IIDA Leaders Breakfast (Leaders) is an annual event series hosted by local IIDA chapters with the support of IIDA Headquarters, international benefactor MillerKnoll, and media partner Interior Design.

Leaders events celebrate design’s importance in the global marketplace by honoring the people who are both the legacy and future of design. Each event features a renowned keynote speaker who enlightens, provokes, and encourages new ideas, and a celebration recognizing one local Leadership Award of Excellence Honoree who has made significant contributions to the design industry.

About the Leaders Breakfast Award of Excellence

A Leaders Breakfast History

2025 Leaders Breakfast Series

Los Angeles | September 26

Keynote Speaker

Shola Richards
Founder and CEO, Go Together Global | Best-Selling Author

Shola Richards is a dynamic keynote speaker, the best-selling author of “Civil Unity: The Radical Path to Transform Our Discourse, Our Lives and Our World”, "Making Work Work", and "Go Together", an in-demand workplace civility expert, and a prolific writer with a passionate worldwide following. His articles and wildly-popular Monday morning "Go Together Movement" email series have impacted people in over 160 countries, and his work has been featured on the Today Show, CBS This Morning, Forbes, Black Enterprise, Complete Wellbeing India, and Business Insider Australia.

San Francisco | September 12

Leadership Award of Excellence Honoree

Primo Oprilla
Co-Founder, Principal, Studio O+A

Studio O+A is an interiors firm that specializes in workplace design. Establishing the company with Verda Alexander in 1991, Primo drew on an early interest in design and a feel for the growing tech economy to orient O+A to a rapidly changing work environment. A champion of design as a multidisciplinary art form, O+A grew from a two-person space-planning operation into a full-service design studio. As a thought leader in workplace design, Primo has spearheaded numerous experimental initiatives—from pop-up installations to next-generation office prototypes for the future of workplace. Primo is a passionate advocate for design education, working to expand opportunities for young professionals and emerging talent. He is a frequent lecturer at design schools as well as global design conferences, where he shares insights on the evolving workplace and empowers the next generation of designers to create with purpose and authenticity.

Leadership Award of Excellence Honoree

Verda Alexander
Co-Founder, Studio O+A

For over thirty years Studio O+A has been a creative force in workplace design. What began as a two-person firm in Silicon Valley in 1991 is today a San Francisco-based design firm dedicated to new thinking about work, creativity and the many ways our environments shape the lives we live. Studio O+A was awarded the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Interior Design in 2016. In 2012 Contract Magazine named Verda Alexander and Primo Orpilla Designers of the Year. In 2015 they were inducted into Interior Design’s Hall of Fame.

Verda’s artist perspective and initiatives at O+A have spurred innovation at the forefront of workplace design and challenged received wisdom throughout the industry. She continues to work on expanding the dialogue between art, design, and climate activism. Verda’s experimental projects for O+A range from pop-up installations on the future of the office, a mobile design lab partnering with communities across California, and an open source toolkit called “The Eco Playbook,” challenging designers at her firm and across the industry to put planet and people first in the design process. As the editor at large for Metropolis Magazine, Verda works to advance new thinking around sustainability, equity, and regenerative design.

Houston | August 8

Leadership Award of Excellence Honoree

Catherine M. Richard, IIDA
Associate Partner, Senior Interior Designer, Kirksey Architecture

Cathy began her career in 1986 and joined Kirksey Architecture's Interiors practice in 2004. Cathy is committed to the progress and growth of her profession and is an active member of the design community. Cathy's expertise encompasses space planning, furniture specifications, finish selections, and design. Her portfolio spans a diverse range of projects, from 3,000 square feet to 1,000,000 square feet, serving local and global clients.

She has been a member of IIDA since 1992 and served in leadership positions throughout her career, including as President of the Houston City Center. Cathy also served on the State board and continues to participate in many events throughout the year, including the Student Day annual event. Additionally, Cathy is an active member of CoreNet Houston and has been a Girl Scout leader for over a decade. Her creativity and exceptional communication skills positively impact every project she works on, enhancing her leadership and mentorship within the firm.

Emerging Leader Honoree

Brianna N. LeFlore, IIDA
Associate, Project Interior Designer, Page

With over seven years of design experience, Brianna’s philosophy is to design spaces that connect the built environment and human interaction. She understands that doing so not only strengthens a project’s overall success but also upholds the value and integrity of the user’s experience. As an emerging leader, she advocates and shares her story with younger generations by doing career days in the Houston area, and mentoring design students at her alma mater, Sam Houston State University. Brianna has fine-tuned her design application and software skills on multiple projects including corporate office, multifamily housing, hospitality, and healthcare. She combines her passion for people and well-curated interior design to fully hone-in and commit to great design intent. Her personal approach to design is to create concepts and ideas that are unique to each project and can aide in its vision and storytelling.

Keynote Speaker

Maggie Jackson
Journalist, Author, Social Critic

Jackson is an award-winning author and social critic with a global reach. A former columnist for The Boston Globe and foreign correspondent for the Associated Press, Jackson also has written for The New York Times and other leading publications around the world. Jackson has won more than a half-dozen awards for her writings along with numerous fellowships and grants.

Her new book, Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure, explores why we should seek not-knowing in an era of flux and angst. Nominated for a National Book Award, Uncertain was selected as one of the 25 best non-fiction titles of 2024 according to the Next Big Idea Club led by Malcolm Gladwell. Jackson’s renowned book, Distracted: Reclaiming our Focus in a World of Lost Attention sparked a global conversation on the costs of fragmenting our attention and helped inspire Google’s global initiative to promote digital well-being. A high-energy keynote speaker, panelist, and moderator, she has advised leading executives, scientists, educators, and change-makers worldwide.

Atlanta | May 29

Leadership Award of Excellence Honoree

Fiona Grandowski, IIDA
Principal, Collins Cooper Carusi Architects


Emerging Leader Honoree

Alaina Penn, IIDA
Interior Architecture, Design Professional, Purpose with Impact

Alaina Penn is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, first receiving her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Georgia State University, then starting a new path at the Savannah college of Art and design in Interior Design. She is currently a professional member of IIDA in which she currently serves on the Georgia chapter board as EDI Director and Chair of Zero landfill. Alaina is a licensed Interior Designer that has many years of experience in Interior Design with corporate, higher education, hospitality, and multi-family projects. She loves all aspects of the design process including working with clients, developing concepts, material and furniture selections, as well as visualizations, construction documentation and administration. Alaina enjoys collaborating with and producing creative solutions for clients, delivering holistic, functional, and thoughtful spaces from the inside out.

Keynote Speaker

Pascale Sablan, FAIA, NOMA
CEO of NY Studio, Adjaye Associates | Founder, Beyond the Built Environment

Pascale Sablan is a visionary architect and the 315th living African American woman registered architect in the U.S. Pascale embodies excellence, innovation, and sustainability. She founded Beyond the Built Environment to empower women and BIPOC designers, and she recently served as the Global President of the National Organization of Minority Architects (2023–2024), becoming the fifth woman to hold this role.

Pascale's advocacy has earned her the Architectural League 2021 Emerging Voices award and the 2021 AIA Whitney M. Young Jr. Award. She is the youngest African American inducted into the AIA College of Fellows. Pascale has lectured at RIBA, the United Nations, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, and Forbes, and she was recognized by Oprah's Future Rising platform. With degrees from Pratt Institute and Columbia University, Pascale Sablan is shaping the future of architecture.

New York | May 8

Leadership Award of Excellence Honoree

Amy Mays, IIDA
Vice President, East Region Director, Interiors, HDR

Much of Amy's career has been focused on the health sector and her contributions truly demonstrate a deep commitment to shaping spaces that positively impact lives, particularly in moments of vulnerability. Amy's collaborative style and strong leadership skills, cultivated during a 25-year career, help her guide teams to deliver thoughtful results to clients, many of whom are leading healthcare organizations. She appreciates the chance to get to know clients and truly uncover their needs to then deliver innovative, inspiring solutions. Her active involvement in professional organizations and committees further emphasizes her dedication to advancing the field of interior design. She has served as past-president of the IIDA New York Chapter, Co-chair IIDA NY Healthcare Forum, Co-chair IIDA NY DEX. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, and she is a frequent speaker on many healthcare design topics. The recognition she's earned and her frequent engagement as a speaker highlights her influence and thought leadership.

Keynote Speaker

Lindsay Shookus
Co-Founder, Women Work F#cking Hard | Legendary Saturday Night Live Producer

A legendary presence behind one of America’s most beloved television shows, Lindsay Shookus worked as a veteran producer for Saturday Night Live. During her tenure, as both producer and head of the talent department, Shookus helped engineer the show’s success from booking and managing celebrity hosts and musical guests, to scouting rising stars to join the show’s ranks cementing her reputation for having a sharp eye for talent. Shookus speaks to her own experiences to lead an on-stage masterclass on personal transformation, building connections, and embracing life’s obstacles on the road to overcome them. She is the co-founder of Women Work F#cking Hard, a women’s community focused on empowering female founders and helping businesswomen develop their careers. Shookus brings a unique blend of inspirational insight and authenticity to share relatable stories with messages that will spark action and remain with audience members for the long term.

The Leadership Award of Excellence

Presentation of the Leadership Award of Excellence is the signature activity at every Leaders event. This award recognizes an honoree, typically a member of the local design community, for their exemplary leadership within the profession of commercial interior design and architecture or a non-practitioner for outstanding contributions to the profession. Honorees are presented with an iconic, limited-edition Herman Miller or Knoll gift to commemorate their achievement.

Honorees are selected for their achievements recognized by IIDA that have advanced the interior design profession, have a history of conscientious and ethical behavior with colleagues, clients, and others in business interactions, and have been recognized within their local professional design community. Honorees have a strong connection to IIDA and reinforce the Association’s significance in the design community.

History

Launched in New York in 1989 by Jeannie Bochette of Steelcase, the IIDA Leaders Breakfast series began as a single event. The goal was to introduce IIDA to the business world as a leading association of commercial interior design and to inform IIDA members about the major issues affecting them and the industry. The event established a forum where members and their clients could participate and network with their peers.

Since expanded in 2001 by IIDA Headquarters and through the support of international benefactor MillerKnoll and media partner Interior Design, Leaders Breakfast has become an annual event series that celebrates design’s importance in the global marketplace.