August Benzien received his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Arizona. Combining his passion for design and interests in athletics, August has define a career in product design. He has become a recognized entrepreneur and industry leader in footwear and clothing design. As design director for Nike, August utilizes his skills to inspire innovation in production, marketing, promotion and distribution, as well as design. August’s expertise and understanding of a global scale organization provides invaluable perspective of the broad context impacting the built environment.

As part of the new generation of SOM leadership, Carrie Byles FAIA, LEED AP is helping integrate technology into every facet of the firm's practice and is transforming the practice of design itself. She has more than 30 years of experience and a special focus on projects with complex programmatic and technological requirements. Carrie is passionate about sustainable, multidisciplinary, research-based design and believes in bringing all parties together early in the design process to spawn new ideas, establish collaborative working relationships and create a strong foundation for success. 

With her background in both architecture and digital design, Carrie has a lifelong commitment to understanding how information technology is changing the way we live, and she translates this influence into SOM’s building designs. Examples of these advances can be seen in projects such as the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning. Her recently completed UCSF Sandler Neurosciences Center will facilitate a high level of interaction between neuroscientists, physician-scientists and patients, focused on the goal of eradicating neurological diseases.

Byles’s commitment to advancing building design and technology and creating high-performance, sustainable communities and buildings is balanced by her “developer mentality” of optimizing clients real estate investments. 

Mahesh Daas M Arch EdD, DPACSA, ACSA Distinguished Professor, is the eighth president of the Boston Architectural College. Mahesh is a designer, technologist and an experienced academic leader. His career spans 23 years at four universities including 14 years in higher education leadership roles. Prior to becoming president of the BAC, he served as dean of the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Mahesh earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India; a master's degree in urban design from Kansas State University; and an executive doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania. He has received executive certificates in management from the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard University. He is also an author and has been featured in scholarly journals, federal publications and academic books. He most recently co-edited the book Towards a Robotic Architecture (Oro Editions 2018), which has been chosen as Top Tech Book of 2018 by Architect's Newspaper. Mahesh is also the author of Leading with Aesthetics: The Transformational Leadership of President Charles M. Vest at M.I.T. (Lexington Books, 2015 & 2019).

Throughout his career, Mahesh has received several awards. In 2011 he was the youngest educator and second person of Asian origin to be elevated as an Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Distinguished Professor, the highest national recognition for an architectural educator. He was recognized for contributions to design computing with the 2013 Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) Society Award of Excellence. ACADIA elected him twice as its president and he served on the editorial board of the International Journal of Architectural Computing and currently serves on the editorial board of Construction Robotics Journal.

Randy Deutsch AIA, LEED AP is an architect, educator, author and speaker. As a practitioner, Randy is a licensed architect having designed +100 large, complex sustainable projects for which he received the AIA Young Architect Award Chicago. He is the associate director for graduate studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a clinical associate professor. As a professor he teaches design studio, urban design, professional practice, construction management, building technology and digital technology. He is recognized as a professional thought and practice leader and international keynote speaker and is the author of three books, including Convergence: The Redesign of Design, on the nature of the ongoing convergence of technology and work processes, and Superusers: Design Technology Specialists and the Future of Practice.  

Randy previously served on Chicago Architectural Club’s Board of Directors; AIA Chicago Board as director and vice president, ARCHITECT Magazine’s 2018 R+D jury, and as a 2018 inaugural NCARB Professional Practice Scholar in Washington, D.C. and on NCARB’s Futures Council. A believer in public engagement, Randy delivers numerous talks and workshops each year to the larger AEC community, with an international presence as well. 

Billie Faircloth AIA, LEED AP is a partner at KieranTimberlake and leads a cross-disciplinary team of professionals from vastly diverse fields. Her work fosters collaboration between the design disciplines, construction trades, academies and industries in order to define a relevant problem-solving boundary for the built environment.

Billie oversees the queries and investigations that begin and inform each project at KieranTimberlake. During design, she guides project teams through empirical experiments, prototypes and analysis. She leads the development of technology that informs high-performance design. She is also working on an affordable, quick-to-build housing solution for India's emerging middle class.  

Billie has taught at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design and Harvard University, and has served as Portman Visiting Critic at Georgia Institute of Technology and VELUX Visiting Professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.

Larry Head PhD is a professor of systems and industrial engineering and director of the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Arizona. He has over 25 years of research and development experience in adaptive traffic signal control, signal priority and traffic management. He is currently the principle investigator for the Multi Modal Intelligent Traffic Signal System Pooled Fund Project that is tasked with developing an intelligent traffic signal control system in a connected vehicle environment.

Larry is the chair of the Executive Board of the Council of Engineering Systems Universities, serves on the Arizona Governor’s Task Force for Self Driving Vehicles and is a member of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Freeway Operations Committee and Intelligent Transportation Systems Committee. He serves as an associate editor of Transportation Research – Part C. He is a member of TRB, INFORMS, IIE and IEEE.

A CAPLA alumna, Diane Jacobs receive her Bachelor of Architecture in 1987 and has practiced in Boston and the Desert Southwest. She founded Holly Street Studio in 1999 with the goal of bringing large firm expertise to local clients while maintaining the high level of service that a private practice firm affords. Diane is devoted to leading by example in every aspect of her practice, design excellence, environmental stewardship and strong support for women in the profession of architecture.  

Born in New York City, raised in Puerto Rico, educated in Tucson and trained in Boston, Diane has learned the value of individual stories and multiple perspectives. Her ability to work with client groups to create program-driven designs result in places that express warmth, color, light and a respect for practicality and has led to a well-rounded portfolio of both large-scale public work and intimate spaces in the private realm. Her work exploits ideas allied from disciplines including urban planning, environmental graphics, landscape architecture and lighting design.

Chair, CAPLA Futures Council

Richard R. Johnson received a BS in Civil Engineering from Rice University and a Master's in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia. He currently serves as the director of the Administrative Center for Sustainability and Energy Management for Rice University, where he leads Rice’s sustainability program and oversees a team of energy managers and analysts. Richard holds appointments as a Professor in the practice of environmental studies in sociology and as an adjunct lecturer in civil and environmental engineering. He has taught over 20 classes at Rice, and frequently partners with faculty across the university to support their courses. 

He is the former president of the Board of the Houston Farmers' Market, now the Rice University Farmers Market. Richard is a husband, father, foodie and traveler, and has served as a volunteer public radio deejay for nearly 30 years.

Brian Olasov has more than three decades of strategic business and capital market experience and also an extensive background on real estate capital markets, troubled mortgage loans and banking challenges. He works closely with Carlton Fields clients and attorneys providing financial due diligence on distressed mortgage loans, portfolios and institutions including credit restructuring, valuation, bulk sales and securitization. He provides analytical litigation support to the firm by developing damage estimates and financial implications of legal theories. Brian also provides expert witness testimony to other law firms in disputes involving residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities (MBS), mortgage loan servicing and mortgage loan origination. Brian has testified before the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) on MBS and banks’ impact on real estate markets.

He serves or has served on a variety of boards and committees including board of governors, executive committee, audit committee member and chair of the Policy Committee of the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREFC); board of governors of Commercial Mortgage Securitization Association (CMSA), co-chair of CMSA International Committee and CMSA European Chapter founder; vice chairman of the Real Estate Capital Resources Association Mortgage Securitization Committee; editorial board member of Commercial Real Estate Finance World; and board member of the Trigild Advisory Council. He is also an active participant in the Mortgage Bankers Association, Georgia Bankers Association and Yale Alumni Schools Committee.

Joaquin Ruiz is vice president for innovation, dean of the College of Science and the Thomas R. Brown Chair and director of Biosphere 2 at the University of Arizona. Ruiz is past president of the Geological Society of America (2010-2011), a fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists and a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American Chemical Society, the Geochemical Society and the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science. He is a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and the Governing Board of the Instituto Nacional de Astronomia, Optica y Electronica in Mexico. He has served as secretary of the Volcanology Section of the American Geophysical Union, councillor of the Geological Society of America and as a National Science Foundation panel member for the Instrumentation and Facilities Program and the Centers for Excellence in Science and Technology Program. He has served as associate editor of the American Journal of Science, Geology, ReVista, and Geofísica International of the Institute of Geology, UNAM.

As a scientist with equal abilities in chemistry and in geology, Ruiz addresses many first-order problems in the earth sciences, such as the development of new isotope systems for studying ore deposits and the tectonic processes involved in the growth and evolution of Mexico. His research team addresses problems ranging from the origins of life to present-day climate change.

Ruiz received his BS in Geology and BS in Chemistry at the University of Miami in 1977. He received his MS (1980) and PhD (1983) in Geology from the University of Michigan.

Angela WatsonFAIA, is principal, design leader and chair of the Board of Directors at Shepley Bulfinch in Phoenix. She connects research, teaching and practice to engage people in a collaborative process that elevates the recognized value of design, pushing clients and team members to move beyond perceived boundaries.

Angela advocates for research-based design, demonstrating how quantifying project elements and performance allows architects to articulate value and communicate on a shared platform of facts. She has received international recognition for the extensive post-occupancy work she has performed for clients.

She has also worked to connect research, teaching and practice to create a meaningful, collaborative design process that challenges all team members to reach their full potential in problem-solving and collaboration.