Vera Dusaj.: A. 50818 Justin Dr, Macomb, MI 48044 .:. E. dusajvera@gmail.com .:. P. 586.610.6389 :.

.: Profile :. | Natural Leader With Strong Management Skills | Captivating Public Speaker And A Confident Presenter | Quick Thinker With The Ability To Work In High-Pressure Situations | Proficient Writer With Excellent Communication Skills | Passionate And Ambitious Entrepreneurial Designer

.: Professional Experience :. Badrak Design Group, Inc. (2015-Present) | Designer | Creative control over projects, working in tandem with the firm’s President. | Project development included: schematic design, design development, research, resolution & ordinances, construction document bid set, project specifications, code regulations. Blackstock-Alessandri Associates (2014-’15) | Designer | Creative control over all residential projects, working in tandem with firm’s President. | Project development included: schematic design, design development, research, resolution & ordinances, construction document bid set, mechanical plans, electrical plans, project specifications. | Project contact for clients: communications for project development and client approval, field measurements, site visits, client meetings. | Design work for commercial projects: construction documents, schematic design, design development. Hamilton-Anderson Associates (2014) | Externship | A week long externship working in the office as an employee. | Designed a community open market for an ongoing project in partnership with U-of-M’s externship student. | Client meetings, site visits, office meetings. Dakota High School Girl’s Basketball (2011-’12) | Varsity Girl’s Basketball Assistant Head Coach | One-on-one personal training and development of players, managing practices and games. | Contributed to youth engagement programs and community outreach.

.: Education :. University of Detroit Mercy (2012-Present) | Masters of Architecture (2017) | Fourth Year Undergraduate Student | Volterra, Italy Study Abroad Program | 2015 | - Study Abroad Scholarship - Volterra Design Workshop Scholarship Dakota High School (2007-’11) | High School Diploma | 2nd Place: 2010 MI Industrial & Technology Education Society Group Design Competition

.: Leadership :. University of Detroit Mercy & AIAS UDM | AIAS UDM Executive Committee | President | 2015-Present | | NCARB Member’s Board | IDP Coordinator | 2015-Present | | AIA Detroit Emerging Professionals Committee | Active Member | 2014-Present | | UDM SOA Alumni Council | Student Representative | 2014 - Present | | AIAS UDM | Active Member | 2012-Present | | AIAS UDM Executive Committee | Vice President | 2014-15 | | NOMAS UDM Executive Committee | Vice President | 2014-15 | | AIAS UDM Board | Professional Development Chair | 2013-14 | | UDM SOA | Student Advisory Group Representative | 2012-13 |

.: Involvement :. American Institute of Architects - Detroit | Active Contributor | Serving as a Student Ambassador to our local AIA Chapter, making vital contributions to their programming and engagement with students, professionals, local community and design industry. - Logistics Coordinator | AIA Detroit Celebration of Architecture | 2014-’15 - - Project Coordinator | Back Alley Bikes Design Competition | 2015 - - Project Leader | Licensure FORUM | 2015 - - Volunteer | DesignLAB: People Mover Architecture Conference | 2014 - - Attendee | AIA Convention | 2014 - - Attendee | AIA Michigan Torch Lake Retreat | 2012 - Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) | Active Volunteer | Serving as a Student Representative to the DCDC on behalf of AIAS, we have worked to emphasize and develop a working relationship with the student body; increasing our exposure to the professional world, workplace environment, local communities and businesses through an outreach effort. - Volunteer | Lollo Park Clean-Up | 2015 - - Project Leader & Contributor | Ford College Community Challenge | 2014-’15 Winners - - Design Development Volunteer | UDM SOA Renovations Development | 2015 - - Construction Volunteer | Livernois Community Store Front | 2014 - American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) - Nationals | School Representative | Over the last 3.5 years, I have served as a School Representative at each conference, taking on an important role with each conference, providing energetic and key information to our network of students. Engaging within the conference at all levels, sharing and benefiting from the wealth of knowledge shared between schools and identifying ways to increase membership, fundraise money and board and meetings management. Also, discussing successful ways to plan + development events, programs and ideas. - Elections Committee | AIAS FORUM Conference | 2014 - - Event Contributor | Recruitment Seminar | AIAS Grassroots Conference | 2013 - - Attendee | AIAS FORUM Conference | 2013-’14 - - Attendee | AIAS Grassroots Conference | 2013-’14 - - Attendee | AIAS Mid-West Quad Conference | 2012,’15 - American Institute of Architecture Students - UDM | Active Contributor | As a leader and contributor within AIAS, I have served as an Ambassador developing continual and working relationships with faculty, professionals, alumni and students. With the help of our board, I have initiated the re-branding and restructure of AIAS UDM; revitalized our school store and opened the SOA’s first Cafe. I have been involved in every facet of the organization such as: management, accounting, secretarial work, community outreach, professional development. Most importantly, I have contributed to the development of each new freshman class, welcoming them into the culture that is UDM and assisting individuals with taking on leadership roles within the organization. - Bethune Elementary Mentorship Program | 2015-Present - - Tenure Faculty Search | 2015 - - Beaux Arts Ball | 2012-‘15 - - Intern For A Week | 2014 - - Safety Street | 2012-’15 - - Career Day | 2012-’14 - - Canstruction | 2013 - - Firm Tours, Workshops, Lectures, IDP Seminar, AIAS Study Room, T-Shirt Design Competitions -

.: Skills :. Computer Graphics | SketchUP, AutoCAD 2D Drafting, Revit, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Office Physical | Model Crafting, Hand Rendering, Hand Drafting, Design Research

A Chapter of the American Institute of Architects

Detroit Center of Design and Technology 4219 Woodward Avenue Suite 205 Detroit, MI 48201

November 19th, 2015 Election Committee American Institute of Architecture Students 1735 New York Ave. NW Washington D.C. 20006 To Whom It May Concern, It is my great pleasure to write this recommendation on behalf of Vera Dusaj for the position of AIAS National President. Vera has been a driven and hard-working individual for the nearly four years I have known her, since she began her career at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. In that time, she has repeatedly shown her commitment to AIAS and the development of young designers within the school and organization, making her an ideal candidate for this position with AIAS National. Vera consistently demonstrates leadership and initiative. Beginning with her time serving as the AIAS UDM Professional Development Chair, she immediately reached out to me and other professionals within the local AIA Detroit chapter for potential programming and networking opportunities. Time and time again, Vera has acted as a conduit through which AIAS UDM and AIA Detroit share resources and collaborative efforts. She was responsible for the development of AIA Detroit’s Back Alley Bikes design competition, in which both emerging professionals and students collaborated to reimagine the design of a community anchor for Detroit. Vera is also a key contributor to the Celebration of Architecture, AIA Detroit’s annual awards ceremony and community outreach event. Now the largest annual architecture event in the state, the Celebration brings in an attendance of over 800 industry professionals and 2500 members of the public each year. To host this event requires a massive amount of effort from nearly 150 volunteers. Vera has proven to be a reliable logistics and volunteer captain, recruiting almost 40 student volunteers from the UDM SOA (a school with less than 250 students) and overseeing one of the most crucial logistical areas of the event. Vera possesses the leadership and management skills necessary for this position. She is reliable, incredibly hard-working, passionate, and demonstrates the rare ability to rally and organize others around a cause. She is a future leader for the profession of architecture, and it therefore I highly recommend her for the position of AIAS National President. Best Regards, Lauren Myrand, Associate AIA AIA Detroit Executive Director 313.588.1411 businessmanager@aiadetroit.com

Vera Dusaj

Elections Questionnaire

2015 AIAS FORUM

1. Describe your origin story as a student leader. What prompted you to get involved? What advice

would you give others who have yet to realize their potential for leadership?

I joined AIAS early on as an incoming freshman within the architecture program. I wasn’t aware of the

organization prior to architecture school, but the President and Vice President at the time recruited me to join

AIAS. I loved what the organization stood for; a group of student’s improving the student body and

providing us with the tools to advance our skills and studio culture. The opportunity to get involved within

local communities to collaborate on projects, making a real impact in their community was an extremely

important component that prompted me to get involved. Also networking opportunities, having the

opportunity to meet professionals while still in school, establishing a relationship with them was key. Another

advantage of becoming a member was being able to attend conferences and meeting other students from

across the US.

AIAS is a family; it is a worldwide network of students who are all striving to improve their school and

culture. When talking to new members I see as potential leaders, I try to understand how they view

architecture school, what they want to get out of their architectural education. I want to get to know what

they think is working well or is not working at all. Then, I explain that AIAS is here as a foundation for them

to build upon, we are here for the success of our students, so their thoughts, ideas and visions can be heard

and come to life. I let them know that they have already taken the first step as a leader, taking the initiative to

get involved and they are never alone. We as a board and a Chapter are here to support them and help them

grow into an established leader; noting we have to put in the work and effort in together.

2. In recent years, the AIAS has increased its efforts in advocacy for architecture students on issues

including but not limited to student loan debt, studio culture, intern development, leadership,

technology, and diversity. What one issue do you personally find the most important? How would

you make progress on this issue as an elected leader on the AIAS National Board of Directors?

The issue I find most important is intern development; it is the most complex; housing all of the core

fundamentals, skills and issues at hand. If I were elected as a leader on the AIAS National Board of Directors

as President, I would first start with gathering a concrete idea of how we as a whole identify intern

development outside of IDP. For me, it needs to be more than a program to log work experience hours. The

program needs to start in the early stages of our architectural education, demonstrating and exposing our

students to the professional work place, its culture, addressing how to assert oneself in the workplace as a

leader and touch upon the technology primarily being used. To make progress, the initiative needs to start at a

local level and on a national level, providing our students with the necessary exposure and tools to have a

successful internship or externship. With this, we strengthened our relationship with the professional world;

establishing a strong working relationship that benefits us both. Lastly, on a political level I would fight to

remove the 6 month recording period; it is extremely unfair to our student to limit and put a cap on their

performed work experience.

3. The AIAS has over 160 chapters across the U.S. and around the world, ranging in size from just a

few students to hundreds. How would you use your position on the Board to better connect and

engage our geographically and culturally diverse membership? What resources would you propose to

better serve Chapter leaders seeking to grow their chapters and connect to other students around the

world?

The first step in engaging ourselves better geographically and culturally is to start at the Quad level. It is

imperative each Quad has a strong identity and interrelationship outside of Quad Conferences. Starting with

each Quad and Quad Director; we would work to establish a source of information and communicational

system to interact with each other. This way, we can collectively discuss mutual events and interests amongst

each other, opening the door in coming together as one to collaborate on architectural projects or sporting

events, potentially creating an intermural league within each Quad. As national leaders we need to reach out

much more and make our presents felt amount schools, even if it is a simple email a semester.

To better grow and connect with each other, we need to strive to develop a simple informational system.

Students are extremely busy, we can expect them to constantly reach out to other schools or try and source

information themselves. With the new website, we can create a central hub tab, providing each school’s

information, but taking it one step further, we divide this collective page into sections based upon the

information or help needed; fundraising, recruitment, community engagement, freedom by design or

professional development. In this central page, each school can upload their event or program to the

respective category for all of us to see. They can provide us with all the primitive information and

documentation to expand on that idea to fit our own Chapter. Social Media is huge; we must continue

communicating on this level, sharing and spreading ideas.

4. Describe one area in which you see an untapped opportunity for the AIAS to engage in a new

way, either with other organizations (ASLA, AIGA, etc), with school faculty and administrators,

with the profession, or with the international design community.

We hurt ourselves with the lack of collaboration and engagement outside of AIAS. An untapped resource we

need to explore outside of architecture is with design community in general. I would love to see our students

work with fashion designers, film majors, interior designers and even engineers. Collaboration is the most

important thing to becoming successful; interdisciplinary collaboration is at the top. Our discipline shares so

many similarities in terms of design process, theory and production. The greatest opportunity to achieve this

level of collaboration must begin on a National level first. At FORUM for example, we have the opportunity

to work with fashion majors to host our own fashion show, bringing exposure to both fields. We introduce

the film/production majors as an additive resource, demonstrating how to tell a story visually and graphically

through a variety of artistic Medias. Potential engagement with interior designers broadens our understanding

of fabric as a material. It is not enough to only focus on the building’s envelope, but we need to design the

entire building, inside and out. Lastly, one of the toughest, we need to learn how to communicate and

collectively design with engineers. We need to understand their limits and they need to understand our design

intentions and together we able to build a project of true success.

The first step in bringing these collaborations to life is to introduce them at a national level first; establishing a

larger framework and then gradually molding it down to fit on a local level.

2016-17 AIAS President

True success immerges from the root and blossoms to the edge of each branch, where it is

attained from the art of interdisciplinary collaboration and selfishness. –Vera Dusaj

Unite. Collaborate. Advance.