MDC Committee Members:
Britney Sulzen, AIA, Co-chair
Carl Kohut, AIA
Rachel Delventhal, AIA
Kendra Shirley, AIA
Roger Stewart, AIA
Katelynn Larsen, Associate AIA
E&R Committee Members:
Clint Taylor, AIA, Co-chair
Brandon Daigle, AIA
Ansley Mouw, Associate AIA
Britt Morgan, AIA
Jessica Barnhouse, AIA
Suzanne Norton, Associate AIA
The Education & Resource Committee’s primary goals are to promote architecture to the public and provide educational resources for AIA Wyoming members, while the Membership Development Committee’s primary goal is to enhance the membership experience. By embracing its mission, the committee organizes activities for members, associate members, non-members and industry partners at the two chapter conferences and provides other membership events throughout the year. These activities allow people to engage in conversation, network and provide opportunities for young professionals to meet seasoned architects and potential mentors. With a small group of volunteers, our committee continues to host these events and brainstorm new ways to expand our membership, recruit new committee and chapter members to enhance and grow the AIA Wyoming membership experience. As a joint committee, our members do a fantastic job of meeting these blended goals in several events.
The SWELL (Second Wednesday Educational Lunch & Learn) program is in its second year. In 2025, we hosted two events: Acoustical Elements in Casper and Structural Implications in the New Building Code in Cheyenne. We are seeking firms in the state to host a SWELL event in their offices, where industry partners can join in person and virtually for group education and networking. If you are interested in hosting one of our events next year, please contact any of our committee members.
Only one interactive Design Share event took place in Jackson this past year, featuring presentations by local architects who highlighted a single project to showcase their design approach. If you have a project you would like to share at a Design Share event, please get in touch with any of the committee members.
The committee continued its tradition of hosting icebreakers and networking mixers at the Spring Conference in Cheyenne and the Fall Conference in Sheridan. In Cheyenne, we hosted Bingo for Architects at the Welcome to Wyoming Visitors’ Center, followed by food and videos after a tour of Railspur. In Sheridan, we hosted a tour and social mixer at the Warehouse Gastropub, followed by a picnic at the EMIT Building the next day.
Katelynn Larson is starting up an ARE Study Group with an associated Discord server. Members will have access to PrepARE study materials that the Board secured through AIA East Bay. If you are looking to take your AREs or know an AIA Wyoming member who is, please reach out to Katelynn for complimentary study materials.
Roger Stewart and Carl Kohut are our committees’ liaisons to the AIA Wyoming Board of Directors; Britney Sulzen represents AIA Wyoming on the National Associates Committee (NAC); Kenra Shirley represents AIA Wyoming on the national Young Architects Forum (YAF); Roger Stewart and Jessica Howard are AIA Wyoming’s Continuing Education Services (CES) coordinators; and Clint Taylor is one of AIA Wyoming’s two NCARB Architect Licensing Advisors. Having these committee members report on what other chapters in the region and across the country are doing helps us provide the best services to our members.
E&R Classroom Visit
Clint Taylor, AIA, and Stephanie Lowe, Associate AIA, of TDSi, were invited to speak to a third-grade class at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Cheyenne on Oct. 16. Former Education & Resources Committee member Doug Selby, AIA, had been presenting to the third-grade class at this school for the past several years. However, his new grandchild in Fort Collins was cutting into his time.
The 13 students had been discussing architecture for several weeks. They had gone on a guided trolley tour, finding architectural elements on various historic buildings in Cheyenne, before building models of their favorite buildings from the tour. The students had an outstanding vocabulary of architectural terms.
Clint and Stephanie’s visit was the culmination of the class’s module on architecture. The students reviewed the drawings of St. Mary’s Catholic School (TDSi, 2006) and identified items from their classroom in the various plans, elevations, and sections.
The session ended with a bridge-building competition. Students worked in groups of two or three to build a bridge that could support a paper cup containing 20 pennies. Each group was given 20 plastic drinking straws, five paper clips, 3 feet of string and 3 feet of masking tape and had 15 minutes to turn their materials into a bridge. Almost all the groups succeeded in the task, and two of the bridges were able to support a paper cup full of pennies. (We didn’t count the pennies, but there were a lot of them!)
It was apparent from listening to the students that most of them had been discussing architecture with their parents during this module. We hope we were able to continue Doug Selby’s work to educate the public through the eyes of these third graders. One student even proclaimed they wanted to be an architect when they grew up. Thank you to Christine Bronder for incorporating architecture into these students’ education.
