Embarking on an important new chapter, the leading women’s advocacy organization Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF) has announced the appointment of Tizziana Baldenebro to be their new executive director, following an extensive national search. A noted architecture writer, critic, and curator as well an arts administrator and nonprofit leader, New York-based Tizziana brings perspectives from her upbringing in Los Angeles as well as her activism while living in Chicago, Detroit, and most recently in Cleveland as director of arts nonprofit SPACES.

Tizziana Baldenebro brings a high profile nationally as an organizer and activist in efforts to produce equitable outcomes, resources and access, impacting cultural centers, women-led organizations, and the international architecture and arts scene more broadly. She served in the prominent and high-profile role of commissioner and co-curator of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, adding to her long track record and endorsements by architecture and art world leaders. One critic at the Cleveland Plain-Dealer applauded her as “a front-line participant” in a growing global movement “to upend traditional hierarchies in a quest for racial and social justice.”

We had the pleasure of congratulating Tizziana and took some time to get to know her. To learn more about the new director and hear about some of her goals for the Foundation, listen in now.