#45 - Declare Your Mission with Katie Swenson of MASS Design Group

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://www.katieswenson.com/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Katie Swenson</a> is a nationally recognized design leader, researcher, writer, and educator.</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">She is a Senior Principal of <a href= "https://massdesigngroup.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MASS Design Group</a>, an international non-profit architecture firm whose mission is to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. Before joining MASS in early 2020, Swenson was vice president of Design & Sustainability at <a href="https://www.enterprisecommunity.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Enterprise Community Partners</a>, Inc., a national nonprofit that invested over $43.6 billion in community development. She founded Enterprise’s National Design Initiative, directing the Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute, the Pre-Development Design Grant, and the Rose Fellowship. The <a href= "https://www.enterprisecommunity.org/solutions-and-innovation/rose-fellowship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rose Fellowship</a> partners emerging architectural designers and cultural practitioners with local community development organizations to facilitate an inclusive approach to development resulting in sustainable and affordable communities. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A prolific writer, she released two books in the fall of 2020: <a href= "https://www.katieswenson.com/design-with-love">Design with Love: At Home in America</a>, and <a href= "https://www.katieswenson.com/bohemia" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">In Bohemia: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Kindness</a>, both by Schiffer Publishing.</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Architecture from The University of Virginia. Katie was also a Harvard University Graduate School of Design Loeb Fellow in 2018-2019, and has taught at the Boston Architec