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About the Panelists

Carol Corr, AIA
One of Carol’s passions is community service. She believes we are put on this earth to contribute; always learn and always put yourself in the other person’s shoes.

Carol joined Kaiser Permanente (KP) National Facilities Services (NFS) in 2005 and moved to KP’s Operations Risk Group in 2016. In her previous roles at KP, Carol served as the NFS Design Program Manager and played a major role in the Template Hospital Program, which enabled KP to deliver nine hospitals in twelve years.

Her more than 30 years of experience includes a variety of building types ranging from high tech, commercial, laboratories, affordable housing, to healthcare at a number of Bay Area and Detroit Firms: Chong Partners, Ratcliff, Powell & Partners, GEZ, Ehrlich-Rominger, Del Campo & Maru.

Diarro Foster

Diarro Foster is a Senior Designer at Arcanum Architecture, Inc.

Born in Los Angeles, Diarro Foster is a designer who has dedicated his career of 23 years to creating inspiring homes that embody the spirit of the urban West Coast lifestyle.

Influenced by the abundance of world class architecture he encountered as a youth growing up in Santa Monica, Diarro sees architecture for its importance in communicating a shared sense of optimism and aspiration. He earned his B.A. degree in Architecture from UC Berkeley in 1997 and his project experience since then has included luxury hotel design, urban infill and adaptive reuse projects, along with a steady flow of custom single-family homes.

Rosa T. Sheng, FAIA

Rosa Sheng is a Principal at SmithGroup, Studio Leader of Higher Education and Director of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion. She was AIA San Francisco President in 2018 and Founding Chair of Equity by Design.

As a licensed architect with 24 years of experience in architecture and design, Rosa has led a variety of award-winning and internationally acclaimed projects from the aesthetically minimal, highly technical development of the glass structures for Apple’s original high-profile retail stores, to the innovative and sustainable projects for Institutions of higher learning such as the LEED NC Gold–certified Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business at Mills College in Oakland, California.

Rosa’s thought leadership and activism has been recognized for catalyzing a national movement for equitable practice in Architecture marked by three pivotal surveys and public speaking outreach both nationally and abroad including TEDxPhiladelphia, Cannes Lions Festival, Harvard, Stanford and KQED/NPR. In 2019 she was celebrated as a Metropolis Game Changer for her the movement within Architecture that started with Equity by Design.

Michael E. Willis, FAIA

Michael came to California in 1982 to open the San Francisco office of Fleming Corporation for Charles Fleming, a Black architect with a national practice. He grew the firm from himself to 14 people until he left in 1988 to start his own firm, MWA Architects. MWA has designed mixed income affordable housing, airports, subways and major municipal water infrastructure projects. Michael retired in 2016 and since 2017, has been a design consultant and professor at Washington University St. Louis.

Michael believes it’s key to help make “Black Lives Matter” last beyond the current moment. He feels that the focus should be an integral and permanent part of any consideration in rebuilding equity in Black communities in the areas of housing, schools, transportation, open space, and providing essential services.

About the Moderator

Roland Lau, AIA

Roland Lau is an Associate Principal at Perkins Eastman with extensive experience on significantly large projects like the recently completed New Stanford Hospital and the Kaiser Template hospital project for the design and construction of three new hospitals simultaneously, and for smaller projects like the adaptive reuse of a rundown south of Market building into transitional housing for the rehabilitation of men and women with drug, HIV and alcohol problems.

Roland is an AIASF Mentorship Committee and mentorship group member and also chairs the AIASF Architectural Licensing Committee that orchestrates year-round Architectural Registration Exam (ARE) preparatory classes taught pro-bono by licensed architects and engineers for anyone seeking architectural licensing.

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