Heather Dubbeldam
Heather Dubbeldam
OAA, FRAIC, LEED AP, WELL AP
BEAT Advisory Chair
Heather Dubbeldam is the Chair of BEAT's Advisory Board and the principal of Dubbeldam Architecture + Design, an award-winning architectural practice and research studio. A fourth-generation architect with 30 years of experience in Canada and internationally, Heather is a registered architect with the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA), a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (FRAIC), a LEED and WELL Accredited Professional (LEED AP & WELL AP,) and a member of the Canada Green Building Council. Heather has been recognized as a leading advocate for sustainable design and the betterment of our built environment through her practice and ongoing research in both Canada and Scandinavia on progressive design and planning that exemplifies best practices in social and environmental sustainability.
Heather engages in a range of advocacy work in the profession; she is also the Director of Twenty + Change (a national organization dedicated to exposing the work of emerging Canadian architects), past Chair of the Toronto Society of Architects, past Vice-Chair of the Design Industry Advisory Board. As a recipient of the Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture, she is regularly invited to speak at conferences, schools of architecture, and industry events, to participate on juries, and to contribute as a guest critic at architecture schools across Canada. Heather was the co-editor and author of several architecture publications.
Elsa Lam
Elsa Lam
BEAT Advisory Vice Chair
Elsa Lam is the Vice Chair of BEAT's Advisory Board and the editor-in-chief of Canadian Architect magazine. She was the 2012 winner of the Phyllis Lambert Prize for writing in architecture, awarded for her doctoral dissertation “Wilderness Nation: Building Canada’s Railway Landscapes, 1885-1929,” completed at Columbia University in the City of New York under the supervision of Kenneth Frampton and Vittoria di Palma. The dissertation explores the role of Canada's railway hotels, western national parks and other railway-sponsored buildings and landscapes in forging a sense of national identity.
Elsa studied architectural history at McGill University and architectural design at the University of Waterloo. She has written extensively for architecture magazines, as well as collaborating on the editing and writing of several books on design history. Previous to her role at Canadian Architect, she worked with the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. She is co-editor of the forthcoming book Canadian Modern Architecture, 1967-2017, to be co-published by Princeton Architectural Press and Canadian Architect in Fall 2019.
Shirley Blumberg
Shirley Blumberg
CM, OAA, FRAIC, AIA
BEAT Advisory Sponsorship
A founding partner of KPMB Architects, Shirley Blumberg is an invested Member of the Order of Canada “for her contributions to architecture and for her commitment to creating spaces that foster a sense of community.” Her portfolio ranges from mixed-use developments to highly specialized cultural and academic institutions, many with a focus on revitalizing heritage contexts. Shirley’s projects include the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre at the University of British Columbia, the Fort York Public Library in Toronto, the James Stewart Centre for Mathematics at McMaster University, and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) Campus in Waterloo which received a RIBA Award in the UK, an AIA Award in the US, and a Governor General’s Award in Canada. Currently, she is the partner-in-charge of the Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan, the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, the new Global Centre for Pluralism for His Highness the Aga Khan in Ottawa, 20 Washington Road for Princeton University as well as the new Campus Framework Plan at Princeton.
Shirley is a member of the Toronto Community Housing Design Review Panel and has served on design review panels for the Ontario College of Art and Design and the City of Toronto. She has been a guest critic and lecturer at universities across North America.
Brigitte Shim
Brigitte Shim
BES, B.Arch (Waterloo), OAA, FRAIC, Hon FAIA, RCA, CM
Brigitte Shim is a principal in Shim-Sutcliffe Architects and a committed educator in the field of architecture. Shim, along with her partner A. Howard Sutcliffe founded their architectural design practice in 1994. Since then, Shim and Sutcliffe have received fourteen Governor General’s medals and awards for architecture and a National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects along with many other professional accolades for their built work. In 2013, Brigitte Shim and Howard Sutcliffe were both awarded the order of Canada, “for their contribution as architects designing sophisticated structures that represent the best of Canadian design to the world, “along with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Brigitte has taught design studios and courses in the History and Theory of Landscape Architecture at the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, since 1988. She was the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor at Yale University’s School of Architecture in 2014, 2010 and 2005 and the William B. and Charlotte Sheperd Davenport Visiting Chair and the Visiting Bicentennial Professor in Canadian Studies in 2001. She has also been an international visiting professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne, Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and others.
Sonia Ramundi
Sonia Ramundi
M. Arch, OAA, MRAIC
Sonia Ramundi holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto with a double major in architecture and fine art history, and a minor in visual studies. Since graduating from the master’s program at the Daniels Faculty in 2012, she has been actively practising and teaching architecture.
Ramundi is a registered architect and has been the project lead on multiple commercial interior fit-outs and residential new-builds. She has worked in offices in Los Angeles and Toronto on various institutional projects as well as award winning, high-end interiors and residential projects. She is particularly interested in exploring the dynamic relationship between site and architecture, and in examining design problems and their potential solutions at various scales.
Since 2017, Ramundi has been involved in BEAT (Building Equality in Architecture Toronto) as an executive member, then as the executive director, and presently as an advisory member. During her term as executive director of BEAT, Ramundi led the internal visioning workshop initiative which sought to update the group's mandate to respond to current needs in the profession, and to prepare the organization for future growth.
Camille Mitchell
Camille Mitchell
OAA, MRAIC, M.Arch
BEAT Advisory - Special Events
A highly accomplished Architect, Camille brings several years of experience on award-winning projects, garnering recognition for this work through speaking, mentorship, and teaching opportunities. An Architect with the Toronto office of SvN Architects + Planners, Camille leverages her achievements in architecture to advocate for the involvement of under-represented groups in the design of their built environments. Camille is a founding member of the independent organizations Building Equality in Architecture Toronto and Black Architects + Interior Designer Association. Their programs are dedicated to supporting mentorship, networking and leadership opportunities for women and visible minorities within the architecture profession.
Camille was the 2022 recipient of the G. Randy Roberts Service Award from the Ontario Association of Architects in recognition of her contributions to the architectural profession. That same year she was also awarded the Alumni Achievement Medal for Community Service presented by the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo for exceptional commitment towards volunteer leadership and humanitarian endeavours.
Valerie Gow
Valerie Gow
OAA, FRAIC, ARIDO, IDC
Outreach
Valerie Gow is the co-founder of Gow Hastings Architects, a practice that has been recognized as an industry-leader in the creation and transformation of post-secondary institutions.
Valerie is an active participant in the design community and a passionate advocate for the advancement of women in architecture. She mentors intern architects and thesis students and is a member of the Urban Land Institute's Women's Leadership Initiative Championship Team. She has presented at post-secondary leadership seminars for women at both the University of Toronto and Ryerson University. She is also a regular critic at architecture and design schools, and a frequent jury members for design and product competitions.
Valerie is a founding member of the Harbourfront Architecture Gallery Advisory Committee and sits on the Ryerson School of Interior Design Program Advisory Board, the CISV (Children’s International Summer Villages) Toronto Board and the Southwestern Ontario Region Committee of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC). In 2016, she was named a Fellow of the RAIC for her distinctive service to the profession and community at large.
Nina Boccia
Nina Boccia
Media & Communications
Nina Boccia is a marketing and communications professional with over a decade of experience creating dynamic and engaging content that connects to vision and values. A graduate of Ryerson University’s School of Journalism, she previously served as an associate editor at Azure Magazine and managing editor of its sister publication, Designlines, where she interviewed and reported on the best minds in design and architecture.
At Design Exchange, a not-for-profit organization in Toronto, she held various leadership positions, including director of programs, and oversaw the organization's marketing, programming, and fundraising initiatives. Prior to joining KPMB, Nina was a national marketing and communications lead at Lemay. She has spearheaded and managed national marketing efforts including branding campaigns, partnerships, and content strategies.
Nina is passionate about sharing stories that are purpose-driven, facilitate important conversations, drive investment in community and culture, illustrate the transformative power of design, and champion the people creating meaningful impact.
Kyra Clarkson
Kyra Clarkson
OAA, FRAIC
Kyra is the founder of Kyra Clarkson Architect Inc., a design-oriented architecture studio founded in 2007 with a focus on creating modern houses that sit thoughtfully in the fabric of the city. Her firm works on a range of projects in downtown Toronto, southern Ontario, and has recently completed a house in the Alberta Badlands. The work of her studio has been featured in numerous publications, including the Globe and Mail, Canadian Architect, Designlines, Monocle and Dwell. In addition to managing her residential practice, Kyra is a co-founder of MODERNest Inc., an architect-driven development firm with a mission to build moderately priced houses with a modern sensibility.
Kyra is a member of the Ontario Association of Architects, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, and the Toronto Society of Architects. She was elected to the College of Fellows of the RAIC in 2022. Kyra has sat on design juries and lectured on her work. In 2022 she participated in a ULI technical advisory panel to provide strategic advice to the City of Toronto on zoning policy.