2019 Leaders Breakfast

The IIDA Leaders Breakfast is an annual international event series that celebrates design’s importance in the global market place by honoring the people who are both the legacy and future of design. Each chosen host city organizes a breakfast that features a renowned keynote speaker to provoke and encourage new ideas, and recognizes one city-selected honoree who has made significant contributions to the design industry. See the event flyer: LB2019_Flyer_190716

We’re excited to announce that Majora Carter, Real Estate Developer was our Keynote Speaker at last year’s Leaders Breakfast. Majora Carter is an American urban revitalization strategist and public radio host from the South Bronx area of New York. Carter’s career has spanned environment, economy, social mobility, and real estate development, and she has won major awards in each sector including a MacArthur “Genius Grant,” a Peabody Award, the Rudy Bruner Award Silver Medal, nine honorary Ph.D.’s, and accolades from various professional groups. Her consulting clients benefit from her ability to disrupt outdated assumptions in order to uncover better solutions to vexing problems in any industry she touches. Carter is quoted on the walls of the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture: “Nobody should have to move out of their neighborhood to live in a better one.” She applies this talent-retention lens to all of her work.

Humble Design is a 501(c)3 non-profit serving families and individuals emerging from homelessness by transforming their empty houses into beautiful and uplifting homes with donated furniture. With the organization’s help, only 1% of families return to homelessness within 12 months. Humble was co-founded by San Diego native Treger Strasberg while she was living in Detroit in 2009. After witnessing the impact of Humble Design, Treger and her husband Rob Strasberg became its CEOs and decided it would be their legacy. Humble Design operates in Detroit, Chicago, Seattle, and San Diego and has furnished over 1,250 homes nationwide. In 2019, Humble filmed the documented series “Welcome Home,” which was nominated for a Daytime Emmy. Treger and Rob currently reside in San Diego with their children and are driven by their mission of helping recently homeless families across the country.