Wednesday, January 8
Dan Stine
Dan is the Director of Design Technology and leads the internal research program, Investigations, at the top-ranked architecture firm Lake|Flato, in San Antonio, Texas. He is a registered architect (WI), educator, author, blogger, and international speaker. In addition to teaching graduate architecture students at NDSU, he has written 19 textbooks, including the #1 Revit book in North America, which is used extensively in the academic market.Committed to climate action, Dan was on a six-person team commissioned by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to write the AIA Climate Action Business Playbook. He also serves on the national AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Leadership Group and subcommittee, Climate Action|Climate Justice. He is the chair of a national Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) committee.
Thursday, January 9
Shaun Donovan
Shaun Donovan is the CEO and President of Enterprise Community Partners. One of the nation’s foremost leaders in housing and community development, Donovan’s 30-year career in public service has focused on building opportunity and fighting for people and communities too often left behind.
He served in President Barack Obama’s cabinet for his full eight years in office, as secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from 2009 to 2014 and as director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget from 2014 to 2017. He was commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development from 2004 to 2009.
As HUD secretary, Donovan led the fight against the nation’s unprecedented foreclosure crisis and served as chair of the president’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. He also advanced landmark fair housing protections and led the strategy that dramatically reduced homelessness around the country, including cutting in half the number of veterans sleeping on our streets and in shelters.
Friday, January 10
Miguel Rivera
Miguel Rivera, FAIA, LEED AP was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture. He earned his Master of Architecture from Columbia University, in New York.
Miguel was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in 2014, and in 2005 he received the AIA National Young Architect Award. Miguel is an active member of the American Institute of Architects and the Texas Society of Architects. He has served as chair for the AIA New York City design awards committee, a juror for AIA design awards in Colorado, Chicago and Alabama and as a juror for the Bi-Annual design awards for the Colegio de Arquitectos of Puerto Rico. Miguel is licensed in Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico.
Miguel has lectured at The Universities of Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, Veracruz, Tennessee, Buffalo, Louisiana, Munich and UNAM in Mexico. His work has been published in several books and numerous publications including Architectural Record and the New York Times and has been exhibited in Berlin, Venice Architectural Biennale and at the Hostos Art Gallery in New York City.
Before forming Miró Rivera Architects with Juan Miró in 2000, Miguel was an associate at Mitchell/Giurgola Architects in New York City (1991-2000), where he was involved in several award-winning large-scale, institutional projects.
Saturday, January 11
Michael Bennet
Michael Bennett is a spatial designer, artist, and cultural thinker whose work explores the intersections of identity, history, and the built environment. Moving fluidly between architecture, sculpture, and furniture design, Bennett draws deeply from the traditions, forms, and languages of the African diaspora, creating works that resonate with collective memory and cultural lineage. His practice transforms abstraction into tangible spaces and objects, inviting contemplation and communion while challenging dominant narratives of space and design.At the heart of Bennett’s work is a commitment to storytelling and ancestral reverence. His creations serve as monuments to resilience, sites of reflection, and vessels for cultural exchange. Through an iterative process that reinterprets historical and contemporary materials, Bennett crafts spaces that honor memory and provoke dialogue—spaces that live, breathe, and hold the spirit of community. His work pushes beyond disciplines, presenting design as both a physical and spiritual act, capable of evoking intimacy, resistance, and transformation.In addition to his design practice, Michael Bennett is an activist, bestselling author (Things That Make White People Uncomfortable), and philanthropist. He has established endowments for students from low-income backgrounds pursuing creative arts degrees at the Rhode Island School of Design and provides grants to organizations such as the Rebuild Foundation, MASS Design Group, Humble Design, Freedmen’s Town Conservancy, Black Folks in Design, and One Love Community Fridge. Through these efforts, Bennett amplifies voices, preserves cultural integrity, and fosters opportunities for future generations.
