Melissa Iris Garcia, AIA NOMA, is a principal at Herman Coliver Locus Architecture in San Francisco and has been with the office since 2000. This unique firm focuses on affordable and supportive housing and sacred spaces, with 100% of clients being non-profit organizations. A Los Angeles native and first-generation Mexican-American, Melissa believes designing socially and environmentally resilient communities enables architecture to serve as a fulcrum for justice.  She has contributed to the design of over 1,200 units of affordable housing in the Bay Area. Each project is designed to improve and elevate its surroundings and embody its neighborhood’s, client’s and user’s needs, giving shape to their collective dreams and aspirations. Melissa holds a BA in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently chair of the Perspectivas planning committee of AIA San Francisco’s Latinx in Architecture Knowledge Community.