Tiffany Brown: A Future with Expanded Opportunities

It is expected that graduates will use their knowledge and skills to find personal success and professional fulfillment, but it is always hoped that they might devote some of their energy and time to serving the public good as well; to embody the time-honored belief that, armed with an education, a person might change the world.

As a student, an instructor, and a professional, Tiffany Brown is known for her passionate and incredibly driven approach towards her work, and for her ferocious dedication to the cause of greater inclusivity in the field of architecture. Gracious with her attention, generous with her time, and seemingly inexhaustible, she has made a significant investment in LTU and the greater community, and for the best possible reason: she wants to make an impact.

She is also the executive director for the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), and it is for her work with NOMA that Brown was recently recognized by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) with their highest honor, the President’s Medal for Distinguished Service. She was commended by NCARB President Bayliss Ward for her outstanding leadership of NOMA through a period of growth and transformation and leveraging her influence in the industry to build pivotal relationships with other organizations that are shaping the profession.

NOMA was founded in 1971 to address inequalities in the architecture industry. One of the outstanding advocates for greater inclusivity in the design industry, it remains a respected haven for architects of diverse origins. Envisioning a more robust and diverse base of design professionals, NOMA facilitates this vision by providing mentorship, scholarships, and job opportunities to members of heretofore underrepresented or potentially marginalized groups.

“I was born and raised in Detroit,” Brown says with evident pride. “I wasn’t exposed to architecture as a child, but I loved to draw, and dreamed of being an animator at Disney. When I was 17, a recruiter from Lawrence Technological University visited my high school to deliver a talk on architecture, a pivotal moment that sent me on a trajectory toward gaining my own degree in the field.”

Her curriculum vitae offers undeniable proof of her ambition as well as a staggering record of accomplishment more expected from a seasoned veteran than from a professional still at the beginning of her career. Having earned a Master of Architecture from LTU in 2007, she returned for a Master of Business Administration in 2015. She joined SmithGroup, a noteworthy architecture firm in Detroit, as a project manager and construction contract administrator, and she has been an adjunct professor of architecture at LTU since 2017.

NCARB officials said she "has been an expert advocate for improving representation in the design industry, raising awareness of NOMA’s efforts to draw minority students into the architecture profession." Her ongoing collaboration with NCARB on the joint “Baseline on Belonging” study has highlighted opportunities to support underrepresented licensure candidates and architects by removing barriers in the early career stages. She recently had the honor of being named among Architizer’s ‘100 Women to Watch in Architecture’ and has received several recognitions and awards from industry leaders, including the American Institute of Architects.

“My expertise on this issue stems from my first-hand experience of addressing environmental injustices.” This is reflected in her creation of 400 Forward, dedicated to drawing more minority women into architecture. Upon learning that there were only four hundred black women architects in the United States (currently, only 2 percent of the nation’s licensed architects are black), she was motivated to create the organization, whose mission is “to uplift girls by giving them the tools they need to address social issues through the incorporation of artistic excellence.”

She is understandably proud of the organization’s accomplishments. “400 Forward has connected girls to mentors across the country. We have been able to provide scholarships for study materials and financial assistance to young professionals on the path to licensure. After winning a $50,000 matching grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundations, 400 Forward has partnered with local and national entities like the Architect’s Foundation, Ford Mobility, Mismatch Design, and Design Core Detroit to help achieve our goals. Our software partnership with Graphisoft has effectively allowed us to provide exposure to the industry.”

Tiffany Brown has demonstrated the significant changes that can be set into motion when creativity meets commitment and when those with the capacity to design a better world demand of themselves the dedication to build it, plan by plan, person by person.

by Joe Bedard