Women in Construction Panel Discussion

Women Leading Speaker Series: Women in Construction Panel Discussion

AIALA Committee: Women in Architecture

This is a virtual event. Zoom log-in information will be emailed to registrants 24 hours in advance from events@aialosangeles.org. If you do not receive a confirmation 24 hours prior to the event, please email events@aialosangeles.org. This event will not be recorded.

Women in Construction is part of the AIALA WiA’s Women Leading Speaker Series. The series offers a safe space for the WiA community to have open conversations, build knowledge and provide continuous encouragement. This month’s focus is around architecture and construction, where panelists share experiences and advice from both perspectives and industries. Participants will have the opportunity to provide questions when registering for the event for panelists to answer.

Speakers:

Alison Dorsey, Chief Construction Officer, Flyfisher Group
Alison Dorsey is currently the Chief Construction Officer of The Flyfisher Group. She manages and directs construction projects with tactical transparency, while expediting construction and design progress for the projects. As a native New Yorker and recent Los Angeles transplant to Colorado, Alison has worked in both Commercial and Residential Construction for nearly two decades. Her journey has taken her from building schools for Los Angeles Unified School District with Pinner Construction to high end ultra-luxury homes with Finton Construction, Kambur Construction and Jones Builders Group; serving Beverly Hills, Beverly Park, Bel Air, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, and Malibu communities. In 2019, Alison was the recipient of the New Black Business Leaders award presented by the Denver Metro Black Chamber of Commerce. She is also a member of the Five Points Development team in the Historical Denver area. She is a member of the 9 Percent Group, and Chairperson for God Cares Inc. in Los Angeles, California. Alison believes the most important element in leadership is identifying each team member’s talent for optimum performance. She loves traveling, the arts, interior design and people. These things motivate her to strive professionally and personally each day.

Carol Lanham, AIA, Assoc. DBIA, CCM – Civic Principal, Lionakis
Carol Lanham has over 35 years of experience working in the A/E/C industry specializing in civic projects for county, state and federal agencies. She spent 5 of those years working for the Federal Court as the circuit architect for the Eighth Circuit, US Courts representing federal court agencies on capital construction projects. As an architect, senior project manager and market sector leader, Carol has managed large teams in the development of needs assessments, programming, design and construction documents on numerous multi-million dollar government, courthouse, jail and civic projects across the nation.

Carol has a BArch degree from the University of Oklahoma and recently joined Lionakis in the Newport Beach office. She is Director of Mentorship for AWA+D, vice chair of the AIA LA GO! Committee, member of the national AIA AAJ Technology Committee and has been a UL Fire Council member for 15 years. She believes in highly collaborative, interactive teams, gets really jazzed talking about mentorship and staff development and believes actively participating in professional organizations is the best way to contribute to the betterment of our industry.

Jennifer Swedell, AIA, Associate Principal, CO Architects
Jennifer Swedell is a licensed laboratory planner and designer with over 15 years of experience. Just days after graduating from college, she went to work in an underground particle physics lab deep below an iron ore mineshaft. That project, a smaller-scale cousin of Fermilab and CERN, set the foundation for her career in laboratory design. For over a decade she has worked with university, college, private industry, and government clients to create innovative, functional laboratory environments for learning, research, and development. Since joining CO Architects in 2013, Jennifer has provided laboratory planning for several projects at schools and universities across the US. In her spare time she melts steel, pedals to the farmer’s market and counts electrons. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Minnesota.

Moderators:

Schumetta McLendon, Assoc. AIA, Founder + Principal, Schumetta, Inc.
AIALA Women in Architecture Committee Vice Co-Chair
Schumetta McLendon is the Founder and Principal of Schumetta, Inc. She began her design career as a Project Manager at Burdge Architects and went on to work with Scott Halley & Associates Construction to gain hands on experience in the field. Her company specializes in high end residential design and partners with developers and real estate professionals to bring their experience with luxury residential projects to the affordable housing market. Prior to working in architecture, Schumetta enjoyed a successful career in film and television, including corporate alliances, casting and production at The Walt Disney Company. Schumetta is an avid international football fan, following the Premier League and Champions League.

Jennifer Noel Wong, AIA, Associate, CO Architects
AIALA Women in Architecture Committee Co-Chair
Jennifer Noel Wong, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, has been with CO Architects since 2018 with the firm’s education group and brings a thoughtful and methodical approach to each project. She possesses a unique skillset and a strong emotional intelligence, which has earned her the complete trust of her clients, team and consultants. She has experience working on both renovations and new construction for a wide range of project types, including K-12 and higher education, civic and retail projects. In her free time, she teaches after-school design workshops in her community.