Matthew Trotter, NOMA, AIA, NCARB

Matthew is a talented Architect, licensed in the state of California. He exhibits a strong understanding of both technical and artistic design disciplines with experience in a vast number of project typologies. These include community centers, retail, schools, restaurants, theme parks, destination entertainment, hotels and Libraries.

As Matthew progressed through his architectural career, he has given back to his community through his involvement in the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). He participated in the planning and execution of the SoCal NOMA Summer Camp for seven years and served on the Executive Board from 2017 to 2021. During his four-year tenure, he founded the Developing Professional Group, which is dedicated to empowering minority design professionals in reaching licensure through mentoring, educational seminars, study materials, and financial aid for exam costs. When Matthew stepped down from the director position in 2021, the program had produced seven new SoCal NOMA Architects. The Developing Professional Group is still engaging and supporting aspiring architects in 2023 and beyond. In June 2023, Matthew became the First Vice President and President Elect of SoCal NOMA.

Matthew’s passion for uplifting communities and culture through thoughtful design has earned him respect and admiration in his firm and in the architecture community. As a leader in his firm, Matthew channels his passion for people and design in a way that makes space for honest, meaningful dialog and outcomes.

Nick Awori

Fearless in his pursuit to solve complex design problems, Nick Awori is a creative problem solver who is always up for a challenge.  He carries his experiences from the past two decades as a project architect into each of his projects, seamlessly navigating all aspects and phases of a project with his seasoned technical knowledge of materials, building systems, and constructability. This allows him to manage the planning, design, and coordination of complex healthcare and institutional projects with ease, allowing him to enjoy running, cycling, and CrossFit in his free time.

Angela Ball, AIA, NCARB, NOMA

Angela, AIA, NCARB, NOMA is an Associate with Arcadis and an Architect with over 18 years of architectural and interior design experience. With a current focus on Civic and Interiors projects, she has worked on a variety of project types, including libraries, schools and office buildings throughout California. She is a native of Minneapolis and completed her Bachelor of Art with an Architecture Major/Interdisciplinary Design Minor and Master of Architecture at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. During her undergraduate studies, she and some fellow classmates began the first NOMAS chapter at the University of Minnesota. After moving to Los Angeles, Angela became involved in SoCal NOMA by first volunteering at the summer camps and later becoming a member. She continues to volunteer at the summer camp and has become involved in the curriculum planning the last few years. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, wine tasting, skiing and watching soccer and ice hockey.

Erika Abrams

Erika Abrams lives at the intersection of creative operations, strategy, culture, and people who is known for strategic business transformation, revenue growth, and cultivating high-caliber creative teams. As an executive, she excels in strategic forecasting, consistently achieving double-digit profitability increases.

Erika’s expertise extends to innovative organizational design, strategy, and culture building, emphasizing the importance of designing for and with diverse and inclusive creative cultures. She contributes significantly to the Los Angeles creative community through local and national programming, making her a transformative force in the industry.

Shota Ban

Shota Ban is an experienced design manager with experiences working on a broad range of projects in different locations and on all aspects of a project starting from the initial meetings, concept formation, workshops, all the way to handoff. His interest lies in the power of design to solve problems and its ability to improving people’s lives. He enjoys the challenge of architecture as a product of synthesizing relationships, ideas, material, space, light, air, and other tangible and intangible qualities, similar to how chefs prepare a meal or how conductors conduct an orchestra.

Jaret Uyeda

As a fourth-generation Japanese American and second-generation architect, Jaret has a deep appreciation for personal beliefs, alternative points of view, and acting with conviction.  He believes a diversity of voices and ideas to challenge the profession’s status quo are necessary to shape its future. Jaret’s involvement on the SoCal NOMA Board is dedicated to expanding pathways for the voices that will challenge, lead, and ultimately enrich our profession.

Eddie Gomez

Eddie Gomez serves as a Director for Westgroup Designs, an architectural firm based out of Orange County, CA. He is a graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s esteemed architecture program, where he helped lead multiple student run organizations that had a focus on bringing diverse perspectives into positions of influence. He continues that role into his professional and personal communities, as an advocate and activator. His passions extend into the many facets of cultural influence that have created intersections of creativity.

Saif Vagh

Saif is an Associate Principal and Designer at NAC Architecture’s Los Angeles office and a leader of the firm’s JEDI committee. As a design thinker, his experience working with a broad spectrum of clients has sculpted his view of how policy and the built environment can incorporate a broader perspective of inclusion. He strives to create facilities that help break down stereotypical assumptions and help a broad cross-section of students grow and thrive. He has spoken on issues of designing for inclusivity and equality at numerous conferences and continues to lead valuable discussion in planning and executing the design of educational spaces. Saif graduated with a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and is both a LEED AP and a certified member of the Design Build Institute of America.

Leonardo Sanchez

Leonardo Sanchez is a recent pursuer of the field of Architecture and has adapted well to this new endeavor. After over thirty years in the field of graphic design, coupled with almost 10 years’ prior experience as a Design Professor, he made the conscious decision to reinvent himself and set into motion a new career in Architecture. This journey began with foundational architecture courses at two local community colleges and within a year he enrolled and was accepted into the M.S. “Design of Cities” postgraduate degree program with Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCIARC) located in the Art’s District just Northeast of Downtown Los Angeles. 

Before completing this accelerated program, he applied to M-Arch I program, also at SCIARC and was accepted. As a result, he graduated on a Sunday, and the following day began the Master’s in Architecture program where he is about to complete his first year and is excelling in all his courses. 

All the while, he has been an active member of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). Through this program, he has volunteered with both the NOMAS Summer Camp and the Bootcamp programs, where he has participated in helping inspire young minds from both grade school and high school, steering them toward a potential career choice also in architecture. The best part of it all is he is a recipient of NOMA’s full scholarship. We look forward to seeing where he takes this amazing opportunity.

Craig Atkinson

Craig is the current president of the Southern California Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects. In addition, he is starting a role as a member of the Design-Build Institute of America Western Pacific Region DEI Committee. He has more than 3 decades of experience in the design and construction of public projects. For the last 5 years he was the California Public Practice lead for IBI Group (now Arcadis) in charge of the public practice work with offices in Los Angeles, Irvine, San Diego, San Jose, and San Luis Obispo. In addition he was the executive sponsor of the firm’s JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) Task Force employee resource group force that is developed recommendations to improve the culture of the firm in these areas and to make sure IBI follows through with the statements made in our response to the tragic and unjustifiable killing of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Regis Korchinski-Paquet, “Working Together to Respond to Systemic and Institutional Anti-Black Racism”. Craig has recently left Arcadis to take on a new challenge at Carrier Johnson + Culture and is looking forward to working with the leadership to grow the practice in Higher Education and Civic work.

He holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. During his time at Cal Poly, he studied architecture for a full year in Copenhagen Denmark. He became a California Registered Architect in 1994. His career started with BFGC Architects in 1990 where he became a firm Principal. In 2009 BFGC was acquired by IBI Group and in 2013 Craig accepted an opportunity to be part of the leadership in the Los Angeles Office. He has been involved with all aspects of complex public project business development, project management, planning, design, quality control and project delivery for public clients throughout California. He is most proud of his ability to build project consensus and become part of the fabric of a client’s organization. His resume includes educational and civic sector projects ranging from programing to new construction to tenant improvements for K-12 schools, Community Colleges, University, and Civic Sector Projects including Libraries, Transit and Public Safety Projects.