Perspective Future Female: Emerging

May 08, 2023 By Jessica Jones

Nominated by their peers, these emerging designers are women who are helping shape the future of our industry

By Jessica Jones May 08, 2023

Published in Articles

Women in the design industry continue to create change and provide innovative solutions to all aspects of design. These creative women are dedicated to cultivating spaces for the communities they serve. As emerging designers in the industry they also represent a holistic and fresh approach to the design process. Below we highlight designers emerging as leaders in design, nominated by their fellow Future Female leaders and our own IIDA International Board of Directors candidates.

Jill Dexter, IIDA
Associate Interior Designer
Stantec
IIDA Illinois Chapter President

Jill Dexter, IIDA is a Registered Interior Designer in the State of Illinois with over 12 years of experience in corporate interiors, retail, mixed-use, and civic design. She has a passion for creating experiential spaces that connect users to their environment and allowing them to engage with thoughtfully designed elements. Dexter has a holistic approach to projects from concept to construction administration and enjoys seeing the space come to life, providing the client with an exceptional result.

Dexter finds design compelling, and because of that she has spent many years volunteering with the IIDA Illinois Chapter Board, beginning in college as a student representative to the board and most recently, serving as the 2022-2023 Chapter Board President. Dexter’s participation in both the IIDA Illinois Chapter and Stantec’s internal organizations allow her to support all of these efforts amongst her colleagues and broader design community.

Elizabeth Fallon
Studio Practice Leader, Vice President
HKS

For Elizabeth Fallon, design is a means of uncovering solutions. Intrigued and energized by complexity, she believes no challenge is too large or complex to tackle. One of her greatest passions is shaping employee experience and how space can effectively contribute to that experience. As a licensed architect, she has spent over a decade delivering commercial interiors projects for clients all over the country. Fallon is a strong communicator and listener, thriving on the relationships with her clients and partners that help to deliver effective and inspiring workplace experiences at all scales.

Fallon notes that because we spend a third of our lives at work, she is passionate about the impact that the workplace can have on our lives. Her career has focused on leading clients and design teams towards a more meaningful, powerful evolution of the workplace – including implementing flexible work arrangements, even before the pandemic. In all her work, Fallon reinforces that designers must lead ideas around both crafting and using space, because how we interact with our environment and with each other is where workplace designers can make the greatest difference.

Kamille Glenn
Founder, Interior Designer
dsgnrswrkshp

Kamille Glenn is an award-winning multidisciplinary designer born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Her design practice focuses on interiors, architecture and furniture design, although her passion for the built environment spans across all maker disciplines. Curious about the design industry and its larger impact, she noticed the lack of representation early on in her career, and as a response in 2019, she founded the dsgnrswrkshp (pronounced designer’s workshop), a design centered platform and collective for engagement and development, with a focus on accessibility and equity for underrepresented communities and their businesses.

She works full time on producing safe and equitable spaces and productions centered on collective growth, healing, education, and highlighting the incredible talent of BIPOC designers. She has had a hand in designing several groundbreaking projects worldwide as an associate interior designer at Rockwell Group in New York City. Her work spans from project planning and concept realization to design and execution driven by problem solving through storytelling.

Veronica McCracken, IIDA
Interior Design Discipline Lead, Interior Designer, Associate
MSRDesign

As MSR Design’s interior design discipline lead and a firm associate, Veronica McCracken believes that the most successful projects arise from an interdisciplinary approach. Investigating design through many lenses, including sustainability, equity, project concept, and individual experience, she is constantly toggling between the big picture concept and the fine details that, together, make a project remarkable. McCracken creates spaces that not only tread lightly on our environment and bodies, but also generate and promote the well-being of all experiencing them.

She currently serves as co-chair of the Carbon Leadership Forum’s Minnesota Regional Hub and a member of the University of Wisconsin-Stout School of Art and Design Professional Advisory Committee. McCracken contributed to the Metropolis Climate Toolkit for Interior Design and is a current representative on the AEC Forum for mindful materials.

Midori Shim, IIDA
Interior Designer
Gresham Smith
IIDA South Florida Chapter President

Midori Shim is a Registered Interior Designer in the State of Florida, adjunct professor at Florida International University (FIU), and an advocate for diversifying the interior design industry by leading the youth. Through interior design, she has had the opportunity to design spaces for hospitality, education (K-12 and Higher Ed), historical, municipal, corporate, commercial, community centers, hospitals and clinics. Her belief is that interior design is, and should be, accessible to all.

Design is a language that communicates without words but through emotion and the complexities of the mind. Shim also leads a local EDI initiative started by the IIDA South Florida Chapter called Diversity by Design (DxD), which introduces interior design to students that have not had the opportunity to be creative through art, design, or creation. She aims to continue the DxD workshops and speak with individuals from other organizations, on how we as a community can support the youth in finding their potential and passions through the practice of creativity.

Karlijn Sibbel
Design Director
Notpla

Karlijn Sibbel is an emerging material and product designer who has gained wide-ranging experience in researching and developing material systems with the aim to build a more sustainable future. She studied product design at ArtEZ in the Netherlands, and received her Master's degree for Innovation Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College in London. Sibbel is passionate about nature and materiality, she searches for ways to rethink the way we design and make objects using wasted resources and natural materials.

Her experience in material exploration ranges from designing with minerals like salt and mine tailings to working with micro-algae, seaweed, bacterial cellulose, and developing novel shape memory materials. Sibbel currently works at Notpla as their design director, through her work and her personal practice, she is actively pushing for a more sustainable future by developing material systems that are more in line with nature.