Karina Ruiz is a founding Principal of BRIC Architecture, the 2019 Chair of the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education, a founding Board Member of NOMA PDX, and sits of the board of Arquitina. Karina has focused her 30-year career on the design of innovative learning environments. She has designed and managed over $1 billion in educational projects throughout her career, many of which have earned numerous local, regional, and national design awards, including two James D. MacConnell Awards. As BRIC’s educational facility planning lead, Karina inspires their educational planning, community engagement, and design efforts to create a more equitable, just, and humane world. Her leadership is based in the ardent belief that design can be a partner to pedagogy to more equitably serve the needs of our learners.

Karina is a Latina Architect; her story serves as a mirror in which young people of color – especially girls – might see their experiences reflected back at them. Through various partnerships and mentorship opportunities, Karina strives to open doors through which BIPOC youth may explore a career path that was never made visible to them before.