AAPI Architect Lira Luis Wins the RSA Fellowship Councillor Elections in US

London, United Kingdom, October 08, 2022 --(PR.com)-- The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) announced the results of its 2022 Fellowship Council Elections, where voting opened September 12, 2022 and there were live elections with the whole Fellowship for the Area Councillors. The Fellows have elected two new Councillors to its RSA Council to represent the US.

Lira Luis, a Filipino-American architect who is a Fellow of The RSA, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship, has been elected as Councillor in the United States. She is one of two Councillors elected (the other is a U.S. White House 2022 TOP American Rescue Plan-User Advocate, María del Carmen Santiago-Valentín FRSA). Both will serve for two years on its Fellowship Council from the US.

The RSA is a global network of more than 30,000 Fellows who are entrepreneurs, educators and innovators working together for the advancement of society, the economy, and the environment. Notable past fellows (before 1914, members) include Charles Dickens, Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Hawking, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Nelson Mandela, David Attenborough, William Hogarth, John Diefenbaker, and Tim Berners-Lee. Today, the RSA has fellows elected from 80 countries worldwide. The late Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II, was its Patron following her coronation in 1953.

Lira led her campaign with an electoral manifesto focused on three causes she cherishes as a problem-solver: Climate Action (ESG); Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (EDI); and Criminal Justice Reform.

As an immigrant American architect, Lira is a daughter of developed and developing worlds which uniquely prepared her to support The RSA as a connector of people and ideas to resolve the challenges of our uncertain times. While she has witnessed the devastation of our climate and biodiversity crisis on survivors from island nations, with a most recent experience preparing for Super Typhoon Noru while in the Philippines, she has also seen the innovations of the built environment in America. Bridging between low tech and high tech, this instils a global perspective from her context-aware leadership development. She has the ability to see eye-to-eye with both survivors and criminal justice reformers.

She brings to the RSA Fellowship Council a wealth of high level leadership experiences. She organised and led a Global Inclusion Reception at a national Conference on Architecture in the US that spawned local outreach through Apple Store and governmental Embassy lectures, as well as leading and supporting the work and activity of her local area as Chair of RIBA USA’s Chicago Chapter. She initiated and led an international climate action symposium in collaboration with influencers and changemakers from the US, UK, and Philippines. She has collaborated with diverse global groups such as the RIBA, UK Trade and Investment/DIT, British Consulate Generals, The White House Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Commissioners, United Nations Women, and US-Philippines Society, including US Ambassadors such as Amb. John Maisto (ret) to name a few. She is principal architect at ALLL and founder of climate action think tank Leapfrog Project.

“I desire to inspire diverse leaders as one people, because I believe we are all connected. Like The Founding Fathers, I arrived in America in my early 20s with a dream: To impact environments that work for everyone. And I get to work very hard to bring people who are all different from each other -- together”, shares Lira Luis FRSA, FRIBA, NCARB, LEED AP, the newly elected RSA Fellowship Councillor in the US.