CXO Ashleigh Axios Begins Term as AIGA National Board of Directors President
On July 1, 2020 Coforma (formerly &Partners) CXO Ashleigh Axios began a two-year term as President of the AIGA National Board of Directors after serving a transitional year as president-elect. AIGA, the professional association for design, advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force. As the profession’s oldest and largest professional membership organization for design — with 70 chapters and 18,000 members.
The Board is elected by its professional membership base, and it functions to guide AIGA as it carries out its mission and advances the best interests of its members. It’s also responsible for the selection and oversight of the organization’s Executive Director as they manage the association’s operations and report out on outcomes. The search for new 2020 board members stipulated the need for a range of professional backgrounds — from nonprofit executives to lawyers; financial management or acumen to expertise in diversity, equity, and inclusion; and a range of expertise within technology and design fields as it strives to represent and better support the broader design community.
Ashleigh is the sixth female-identifying president, and the organization’s first Black (mixed-race) president. Assuming the mantle during a pandemic and economic downturn, but also a time of great organizational transition and during a necessary civil rights movement and reckoning, she greets the position with sleeves rolled up, ready to work. Together with the contributions and insights of new and ongoing board members, as well as with input from the organization’s membership, Ashleigh strives to co-create a professional design community from the inside out. She has taken on the role to both serve and lead. Ashleigh is committed to do the necessary work to audit and reshape the organization’s systems for greater equity, access, and impact today and moving forward.
“It’s an honor, privilege, and a conscious act of service to care for and help transform an organization that wasn’t formed with members or leaders like me in mind, but which still holds great power, authority, and yet untapped possibility to drive the design profession to become more equitable, just, and welcoming for all who dream to enter or engage with it.
With Bennie F. Johnson as the Executive Director and an experienced and collaborative National Board of Directors, National staff, Design Educators Community, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Taskforce, chapter leadership network, and membership are more driven than ever to disrupt the status quo and unlock potential, the future of AIGA and the design profession looks bright,” Ashleigh says.
Ashleigh begins her role as nine new board members start their terms:
- Lorenzo Gonzalez, Treasurer Elect, Finance Manager — AMXL, Amazon
- Manuhuia Barcham, Managing Director, Archetekt
- Rumman Chowdhury, Global Lead for Responsible AI, Accenture
- Maribeth Kradel-Weitzel, Assistant Provost, Associate Professor and Program Director of MS
- Ann Marie Puente, Attorney; Consultant; Adjunct Faculty, Parsons School of Design
- Cesar Rivera, Assistant Professor, Sam Houston State University
- Elise Roy, Accessibility and Inclusion Lead, Google
- Art Taylor, President & Chief Executive Officer, BBB Wise Giving Alliance
- Frances Yllana, Presidents Council Chair, Experience Director, projekt202
Other continuing board members include:
- Terry Marks, Treasurer, Principal, TMarks
- Lisa Babb, Lecturer, School of Industrial Design, Georgia Institute of Technology
- Christine Taylor, Creative Account Manager, Licensing, Hallmark Cards, Inc.
AIGA’s National Board of Directors will work to steer the professional design community they serve toward a more stable, ethical, and equitable future.
About AIGA
AIGA, the professional association for design, advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force. As the largest community of design advocates, AIGA brings together practitioners, enthusiasts, and patrons to amplify the voice of design and creates the vision for a collective future. AIGA defines global standards and ethical practices, guides design education, inspires designers and the public, enhances professional development, and makes powerful tools and resources accessible to all. Learn more at https://www.aiga.org/about/. Learn more about the AIGA Board of Directors here.
About Ashleigh Axios
Ashleigh Axios is an international speaker, strategic creative, and an advocate for design’s ability to break barriers and create positive social change. She is Chief Experience Officer and a Partner at Coforma, a DC-based digital consultancy and design studio working on wicked problems. She is the Chair of the Board for AIGA, the professional association of design, entering her fifth year of service. Axios formed and led the in-house creative agency for marketing, communications, and brand identity solutions at Automattic, a technology company on a mission to democratize publishing and commerce. Prior to her role at Automattic, she served as the creative director and a digital strategist in the Obama White House. She is a past president of AIGA Washington D.C., where she formed DotGovDesign, an initiative connecting and empowering government designers.
This post was updated 9/27/2020 to reflect the company’s name change.
