Architect and Associate, Tiara Williams, AIA: My name is Tiara Williams, and my organization is the South Carolina chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects, also known as SCNOMA, and I am the Past President.
Marketing Coordinator, Hannah MacDonald: And how did you become involved in SCNOMA?
TW: I became involved through well, actually, knowing about NOMA in college and being a part of the student chapter in college and then the AIA has an equity committee that I joined in 2018 or 2019 and a few members of that were expressing the need for NOMA chapter in South Carolina.
NOMA has chapters all across the US and some international chapters, but South Carolina did not have a professional chapter. We have an active student chapter at Clemson, but we never had a professional chapter, so that was a goal of the equity committee to create a state professional chapter. And that’s kind of how I got involved.
HM: You were involved in the process of creating the chapter. How much has it grown since you’ve been a part of it or created it?
TW: I was the first President, so we’ve only been here for two years. We’ve grown a little bit.
Our Project Pipeline camp that we hosted last year increased our membership a little bit more. We’re still working on increasing membership. It’s just hard being a state chapter and having most of our membership in the Greenville area. So that’s where a lot of our membership is, but we’re trying to get people in Columbia and in the low country more involved in the chapter.
HM: What’s the board set-up? With membership spread throughout the whole state, how do you guys meet and function?
TW: We do virtual meetings a lot, so we have a virtual board meeting. We have currently one board member in the low country, one in the Midlands—me— and then everybody else is in Greenville and the Greenville-Spartanburg area. We do have monthly virtual meetings. We will host in-person meetings every now and again and we just select if we’re going to do it in Columbia or if we’re doing it in Greenville. Then the board will just meet up wherever we designate.
That’s kind of how we function with our programs too. We’ll just designate a spot and try to move it around so that people have an opportunity in the different areas to go without having to travel so far.
HM: That’s great to provide opportunities all around the state. Now, as past President and President, did you receive any training for your role?
TW: [laughing] No, not at all!
HM: Oh, okay!
TW: It was all kind of fly-by-my-seat. But also, kind of leaning on some of my coworkers here who have been President of AIA or Rachel [John, Marketing Director], who was president of SMPS. So, leaning on them for advice of how to get things started, we also did have one of our founding members Adrienne Montarer, who is the Executive Director of AIA, I think for the state. She had a lot of background information of her working and how that organization is set up.
So that kind of helped us with creating manuals and there was some information that NOMA gave us that we were able to lean on and then also connecting with some of the other NOMA chapters– NOMA Atlanta, NOMA North Carolina– and getting in touch with their presidents and seeing, you know, what works best, how can we navigate this. It’s been a lot of not really anybody training me, but reaching out to different presidents of different organizations to kind of see what work best for us.
HM: When talking with the other chapters in the region, did you draw any inspiration for events or programs? What kind of programs does SCNOMA offer?
TW: The main things that we’re focusing on… I think this is actually our first year implementing programs. Last year the only program we had was our Project Pipeline, which is a camp for kids to introduce them into architecture so that was our main focus. Last year being our kind of inaugural year of actually being established, so that is what we all focused on.
This year we’re trying to do a little bit more with the Clemson student chapter. Getting involved with them and reviewing resumes, helping them prepare for portfolios, and reviewing projects and stuff with them to kind of give them some mentorship. Some things that we have done, not necessarily as a chapter, but individuals within a chapter have kind of been doing some other individual camps with kids– the Boys and Girls Club in Greenville is one. This year, we’re trying to focus on how we can increase our membership and create a community within our membership because we are so spread apart.
Thinking of ideas that we can do, we’re going to have some lectures from some of our board members who have actually presented on a national level. So getting them to present and have little chats with our emerging professionals with tips and tricks for studying or tips and tricks of how to navigate professional life. Things like what to say and what not to say in an interview or how to present yourself. Those are some of the things that we’re focusing on this year.
Our theme for this year is connection and engagement. So that’s what we’re focusing on this year for the chapter and kind of we broke it out into quarters where we’re focusing. Quarter one on development, two is on access, three is collaboration, and then four just fellowship in general.
HM: What would you say are the benefits of joining the professional organization?
TW: I think it’s also additional community! That is the benefit of it, also because one of the big initiatives of NOMA National is to introduce minority children into architecture as a viable option for them to go to.
A lot of them do not know what architecture is or what it entails, and so a lot of people–a lot of kids– when they get to high school, they kind of ignore architecture as a field that they can pursue. We’re trying to introduce them to that earlier, so that we can increase the number of minority architects in the world, which was an initiative of our past President Pascale [Sablan], she has a 2030 challenge.
So we’re trying to increase the number of architects by 2030 by certain percentage.
That’s kind of where part of this is coming from.
HM: That’s a great goal and initiative! What advice would you give somebody entering the industry?
TW: I always tell mentees architecture is a field you have to love. And there’s going to be some good days and bad days. But as long as you love it, you’ll make it through it.
HM: That’s awesome, I love that.
TW: Some days make you want to quit, but if you love it, and you love doing it, it’s worth it.
HM: Exactly, I totally agree. Is there anything else you’re super proud of over your tenure as President or just being a member of the organization?
TW: I think just getting it off the ground and running.
One of the big things that I do love about NOMA is we have a national conference, and every time I go to the national conference– I think we had a quote, one of our marketing people from NOMA was doing quotes from everybody– but it feels like home when I go there. It feels like I know everybody, even though I don’t know anybody. The two times that I have gone, I’ve mostly been by myself. So, it’s having to get out there and network a little bit more, get to meet people. It has grown me as far as that aspect of professional development. Networking, going to these conferences by myself and having to, you know, put myself out there and talk to people has been uncomfortable, but really a good time.
It’s always good engagement and they always have good speakers
But yes, most proud of just getting the chapter started. Actually, I will say second to that would be our first Project Pipeline being a huge success as well.
Learn more about SCNOMA here: https://www.scnoma.net
Check out Tiara speaking about NOMA and Project Pipeline: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEQE-A4OXg3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
