Excited to share that I had the honor of co-curating and participating in the 2026 Women's Empowerment Summit at UBS in New York City, alongside Emmanuel Curling and Jacqueline Jenkins!

Last year, I attended this summit as a guest. This year, I had the privilege of helping bring it to life.

That evolution means more to me than I can adequately express. Throughout my career, I have worked to gain access to spaces where influential conversations take place, where decisions are made, and where opportunities are created. To now have a hand in shaping those spaces, determining who is welcomed into them, and connecting people whose collective influence can transform lives is a profound privilege.

And it is a responsibility I embrace with intention.

Hosted at UBS, one of the world's leading wealth management institutions, internationally recognized for its expertise in wealth management, investment banking, and financial advisory services, the summit brought together a carefully curated gathering of 40 accomplished women. CEOs, board chairs, entrepreneurs, senior executives, and leaders from across industries came together not simply to celebrate their achievements, but to exchange the knowledge, relationships, and resources that make new achievements possible.

I have always believed that the most powerful thing we can do with the access we earn is extend it to someone else.

This gathering was an opportunity to put that belief into action.

Where Knowledge Becomes Power

Our morning began with welcoming remarks from Nadia Lovell, Head of Global Equity Strategy & Management at UBS, followed by a thoughtfully designed program exploring the interconnected dimensions of women's leadership, influence, health, and wealth.

We opened with Fashion Chat: Boardroom Fashion Trends, featuring Edwing D'Angelo, Fashion Designer and Creative Director of Edwing D'Angelo Atelier. His conversation invited us to consider how professional presence, personal expression, and confidence intersect. For women navigating spaces where they may still be the only person who looks like them, the ability to show up authentically and command a room is not a superficial consideration. It is part of how we claim our place within it.

The Public Board Journey featured Melinda White, Chief Executive Officer, Board Chair, Audit Chair, and Senior Advisor at GeoLinks; Marcy Syms, President of TPD Group, LLC, and Harvard Management Program alumna; and Suzan Morno-Wade, Board Director and Compensation Committee Chair at Latham Pool Group and Vertiv. Moderated by Duane Hughes, Managing Director and Chair of the Americas Advisory Council at UBS, the discussion illuminated pathways to corporate board leadership and the responsibilities that accompany those positions. It offered women insight into how they might move from leading within organizations to helping govern their futures.

Our Health Is Wealth conversation brought together Korey Rowe, Celebrity Fitness Trainer; Dr. Davida Hunter-Cummins, Licensed Mental Health Counselor; and Esosa Edosomwan, MS, CNS, BCC, LDN, CEO of Staying Ageless Coaching. Moderated by Sidney Hankerson, MD, MBA, Associate Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the panel explored the relationship between physical health, mental well-being, and sustained success.

I appreciated that we made room for this conversation. Women are so often celebrated for how much they can carry, how much they can accomplish, and how much they can give. But our health cannot become the price we pay for our ambition. We deserve to build lives that are as fulfilling as the legacies we are working to leave behind.

Across these conversations, the message was clear: leadership is not defined by a single achievement. It is strengthened by the knowledge we acquire, the choices we make, and our ability to sustain ourselves while creating opportunities for others.

Architecture Belongs in the Wealth Conversation

I was especially honored to participate in Legacy & Impact Investing alongside Lynette Jefferson, Managing Director and Head of Sustainable & Impact Investing Solutions at UBS, and De'Ara Balenger, Managing Director at The Rockefeller Foundation. Our conversation was moderated by Betina Dowdell, MBA, MSW, Relationship Manager, Workplace Wealth Solutions at UBS.

As Founder and CEO of The Third Office, I welcomed the opportunity to bring an architectural perspective into a discussion about wealth, investment, and generational legacy.

Because architecture is not separate from wealth. Architecture is one of the ways wealth takes physical form.

It is reflected in the homes families can afford, the schools children attend, the businesses that anchor neighborhoods, and the cultural institutions that preserve our collective histories. It is present in the infrastructure that connects communities to opportunity and in the investments that determine which neighborhoods flourish.

Long before an architect begins designing, decisions have already been made about land, capital, ownership, and development. Those decisions determine not only what gets built, but whose needs are prioritized and who has the opportunity to benefit.

I want architects present when those decisions are being made.

Through The Third Office, I am intentionally connecting the built environment to broader conversations about wealth creation, strategic partnerships, and economic influence, particularly where those relationships can generate meaningful opportunities for communities that have historically been excluded from them.

This work is also a continuation of my advocacy through Beyond the Built Environment. For years, I have championed the visibility, recognition, and contributions of diverse designers. But visibility cannot be the final destination. It must become a pathway to commissions, partnerships, investment, leadership, and ownership.

It is not enough for our communities to be represented in the places where wealth is created. We must have the opportunity to participate in creating it.

That is the kind of legacy I want my work to help advance.

From Being Invited to Creating the Invitation

What moved me most about this summit was not simply the remarkable expertise represented on stage, but the possibility contained within the room itself.

Every woman brought something that another woman might need: experience navigating a challenge, insight into an unfamiliar industry, access to a professional network, or the ability to recognize potential in someone else's ambition.

When we intentionally connect those resources, empowerment becomes more than an encouraging word. It becomes something we can practice.

Following Emmanuel's closing remarks, the women had an opportunity to continue their conversations and build relationships beyond the formal program. We have already begun seeing connections made that morning continue beyond the summit, and I am excited about the possibilities those relationships may create.

I think often about the difference between having access and exercising influence.

Access allows us to enter a room. Influence gives us the opportunity to shape what happens inside it. But leadership, at its most meaningful, asks us to consider what becomes possible for others because we were there.

That is how I want to use the relationships I have cultivated throughout my career. To introduce people who might otherwise never meet. To share knowledge that has too often been reserved for a select few. To bring architecture into conversations where capital and opportunity are being directed. And to help create pathways that extend beyond my own professional advancement.

My sincere gratitude to Emmanuel Curling and Jacqueline Jenkins for their partnership and shared vision, to UBS for hosting this remarkable gathering, and to every speaker, moderator, and attendee who contributed her or his expertise and presence.

I am proud to have helped create an experience where accomplished women could learn from one another, challenge their thinking, and begin building relationships with the potential to extend far beyond a single morning.

Last year, I was grateful to receive an invitation.

This year, I was grateful to help extend one.

And perhaps that is one of the most meaningful expressions of power: not simply reaching a place of influence, but using that influence to make the journey possible for someone else.

If you're receiving this message, it's because you are part of my journey. Your support sustains me. I carry each of you into every room I enter, and I hope to continue making you proud.

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