Connor Descheemaker

About Connor Descheemaker

With more than seven years of project and program management experience, I have worked at the intersection of visual art, performance, architecture, urban planning, and community engagement to produce and facilitate meaningful events and initiatives for professionals and the broader public. With extensive knowledge of urban issues and arts-centric placemaking, I excel in creating systems in which community members can create the programs, engagements, exhibitions, and performances which give their neighborhood, city, profession, or mission meaning. I have programmed a community-based commercial art gallery, producing diverse monthly exhibitions with a myriad of curators and across media; served on municipal boards and commissions to facilitate quality, walkable urban development; curated and moderated panel discussions and presentations on critical development issues facing hyperlocal communities; trained and managed volunteers across arts and professional association settings; produced multidisciplinary performance art events with local, regional, and national performers, including navigating artist guarantees and contracts, patron services, and venue management; managed annual member campaigns for business and professional associations primarily focused on the AEC industry; created and managed discipline-specific, peer-based professional learning focused on equity, in accountability to peer BIPOC-led organizations; and created and adapted systems to facilitate and implement dozens of monthly meetings and programs for professionals in architecture and allied professions. Though diffuse in content, the core of my work is united in finding and building trust with extant and emergent individuals and community organizations, understanding their needs and priorities, and creating systems in which we can co-create meaningful policy, programming, and information to share. This means ceding power from established organizations, emphasizing lived experience, and connecting people to the tools and groups which will give their personal and professional lives meaning. Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, I am now located in Seattle, Washington.

Experience

1. Member Engagement Manager

   Aia Seattle

   Aug 2018 — Present · Seattle, WA, US

   Managing member engagement for the Puget Sound\'s chapter of the professional association of the architectural field-Facilitate 15+ member-led committees and two organizational steering committees focusing on critical issues facing the profession and community at large, inclusive of sustainability, equity, planning and zoning, housing, young and international practitioners, organizational honors and leadership cultivation, among others-Directly communicate with the association\'s 2600+ members-Support strategic development of organization’s annual plan and member campaigns, including Corporate Allied Partners, firm memberships, and other community partners-Facilitate dozens of weekly small-scale virtual and in-person annual programs produced by member-led committees, inclusive of networking, honors ceremonies, exhibitions, panel discussions, lectures, film screenings, forums, and more-Manage annual large-scale virtual and live professional education programs focusing on building code, healthcare design, and other architecture and related disciplines-Set & manage ten-plus budgets related to membership campaigns, small- and large-scale programs, consultants and contractors, and ongoing vendors and suppliers-Produce annual peer-based learning cohort for racial and social equity training for architecture and allied firm leaders, in cooperation with NOMA NW chapter and Planning in Color, inclusive of hiring and managing an external facilitator-Maintain member databases in Fonteva (Salesforce) and LittleGreenLight; project management in Smartsheet; Communications/CRM and events management in Eventbrite and ConstantContact; website management in WordPress; General work across Microsoft Office Suite

Education

• Arizona State University

  Urban and Metropolitan Studies (BA), Urban Planning (minor);, College of Public Programs, School of Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning

  2011 — 2015