03.08.23

Orange County Announces 2023 Emerging Leaders Program

In alignment with IIDA’s mission to advance the commercial interior design profession through connecting and cultivating relationships and knowledge, the Southern California Chapter launched the Emerging Leaders Program in 2020. This program has been a huge success in both San Diego and Los Angeles City Centers, so we are thrilled to announce that 2023 marks Orange County’s inaugural year, which is successfully underway!

Our Emerging Leaders (EL) Program currently consists of 12 talented emerging designers in Orange County. The goal of the program is to provide specific, intensive workshops geared towards emerging design leaders who are growing from “doing” tasks to “leading” in their firms and the industry. To be considered for the program, prospective ELs were required to submit applications that were endorsed by their managers, which were then reviewed by the EL Committee.

The program consists of a 11-month curriculum with workshops taught by subject matter experts, focusing on a new topic each month. Each once-a-month workshop is one and a half to two hours in length and is held at 6pm on the third Wednesday of each month. Workshops focus on building skills such as relationship building, presentation and leadership skills and business knowledge. The program will conclude with a graduation event in December. Following their program completion, the Emerging Leaders have committed to joining an IIDA OC City Center Committee in 2024 to continue supporting and promoting the organization.

We are honored to present our OC 2023 class of Emerging Leaders!

Ashley Eckenrod
Casco Design Studio

Denice Godinez
One Nine Architecture

Evelyn Ayala
PAL id Studio

Grace Hertel
CDL Design Group

Haley Austin
Hattox Design Group

Haylee Ahola
HPI Architecture

Heejae Moon
Ware Malcomb

Jennifer Fong
Gensler

Katie Graham
PeopleSpace

Maggie Stickley
Gensler

Monique Swihart
HPI Architecture

Sahar Abbasnia
Ware Malcomb

If you are interested in getting involved, we have sponsorship opportunities available that you can view here.

If you have any questions about the OC EL Program, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Co-Directors: Elise Ozawa, [email protected] and Jackie Zaccagna, [email protected].