IIDA Leaders Breakfast (Leaders) is an annual international event series hosted by eight 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 Award of Excellence Honoree who has made significant contributions to the design industry.
About the Leaders Breakfast Award of Excellence
A Leaders Breakfast History
2024 Leaders Breakfast Series
Chicago
Leadership Award of Excellence Honoree
Jennifer Cusack
CEO and Co-Founder
Corporate Concepts
Keynote Speaker
Austin Johnston
CEO, AKJOHNSTON Group
President Experiential Guild of America
Emerging Leader Honoree
Jamie Cavalier
Associate | Project Manager
Huntsman Architectural Group
Los Angeles
Leadership Award of Excellence Honoree
Vickie Kropenske
Director
Hope Street Margolis Family Center
Keynote Speaker
Vijay Gupta
Founder of Street Symphony
Co-Founder of the Skid Row Arts Alliance
MacArthur Genius
Dallas
Leadership Award of Excellence Honoree
Kris Walsh
Interior Design Director, Principal
Page
Keynote Speaker
Sara Williams Goldhagen, PhD
Author, Architecture Critic
San Francisco
Leadership Award of Excellence Honoree
Brian Graham
Founder, Creative Director
Graham Design
Keynote Speaker
Vijay Gupta
Founder of Street Symphony
Co-Founder of the Skid Row Arts Alliance
MacArthur Genius
Houston
Leadership Award of Excellence Honoree
Lauri Goodman Lampson, IIDA
President and CEO
PDR
Keynote Speaker
Kelli Harding
Assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and author of The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness
Atlanta
Leadership Award of Excellence Honoree
Karen S. Freeman, IIDA
Principal, Pediatrics Practice Leader
HOK
Keynote Speaker
Katie Peditto, PhD
Co-Director, Human Experience Lab
Perkins&Will
New York
Leadership Award of Excellence Honoree
Dale Alan Greenwald
Vice President, Interior Design Leader
CannonDesign
Keynote Speaker
Cassi Chandler
Motivational Leadership Expert | FBI’s First African American Female Special Agent Assistant Director
Previous Years
-
2023 Leaders Breakfast
New York
Award of Excellence Honoree | Hilda Longinotti
Keynote Speaker | Candace Doby
Houston
Award of Excellence Honoree | Kristin Ledet, IIDA
Keynote Speaker | Maria Brito
San Francisco
Award of Excellence Honoree | Joan Price
Keynote Speaker | Sloan Leo
Vancouver
Award of Excellence Honoree | Carol Jones, Emeritus FIIDA
Keynote Speaker | Cheryl S. Durst, Hon. FIIDA
Los Angeles
Award of Excellence Honoree | Rose Tourje
Keynote Speaker | LaToya Ruby Frazier
Dallas
Award of Excellence Honoree | Ana Pinto-Alexander, FIIDA
Keynote Speaker | Minda Harts
Atlanta
Award of Excellence Honoree | Chris Heard, IIDA
Keynote Speaker | Donna Dennis
Chicago
Award of Excellence Honoree | Jennifer Sobecki, Ind. IIDA
Keynote Speaker | LaToya Ruby Frazier -
2022 Leaders Breakfast
New York
Award of Excellence Honoree | Jennifer Graham IIDA
Keynote Speaker | Leyla Acaroglu
Houston
Award of Excellence Honoree | Stephanie Burritt, IIDA
Keynote Speaker | Scott Dikkers
San Francisco
Award of Excellence Honoree | Donald Cremers, IIDA
Keynote Speaker | Jane McGonigal
Toronto
Award of Excellence Honoree | Marilyn Donoghue, FIDC
Keynote Speaker | Ian McCallum
Los Angeles
Award of Excellence Honoree | Barbara Bouza, IIDA, FAIA
Keynote Speaker | Ben Nemtin
Dallas
Award of Excellence Honoree | Art Bloodworth
Keynote Speaker | Michael Ford, AIA, NOMA
Atlanta
Award of Excellence Honoree | Ronnie Belizaire, FIIDA
Keynote Speaker | Maria Brito
Chicago
Award of Excellence Honoree | Jim Prendergast, IIDA, FAIA
Keynote Speaker | Annie Jean-Baptiste
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 the iconic Eames stool, customized in Leaders Breakfast red, to commemorate their achievements.
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 expanding to Toronto with the help of the Interior Designers of Canada (IDC) in 2007, and through the support of international benefactor MillerKnoll and media partner Interior Design, Leaders Breakfast has become an annual international event series that celebrates design's importance in the global marketplace.
Made possible by our International Benefactor and Media Partner:
