Please join us Wednesday, September 27, 2023 at 5pm for a workshop, Recruiting & Retaining a Diverse Workforce: Exploring Barriers & Strategies.
This workshop is designed to examine potential barriers with hiring and keeping a diverse workforce in architecture and design firms. This class will be taught by Dawn Mayes, Director of Design Entrepreneurship and Inclusion at Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC).
The workshop is a collaboration between the CUDC and the Cleveland AIA. It’s an in-person only event, but it will be recorded and posted to the CUDC’s website if you can’t make it on September 27.
Learning Objectives:
Attendees will identify and learn about different barriers which limit diverse candidates from applying or being interviewed at potential firms.
Attendees will learn about potential hiring practices that can increase the pool of diverse candidates applying for jobs at their firms.
Attendees will explore ways that strategic partnerships can increase visibility with more diverse candidates wanting to work at their firms.
Attendees will learn how to create a recruitment infrastructure within their firms that promote diversity equity and inclusion beyond the hire date within their firms.
Doors open at 5:00 for networking and program begins at 5:30 pm. Refreshments will be served.
Cost: Free
1 LU CEU
Dawn Mayes, Director of Design Entrepreneurship & Inclusion at the CUDC
Dawn N. Mayes is the Director of Design Entrepreneurship and Inclusion at Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative. Her role includes creating viable pipelines for HBCU students to attend graduate school, providing technical assistance to startup architecture and design firms, and organizing lectures and programs that raise awareness about design entrepreneurship and diversity.
Some of Dawn’s past roles include serving as the Senior Program Manager for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at APB Associates. In this role, Dawn led efforts related to the renovations of Progressive Field, as well as being apart of the owner’s rep team for the Cleveland Guardians. This role included creating a pipeline of minority businesses ready to bid on construction projects; creating capacity building workshops to assist with efficiency, scaling, and basic business necessities. 150 small businesses participated in her workshop series.
As a serial entrepreneur, Dawn shares one of her natural born talents to promote healing communities. Her company, Designs by Danico is her online store that sells her original artwork on canvas. Her tagline: Healing People and Places Through Art allows her creative space to empower her audience. Her original works include intentional color selections, the use of symbolism, and Reiki to share messages of self-healing, self-care and empowerment.
Dawn grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. She is an Army veteran, an artist, an entrepreneur, a proud Florida A & M University graduate, where she received her Bachelors of Architectural Studies, and an alumna of Kent State University where she received her Masters in Architecture with a Certificate in Urban Design. In early 2022, she was also awarded an Artist Residency for Karamu House’s Resident in the House program. She is a graduate from Case Western Reserve University’s Executive Leadership Development Experience which is the inaugural cohort of Black and Brown leaders exclusively. She is a charter member of the Greater Cleveland Chapter of FAMU National Alumni Association and serves as the chapter President.