IIDA: Who has been an important mentor to you over the course of your career and how/why?
Susana Covarrubias: While I have not had one single individual that I have called my mentor, I’ve been fortunate to have many incredible people in my life that have guided my path throughout the years. One of those individuals is Karen Thomas, Gensler’s Regional Managing Principal, who is a fantastic leader and mentor.
Hillary DeGroff: My grandmother’s story always had a particularly profound impact on me throughout my career. Growing up in the 30’s and 40’s and then starting a family out of high school, she didn’t have the same opportunities I was afforded. She persisted and when all four of her children graduated college, she returned to college in her early fifties for interior design, graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University. She taught me perseverance.
At Perkins Eastman, we have a phenomenal mentorship program for our team members. I’ve had the benefit of working closely with Laurie Butler, one of our senior living leaders, in a project capacity, as well as through the formalized mentorship program. She taught (and is still teaching me!) how to be a true leader and inspire our teams to face challenges head-on together.
Meena Krenek: Joan Blumenfeld was the global head of interiors for Perkins+Will. She is a dear friend and I text her often to ask her any challenging questions I’m dealing with. She taught me how to impact clients with bold design ideas, how to make sure we, designers, have a platform, and constantly seek out ways to integrate both architectural and interior design to create solutions that cross boundaries, and encourage emotional connections with space. She has been the biggest influence on my career.
I like to tell emerging designers that you must have your own personal executive board, have people that "really get you" and believe in you. Joan Blumenfeld is on Meena Krenek’s executive board. It’s been an honor to work beside her and learn ways to empower creative confidence with my teams with the leadership she has instilled in me.