CONGRATS to Marcela Oliva, AIA Educator of the Year!

WOO-HOO!! Pando Fellow Marcela Oliva of LA Trade Technical College (LATTC) was recently named Educator of the Year by the American institute of Architects (AIA) – Los Angeles. Congratulations, Marcela! 

Marcela has been involved with Pando since 2015. She has led the LATTC Pando Days teams from her base in the College’s architecture department.

In the words of the AIA: “The Educator of the Year Award recognizes an individual who has fostered the intellectual and/or professional growth of emerging architects and has demonstrated a commitment to ensuring the forward advancement of the architecture profession for generations to come.”

The AIA commended Marcela’s focus on “improving the social conditions in… surrounding communities using a hands-on approach to instruction.” 

In 2018, Marcela teamed up with Pando and community partners in “The Futures of Death Alley” to reimagine abandoned alleyways as places of respite, creativity, and nourishment. 

Later in the year, she led students into the winner’s circle of Junk Battle!, a Pando program that asks student teams to do something amazing with their own waste stream. 

In 2019, she formed a Pando Days project team and has kept one going on the LATTC campus ever since. See her Pando Days submissions from 2019/20 and 2021. 

All of her projects are continuing to move forward with community partners. 

This year, she is bringing 25 students to develop an innovative project that, as she says, “will bring everything together from her previous Pando Days’ work.” 

Read the whole of the AIA-Los Angeles announcement and article here.

And CONGRATULATIONS Marcela, again!!