Memorial Design Competition Managers

Donald J. Stastny FAIA FAICP FCIP

Donald J. Stastny, FAIA, FAICP, FCIP, is a practicing architect, urban designer, and process facilitator, rebuilding communities physically and culturally. Using design as a comprehensive and strategic tool, he works toward elevating the public's understanding and expectations of architecture and urban design. Mr. Stastny is recognized as one of the preeminent competition advisors and managers in North America. Providing a stewardship role in design competitions, he "designs" opportunities for professionals to create outstanding architecture and places. Among the more than 50 design/designer selection processes he has managed, he assisted the U.S. Department of State in the design delivery of five embassies, collaborated on the Oklahoma City and the Flight 93 National Memorials, managed the selection process to redesign three areas of the National Mall, and managed the design competition for the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. Mr. Stastny has been elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects, the American Institute of Certified Planners, and the Canadian Institute of Planners | Institut Canadien des Urbanistes, and the Institute of Urban Design. He was awarded the 2006 AIA Northwest and Pacific Region's Medal of Honor and the 2009 AIA Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture.

Roger K. Lewis FAIA

Roger K. Lewis, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, is a practicing architect and urban planner; a professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland College Park; and an author and journalist. Prof. Lewis has served as Professional Advisor organizing and guiding a number of significant and successful national and international design competitions that culminated in built projects. These include: the University of Maryland College Park performing arts center; the Catholic University of America law school; the Silver Spring, Maryland, civic building and plaza; the State of Maryland World War II Memorial; the University of Baltimore law school; and the DC Architecture Center. Currently president and chair of the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation, he is leading the effort to create a modestly scaled commemorative work in the nation's capital honoring the historically significant, 1961 founding of the Peace Corps. In November 2013, the Washington Architectural Foundation presented Prof. Lewis its eighth annual John "Wieb" Wiebenson Award for Architecture in the Public Interest, recognizing Prof. Lewis as "A Champion of Design for the Greater Good."

Jennifer Mannhard AICP

Jennifer Mannhard, AICP, has a passion for creating vital urban communities and engaging public space. Her interest in the interaction of people, cultures, and the built environment has shaped her career—beginning in architecture, transitioning into urban planning, and evolving into design process management. This range of urban scales throughout Jennifer's career has made her a conceptual thinker who understands the big-picture of a project while also apprehending clearly the many details that make up the whole. She leverages this unique skill set to lead and support teams and synthesize a multiplicity of views and ideas into concise focus and direction—creating professional environments that enable her collaborators to achieve great levels of success in their assignments. She has coordinated and facilitated community visioning, design charrettes, and national design competitions, including the National Mall Design Competition in Washington D.C., Design Waller Creek: A Competition in Austin, Texas, City+Arch+River Design Competition in St. Louis, Missouri, the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco, California, and most recently, the Connect Kendall Square Open Space Competition in Cambridge, Massachusetts.