Speaker // Mary Ann Alcorta Mitchell

Mary Ann Alcorta Mitchell is a registered architect and registered interior designer practicing in San Antonio, Texas. Her 25+ years of experience in architecture and design is multi-faceted and includes the non-profit, healthcare, federal, retail, and corporate market sectors. 

Mary Ann serves as Advisory Council Chair for the School of Architecture & Planning at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She's a member of the National Organization of Minority Architects of Central Texas, and the Texas Society of Architects Equity Diversity & Inclusion Committee. She actively supports AIA Latinos in Architecture, AIA Women in Architecture and AIA Young Architects Networks. She is often invited to speak on topics relating to equalizing the disparity of the underrepresented populations within the architecture profession.

Mary Ann is also an established painter and artist in the San Antonio area and participates in talks, exhibitions, and shows.

June 30, 2022

Thursday // 5:30 – 7:00pm

Mary Ann is registered in both Architecture and Interior Design, practicing in San Antonio. She has worked on projects ranging in education, healthcare, institutional, retail, and corporate sectors. Her design focuses on the experience of users and how the built environment can influence them.

Mary Ann is very active in the Architecture community and in helping populations less represented in the Architecture community. She regularly gives lectures and sits on juries for the University of Texas at San Antonio and San Antonio College Department of Architecture. She has served in different capacities in AIA Latinos in Architecture, Texas Society of Architects Equity Diversity & Inclusion Committee, AIA Women in Architecture Committee, AIA Young Architects Committee, and is a member of NOMA of Central Texas.

Mary Ann is also an artist and participates in local art exhibitions.

Speaker // Everett Fly

Everett L. Fly, native of San Antonio, Texas, resides in the city with his wife Rosalinda. An honors graduate of the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, he is the first African American graduate of Harvard University’s Department of Landscape Architecture.  He is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Fly’s practice as a licensed landscape architect and architect includes national multidisciplinary consultations for the National Park Service and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

He served on the State of Texas National Register Board of Review and City of San Antonio Historic and Design Review Commission. He chaired the board of Humanities Texas from 1993 to 1994. 

Fly served appointments by President Bill Clinton to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities from 1994 to 2001. President Barack Obama awarded him one of ten 2014 National Humanities Medals for his body of work preserving the integrity of African-American places and landmarks.

Recent awards include the 2018 San Antonio Power of Preservation Foundation “Champion of Preservation Award” and the 2020 Conservation Society of San Antonio “Texas Preservation Hero Award”.

He co-founded the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum.

April 20, 2021

Tuesday // 12:00 – 1:30pm

Everett’s forty year practice has integrated the arts and the humanities in a multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary, methodology. He frequently works with archaeologists, historians, urban designers, architects, city and community planners, government managers, and landscape architects.

Fly’s projects have ranged from large scale public projects such as the Texas Capitol Extension Landscape in Austin, to initial pedestrian planning for the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, to small scale private residential architectural projects in San Antonio.

Fly has worked on projects across a wide geographic range, including 17 states and the District of Columbia. His clients have included national agencies such as the National Park Service, and urban planning for community organizations such as the Michigan Street Heritage Corridor in Buffalo, New York.

Everett’s body of work in preservation of historic African American settlements and resources was acknowledged when President Barack Obama awarded him one of ten 2014 National Humanities Medals. Fly became one of a handful of design professionals (architect or landscape architect) ever to receive the Humanities Medal.

Regional examples of Fly’s work includes the Hockley-Clay Cemetery recovery and participation in the Coalition for the Woolworth Building in San Antonio.

Speaker // Donna Carter

DONNA D. CARTER, FAIA is President of CARTER DESIGN ASSOCIATES, an architectural, planning and restoration firm in Austin, Texas. During her tenure in Austin, Ms. Carter's civic activities include service on numerous planning and development city task force committees and commissions. She has authored several master plan, urban design and preservation guideline documents. She also co-chaired a community led down growth and vision implementation effort that culminated in the publishing of RUDAT A Call… to Action. Ms. Carter has served on many professional, civic and social service related boards, including her appointment to the Texas Historical Commission, her service on the state Antiquities Advisory Board and her tenure on the board of Friends of the Texas Historical Commission. She is a past Fellow of the Center for Heritage Conservation at Texas A&M University.

As a civic leader she has held volunteer and board positions for non profit health care providers and social service advocates since 1986, serving in board and board appointed positions for Ascension Health and Seton Family of Hospitals from 1996 until 2016 and Austin ECHO (Ending Chronic Homelessness) from its inception until 2017. Her healthcare work involved clinical quality, best practices and community health initiatives and used that experience in developing supportive housing initiatives. She has recently finished her term on the board of Huston Tillotson University and currently serves on the board of AIA Austin.

Carter Design Associates has received numerous design and preservation awards including a TxA Design Award and a Preservation Texas Design Award for the Restoration of the Texas and Pacific Terminal Waiting Room in Fort Worth. Ms. Carter has written several papers on sustainability policy, preservation, cultural tourism and cultural stewardship. She has lectured on Urban Ecology, Site Planning Strategies for Sustainable Design, and Preservation, Revitalization, and Cultural Tourism as Keys to Economic Development especially in underserved communities. She has provided keynote addresses at several preservation and heritage tourism conferences speaking on the importance of historic preservation for the African-American community.

Personal Recognition

2003: Texas Society of Architects’ James D. Pfluger Community Service Award

2010: Austin AIA John V. Nyfeler Community Service Award

2010: Elevated to the AIA College of Fellows

November 18, 2020

Wednesday // 12:00 – 1:30pm

Donna Carter, FAIA needs little introduction in our community of architects, designers, and planners, but for those who may be less familiar, we’d like to share with you a little bit about her from our Empower Speaker Series inaugural event where she was our featured speaker along with Charlton Lewis as moderator.

Donna is a Texas Registered Architect and Interior Designer and is certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. Donna received her BA from Yale University, studied as a Ford Foundation Scholar at the American University in Cairo, Egypt and received her Master of Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley.

Donna has led a practice focused on combining revitalization, historic preservation, urban planning and design with new construction within the context of complete and sustainable communities.