IIDA Northern California Chapter, in partnership with USGBC-NCC, is extremely honored to have Majora Carter as our speaker this year, founder of Sustainable
South Bronx in 2001, after writing a $1.25M Federal Transportation grant to design South
Bronx Greenway, 11 miles of bike and pedestrian paths connecting rivers and neighborhoods to
each other and to the rest of the city. This project secured over $20 million in funds for first phase
construction and serves as alternative transportation, economic development anchor, storm water
management infrastructure as well as healthy recreation.
Majora is a native of South Bronx and continues to live there. Her career has taken her around the
world in pursuit of resources and ideas to improve the quality of life in environmentally challenged
communities. She has been instrumental in creating riverfront parks, building green roofs, working
to remove poorly planned highways in favor of positive economic development, and successfully
implemented the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) program - a pioneering
green-collar job training and placement system - seeding a community with a skilled workforce that
has both a personal and an economic stake in their urban environment.
These accomplishments grow from her belief that self-image is influenced by surroundings - so
those surroundings should be beautiful! Her vision, drive, and tenacity earned her a MacArthur
“Genius” Grant. She began 2007 as one of Newsweek’s “25 To Watch”, and ended the year as one
of Essence Magazine’s “25 most Influential African Americans”. She was named one of the
“50 most influential women in NYC” by the NY Post for the past two years, and “NYC’s most
influential environmentalist” by the BBC World Service. Majora is president of the Majora Carter
Group, LLC, a board member of the Wilderness Society, and host of a special national public radio
series called “The Promised Land”.
We will also bestow our Leadership Award of Excellence to this year’s honoree, Dan Huntsman,
of Huntsman Architectural Group. We will be honoring him for his contributions to the practice
of commercial interior design and architecture since founding his firm in 1981, and elevating our
profession through his outstanding leadership and commitment to the practice of design.
This year the IIDA Northern California’s Chapter’s Distinguished Achievement Award will be awarded
to Bill Watson, founder of Coordinated Resources Inc, for his exemplary contribution in furniture
procurement and design support services.
We hope you will be there to help us celebrate IIDA’s legacy of leadership and
commitment to the future of design at this powerful and inspiring event!
