berg taught architecture at Iowa State from 2000 to 2003. He earned a Master in Design Studies degree from Harvard University in 2004. Berg’s wife, Kristin Carlson, also serves as his business manager.

2010
Theaster Gates, Jr.
BS 1996 Community and Regional Planning
MA 2005 Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies
Chicago, Illinois

If pressed to describe Theaster Gates’ work in one word, it would be “transformative.” In his performances, installations and urban interventions, Gates—an artist, musician and ‘cultural planner” as well as director of arts program development for the University of Chicago—transforms spaces, relationships, traditions and perceptions.

Exploring architecture as a tool for mediation and meditation, Gates draws from both urbanism and art to provide what he terms “moments of interstitial beauty” in Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods. His most recent project, “Temple,” comprises two neighboring houses whose interiors he completely rebuilt of donated and repurposed materials to create spaces for workshops, exhibitions and other public events on topics of race, art and politics.

Gates’ work is funded by the Joyce Foundation, the Graham Foundation, and the African American Art Alliance. In 2010 alone, he has performed and exhibited at the Whitney Biennial and the Armory Show in New York, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Pulitzer Museum of Art in St. Louis, and the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. He also completed residencies with the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wis.; Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, Ore.; and Artadia New York. He is a Loeb Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design for 2010-11.

Gates received a Master of Arts degree in fine arts and religious studies from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, in 1998.

2010
Elizebeth Murphy Schueneman
BFA 1987 Graphic Design
Omaha, Nebraska

As president of Emspace Group in Omaha, Elizebeth Murphy Schueneman leads a team of communications professionals in the development of brand communications, design programs and interactive initiatives for a host of nonprofit clients working to improve their community. These include higher education institutions, community foundations, social services agencies, arts organizations and public health initiatives. With 20 years of experience in the field, Murphy Schueneman focuses on helping these organizations to inform, inspire and persuade their audiences more effectively.

Her team’s work is regularly recognized by the Nebraska chapters of the Public Relations Society of America, the American Marketing Association and AIGA, as well as the Nebraska Center for the Book. Their projects have appeared in numerous design publications, including Step and How magazines.

Prior to opening Emspace Group in 1992, Murphy Schueneman was a graphic designer for the Chicago Sun-Times and Primary Communications in Chicago.

Murphy Schueneman serves on the Concord Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution board of directors, the Lauritzen Gardens marketing committee and the Westside Community Schools communications council, all in Omaha, and on the executive committee of the ISU College of Design Advancement Council. She is an annual member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2009
Qun Dang
MAR 1999 Architecture
Beijing, China

As a principal of MAD Studio, a Beijing-based architecture and design firm, Qun Dang directs a wide range of projects at different phases and scales. Ongoing projects include the Absolute Towers in Mississauga, Canada, which won an international design competition in 2006 and is scheduled for completion in 2011; Sinosteel International Plaza, Tianjin, China; and the Erdos Museum in Inner Mongolia, China.

Prior to joining MAD in 2006, Dang worked for Perkins Eastman in Pittsburgh and USA Architects in Newark, N.J. She has held teaching positions at Pratt Institute and Iowa State University. Dang’s work has been published in many professional journals, among them, Architectural Digest, Architecture and Culture (China), Architecture and Urbanism (Japan), Architektura i Biznes (Poland), Mark and Space.

Her work also has appeared in numerous exhibitions, most recently, BIG INABA MAD MASS at Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan, South Korea; Christian Dior and Chinese Artists at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; 11th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, Italy; China Design Now at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and On Cities at the Swedish Museum of Architecture, Stockholm.

2009
Todd Piper-Hauswirth
BFA 1991 Graphic Design
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Todd Piper-Hauswirth is an associate partner and director of the Minneapolis office of VSA Partners, which counts 20 of Fortune’s “50 Most Admired Companies” as clients. He is involved in the creative direction and development of the firm’s growing portfolio focused on brand identity and packaging design. A diverse roster of clients includes Best Buy, Nike, Target, IBM, Cargill, GE, Converse and Coca-Cola.

Prior to opening VSA Minneapolis, Piper-Hauswirth was a senior designer with Hard Werken Design in the Netherlands and spent 13 years as partner and creative director of the CSA Design Co., named “One of the Top Ten Most Influential Design Firms” by Graphis in 1995. While he was at CSA, the firm was also included in the Cooper-Hewitt 2nd National Design Triennial.

In 16 years, Piper-Hauswirth has earned more than 200 awards from such publications and exhibitions as Ad Week, AIGA, Communication Arts, Graphis, HOW, ID, Print, STA100, The One Show, Type Directors Club, Museum of Modern Art, the Cooper-Hewitt, National  Design Museum, Institute of Contemporary Arts – London, and the Library of Congress Permanent Collection.

Piper-Hauswirth and his wife, Cory Piper-Hauswirth (BS 1993 Journalism and Mass Communication), have two daughters, Paige and Kit.

2009
Lynn M. Ross
BS 1999 Community and Regional Planning
Silver Spring, Maryland

Lynn M. Ross, AICP, has been the director of state and local initiatives for the National Housing Conference and the Center for Housing Policy in Washington, D.C., since 2007. She is responsible for developing and executing these organizations’ education, outreach and technical assistance strategies aimed at strengthening state and local housing policies. Among her recent accomplishments, Ross organized the Solutions for Working Families: 2009 Learning Conference on State and Local Housing Policy, which was attended by over 400 leaders from across the nation in Chicago in June.

Ross previously was the manager of the American Planning Association’s (APA) Planning Advisory Service in Chicago, where she oversaw a staff of seven planners and support personnel charged with providing customized planning research to over 1,200 planning agencies, consultants and educational institutions. While with the APA, Ross also was the assistant editor of Planning and Urban Design Standards (John Wiley and Sons, 2006), a comprehensive reference book used throughout the U.S. Ross began her career as an associate with Savannah, Ga.-based Henry Moore Building Communities, Inc., where she focused on neighborhood planning, citizen engagement and program evaluation.

Ross received a Master of Regional Planning degree from Cornell University in 2001. She is a member of the APA and the American Institute of Certified Planners, and serves on the ISU Department of Community and Regional Planning’s Planning Advisory Council. She is a life member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2009
Curtis B. Schreiber
BFA 199, Graphic Design
Chicago, Illinois

Curt Schreiber is vice president and director of the Chicago-based design agency VSA Partners, Inc. Since 1991, Schreiber has been instrumental in growing the company from a small office of 15 to a cross-disciplinary firm of 120 creative professionals. His annual report work throughout the 1990s helped to re-imagine the field of corporate communications. Schreiber continues to shape the firm’s long-term strategy while providing creative leadership and managing daily business in Chicago and New York.

Schreiber currently guides VSA’s work for such clients as IBM, Cole Haan and Nike, providing solutions that range from brand strategy and identity to product packaging, corporate communications and digital programs. Notable past client relationships include Chicago Board of Trade, Coca-Cola, Converse, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Harley-Davidson, Target and Time Warner.

Schreiber’s work has been recognized by more than 200 international design and communications organizations, publications and competitions, and is included in the permanent collection of the U.S. Library of Congress. He was a 2004 nominee for the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards.

Schreiber is a member of the Museum of Contemporary Art and The Art Institute of Chicago, as well as the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). He is a member of the ISU Alumni Association. He and his wife, Martha, have four children: Catherine, Margaret, Elizabeth and William.

2008
Richard Clark
MCP 1979 Community and Regional Planning
Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines City Manager Richard Clark supervises all city departments and staff, serves as the primary adviser to the city council, and prepares the operating and capital improvements budgets for final approval. He also works on state and federal legislative issues, meets with citizens and neighborhood organizations, directs major economic development initiatives, and is the chief negotiator for city government.

Clark began his career in 1973 and held a number of positions in the city manager’s office and the planning department before being appointed acting city manager in July 2005. Along the way he has recorded a long list of successes. Clark is responsible for all economic development activity, including the rejuvenation of the downtown, which is experiencing about $2.9 billion in new public and private construction. He has helped Des Moines achieve a Triple A Bond Rating and managed large-scale natural disasters affecting the city, including the floods of 1993 and 2008.

Clark has two daughters, Laura (Clark) Gibson (BS 2003 Child, Adult and Family Services) and Lindsay Clark.

2008
Keven Graham
BLA 1989 Landscape Architecture
Wheaton, Illinois

Keven Graham is a licensed landscape architect and managing principal with Planning Resources Inc. in Wheaton. His experience includes land planning/development, site planning, downtown revitalization, open space master planning and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) application design and consulting. His work has been recognized by the national and Illinois chapters of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) as well as the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago.

Graham’s commitment to sustainability and the profession of landscape architecture expands into the community. A past president of the Illinois ASLA, he is a member and one of six founding officers of the ASLA Sustainable Design and Development Professional Practice Network. He is also a member of the U.S. Green Building Council, the Illinois Park and Recreation Association Environmental Committee, and served on the Chicago Green Urban Design task force.
Graham and his wife, Jennifer, have two children, Margaret and Jack. He says that in raising two great kids, he is reminded every day about being a good steward to our land, and enjoys that fact that they know so much about sustainability at such a young age. Graham believes the mark he will leave will be their understanding and respect for our world.

2008
Kevin Nordmeyer
BA 1987 Architecture
MAR 1990 Architecture
Des Moines, Iowa

A partner at RDG Planning and Design in Des Moines, Kevin Nordmeyer is currently involved with a number of significant sustainable design projects in the area, including the College of Design’s King Pavilion. Nordmeyer was also the lead designer for the University of Northern Iowa’s Center for Energy and Environmental Education, the first modern sustainable building in Iowa. His work has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects’ Top Ten Green Projects, and he was named one of the Des Moines Business Record’s 40 under 40.

Nordmeyer is a lecturer in the department of architecture and a former member of the department’s advisory council. Students in his spring 2008 studio planned, designed and documented a new village for Child Voice International in northern Uganda. Nordmeyer is a member of ISU’s Center for Excellence in Arts and Humanities advisory board, the U.S. Green Building Council – Iowa Chapter, and the Iowa Environmental Council.

Nordmeyer recalls spending long hours with friends in the College of Design, not always getting much work done because they spent more time playing games like miniature golf in the building. Nordmeyer proposed to his wife, Beth, under the Campanile in 1986. They have three sons, Ben, Sam and Tom.

2008
Jason Schulte
BFA 1995 Graphic Design
San Francisco, California

Jason Schulte is the principal and creative director of Office in San Francisco. Since founding the company in 2003, Schulte has created differentiated work for brands like adidas Golf, Apple, Coca-Cola, Levi’s and Target. He previously was an art director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and design director at TBWAChiatDay San Francisco. He started his career at the Charles S. Anderson Design Company in Minneapolis.

Schulte’s work has been recognized by nearly every major graphic design competition and publication. In 2007, Fast Company magazine’s Masters of Design issue featured him as one of the ‘fourteen talents who are driving design forward.”  He was also named one of the top 20 visual artists under the age of 30 by Print magazine in 2000.

While a student at ISU, Schulte met his wife and business partner, Jill Robertson (BA 1996 Journalism and Mass Communication), in the Veishea office at the Memorial Union. He says he used his design skills to woo her as she struggled to design a flyer for the festivities.

2007
Brian Clark
BLA 1987 Landscape Architecture
Des Moines, Iowa

As senior principal and president of Brian Clark & Associates in Des Moines, award-winning landscape architect Brian Clark brings a vision both inspiring and astute to each project he oversees as well as to the firm at large. Notable projects include design and planning for the Wells Fargo Homebase and West Des Moines Campus; H&R Block World Headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri; numerous university facilities (among them, University of Iowa College of Public Health, Arts Campus Master Plan and Kinnick Stadium Renovations; Iowa State University Veterinary Medicine Campus Expansion and Engineering Campus Master Plan); as well as streetscapes, civic spaces, mixed-use communities, and parks and recreational amenities throughout central and eastern Iowa.

Clark is the first landscape architect to be appointed to the City of Des Moines Urban Design Review Board, where he has served as chairman. He also serves on the boards of directors of the Des Moines Arts Festival and the Polk County Housing Trust Fund. In 2000, Clark was honored as a member of the inaugural “Des Moines 40 under 40,” recognizing the top 40 community leaders under the age of 40.

Clark has been an adjunct professor, visiting critic and guest lecturer for the Iowa State University Department of Landscape Architecture.

Clark’s wife, Ann Reinhart, also an accomplished landscape architect, received her BLA in landscape architecture from Iowa State in 1992. They have three children: Nate, Natalie and Ben.

2006
Kate Schwennsen
BA 1978 Architecture
MA 1980 Architecture
Des Moines, Iowa

Kate Schwennsen is the second woman, second Iowan and second educator to serve as president of the 149-year-old, 77,000-member American Institute of Architects (AIA). She is also an associate professor of architecture and the associate dean for academic programs in the College of Design at Iowa State University.
In her highly visible role as AIA president, as well as in other important leadership positions in international, national, regional and state professional, civic and regulatory organizations, Schwennsen has worked to advance the architecture profession by bringing together students, educators, interns and practitioners to collaborate and learn from one another.

Schwennsen’s scholarship focuses on the evolution of the architecture profession and the relationship between
practice and education, and has been presented and published internationally. Before returning to Iowa State to teach full time in 1991, she practiced for 10 years in professionally critical areas, including office and project management, marketing and design.

Schwennsen is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council, and an Honorary Member of both the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. She was awarded the Presidential Medal by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards and the Medal of Honor by the Iowa Chapter of the AIA.

Kate’s husband, Barry Jones, also an architect, received his BA in architecture from Iowa State in 1972. Their
daughters, Megan and Anna, are current Iowa State University students.

2005
Scott P. Murphy
BAR 1988 Architecture
New York City, New York

Scott P. Murphy began his career in architecture working for world-renowned architects Richard Meier & Partners and Frank O. Gehry & Associates as well as the award-winning Des Moines firm Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck. He then moved on to international theme-park design and found his way to Hollywood, first in television set design and then in art direction for more than 20 popular feature films, including most notably Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, The Sixth Sense, Signs, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Lolita and Men in Black.

Between film projects, Murphy has served as art director for four seasons of HBO’s critically acclaimed series The Sopranos. His work on The Sopranos has received three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Art Direction. In 2004, he was the senior visual director for jewelry designer David Yurman. Currently he is the production designer of the NBC prime-time series Surface.

Murphy is also a member of the College of Design’s Architecture Advisory Council.

2005
Jen Yen
MFA 1993 Graphic Design
PhD 1995 Industrial Education and Technology
Touliu, Yunlin, Taiwan ROC

Dr. Jen Yen is an associate professor in the Department of Visual Communication Design and head of the Graduate School of Computational Design and Department of Digital Media Design, all at National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, ROC. She has received more than 15 government grants for her research on semiotics and design education, and published 45 papers in journals and conference proceedings. She recently developed a brand identity system, marketing promotion projects, and exhibition and packaging designs for two new theme buildings at Janfusun Fancy World, one of Taiwan’s top amusement parks, and is currently working with Nice Corporation on content for an interactive virtual reality game.

Dr. Yen also established an annual fine arts festival in Yunlin County and has developed a new course on Chinese typography, the first to be offered in Taiwan.

2005
Lois E. Bennett
BS 1974 Interior Design
Bowie, Maryland

Lois Bennett is the senior expert in interior design for the National Capital Region of the US General Services Administration. She has worked on many noteworthy government projects, including offices for former President George H. W. Bush in Houston, and office space for Vice President Al Gore’s National Partnership for Reinventing Government. Bennett co-managed the development and occupancy of the Adaptable Workplace Laboratory at GSA’s headquarters, which is an occupied, working platform for research studies on flexible building systems infrastructure, organizational change, and workplace productivity.

Bennett’s current work focuses on long-range strategic workplace planning for GSA’s customer agencies “mainly new federal buildings and major renovations. Her expertise in high-performance sustainable workplace environments, including raised floor and underfloor air, ensures that many of these projects will be on the cutting edge of design. She is also a key player in the development of GSA’s Workplace 2020 process and workplace research program.

Bennett’s projects and expertise have been published in Buildings Magazine, Archi-Tech Magazine, and Interiors Magazine. She was president of the Council of Federal Interior Designers (CFID) from 1990 to 1992 and oversaw CFID’s merger with two other design associations to form the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) in 1994. More recently, Bennett served several years on the Interior Design Advisory Board for Iowa State’s College of Design.

2004
Michelle L. Kaufmann
BAR 1993 Architecture
Sausalito, California

Michelle Kaufmann is the principal of mkarchitecture, specializing in residential and commercial projects including health and wellness facilities, restaurants and nightclubs. Prior to founding her own firm in 2003, Kaufmann served as the project architect for a range of international projects in association with Frank O. Gehry + Associates and Michael Graves Architects.

Kaufmann’s new “Glidehouse” design”an environmentally friendly, efficient and affordable modern, modular home”was featured in the August issue of Sunset Magazine. Other work by mkarchitecture has appeared on HGTV and in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Inc., Money, Time, Atomic Ranch, Paper, Prefab Modern (Jill Herbers/HarperCollins), The Green House (Christopher Hawthorne/Princeton Architectural Press), and The Fit Home (HarperCollins).

Kaufmann received her Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University in 1997. She was a member of the ISU Architecture Advisory Council from 1996 to 1998.

2004
Mark D. Masteller
BS 1978 Landscape Architecture
Ames, Iowa

As chief landscape architect for the Iowa Department of Transportation, Mark Masteller heads the Roadside Development Section of the DOT’s Office of Design. Masteller’s notable recent achievements include overseeing the designs of the state’s new interstate rest area buildings, and sharing oversight for the Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning Program and Projects Program.

The interstate rest buildings have won several awards, including from the Iowa Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Council of Engineering Companies of Iowa. The Living Roadways programs involve a unique public-private partnership between the DOT, FHWA, Trees Forever, and the Iowa State University department of landscape architecture that provides planning and design assistance to small Iowa communities, as well as funding for projects. They won 2003 Federal Highway Administration Awards for Environmental Excellence in the Livable Communities category.

Masteller and his staff are working to convert Iowa’s older roadsides from non-native plants to native prairie species. His office coordinates the conversion of several thousand acres each year under this effort to change the face of Iowa to the traveling public.
Masteller is a lifetime member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2004
Travis Parker
BS 1998 Community and Regional Planning
Arlington, Virginia

Travis Parker is a development specialist and zoning expert in the District of Columbia Office of Planning, where he works with interdisciplinary government committees creating plans for the neighborhoods, public resources, and transportation systems of the nation’s capital. He is his department’s representative to the federal government’s White House Area Transportation Plan as well as the DC Convention Center Area Strategic Plan and Uptown Destination District Plan.

Parker’s background includes diverse geographical and political planning environments ranging from small-town Newton, Iowa, through South Bend, Indiana, to the rapid-growth suburban environment of Loudoun County, Virginia. His past work has included participation in three major comprehensive planning efforts, and he is responsible for significant zoning code changes in Loudoun County and South Bend.

Parker is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and the American Planning Association. He has a Master of Public Administration degree from George Washington University.

2003
Spencer E. Crews
BS 1980 Landscape Architecture
Omaha, Nebraska

Spencer Crews, executive director of Lauritzen Gardens, has led the transition of Omaha’s botanical center from a small, volunteer-based project, to a multifaceted, revenue-generating facility.  He was instrumental in a successful $17 million campaign that resulted in the completion of the gardens’ beautiful Visitor Center and ongoing development. Crews has more than 25 years of garden experience, specializing in landscape architecture, horticulture, and botanical garden management.

Crews served as chairman of the department of horticulture for East Central College, Union, Missouri, and as manager of horticulture at Powell Gardens near Kansas City. Other botanical garden experience includes Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania and Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.
He is an annual member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2003
Larry D. Hulse
BS 1977 Urban Planning
Des Moines, Iowa

Larry Hulse, director of the Des Moines Community Development Department,  is a certified planner with more than 25 years of experience in regional planning, urban development, revitalization, redevelopment, and growth management. Prior to coming to Des Moines in 2000, he held positions in planning in Marshalltown; Manhattan, Kansas; and Westminster, Colorado.

Throughout his distinguished career, Hulse has demonstrated a commitment to urban design standards that foster controlled growth while increasing residents’ quality of life and improving construction standards. He has a Master of Public Administration degree from Kansas State University, and is a member of the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Hulse is a lifetime member of the ISU Alumni Association.

2003
Melanie Parks
BA 1981 Craft Design
Des Moines, Iowa

Mel Parks, the owner of Elements, Ltd., a jewelry studio and gallery in Des Moines, both designs custom jewelry and promotes the work of many other talented metalsmiths. Her own work has appeared in numerous national and regional exhibitions, and she is a member of the Iowa Designer Crafts Association and the Society of North American Goldsmiths.

Parks is also a freelance photo stylist with more than 20 years of experience working in print, film and video. Clients have included Jenn-Air, Maytag, Meredith Corporation, Pella Windows and Winnebago.

2003
Bryce D. Pearsall
BAR 1971 Architecture
Phoenix, Arizona

Bryce Pearsall, managing principal in the DLR Group, exhibits diverse professional leadership that covers the broad spectrum of team management, design, and project leadership.  He has helped the DLR Group organization become one of the largest and most successful architectural and engineering firms in the country, with offices throughout the United States. In recent years, the firm has received numerous national, state and local awards.

Pearsall has an extensive background in a range of project types, including public, commercial, institutional and educational. His project leadership and design work have been published in national and international professional publications, including Architectural Record, Architecture Magazine, American School and University, Architekt + Wettbewerbe (Stuttgart, Germany), L’Industria Delle Construzioni (Rome, Italy), and Progressive Architecture. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, vice chairman of the National AIA Large Firm Roundtable, former chairman of the ISU Architecture Advisory Council, and a member of the ISU College of Design Dean’s Council.

Pearsall is a lifetime member of the ISU Alumni Association and Order of The Knoll.

2002
Leslie T. Beck
BS 1978 Landscape Architecture
MCRP 1999 Community and Regional Planning
Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Les Beck has devoted his professional life to improving environmentally based land-use planning in Iowa.

He currently serves as director of Linn County Planning and Development in Cedar Rapids, where he has helped develop and implement the Linn County Rural Land Use Plan and Interim Development Ordinance. These establish a tiered growth management system that requires joint city/county fringe-area planning and minimum levels of services to be provided concurrent with new development.

Among many other duties as director of Story County Planning and Zoning in Nevada, a position he held from September 1983 to October 2000, Beck chaired the Mapping and Policy Support (MAPS) Committee and managed GIS development for Story County. The MAPS program was a winner of ESRI’s Special Achievement in GIS Award for 2000.

He has served as the president of the Iowa Chapter of the American Planning Association and president of the Eastern Iowa Planning and Zoning Officials Association

2002
Graham Hanson
BFA 1989 Graphic Design
New York City, New York

Graham Hanson is the principal of Graham Hanson Design LLC in New York, a firm specializing in comprehensive identity creation, implementation, and management across all media. He is also a faculty member and thesis adviser in the graduate design communications program at Pratt Institute, and teaches a multidisciplinary senior-level seminar in the Parsons School of Design undergraduate program. He previously was at Vignelli Associates in New York.

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