Design Identities will celebrate five Black Design alumni who have been influencers in their fields. Students from each department will conduct one on one interviews with an alumnus in their field to learn about their successes as designers and to encourage the next generation of students, especially BIPOC students, with an introduction to and an interest in design. 

Interviews, portfolios of work, and backgrounds on each designer will be released weekly throughout February and the first week of March on the College of Design’s social media channels and on a dedicated webpage. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to see information on a new designer each week.  Additional information can be found by visiting the Design programs website.

Breeze is a landscape designer interested in addressing the perceptual and physical interpretations of equitable and just access to public spaces. In zir work, zie explores frameworks of resilient sociocultural equity through futurism, cultural expressions, and natural systems. Zir approach is grounded in meaningful and intentional engagement that amplifies the voices of marginalized communities through the connectivity of natural and cultural systems, the preservation of community integrity, and challenging structures of oppression in design. 

Zir work includes collaborations with community stakeholders, artists, organizers, and municipalities on projects that address challenges ranging from food access disparities, gentrification, and affirming spaces for Black womxn, non-binary, and femmes. Breeze believes in the intersectionality of narratives and the role of exploring and investigating to create affirming spaces. 

Prior to joining Sasaki, Breeze worked as a food systems designer where zie worked with community members, food producers, and municipalities on small- and large- scale planning projects to strategically address food access disparities.

Breeze holds a BEDA, BArch and MLA from North Carolina State University. Zie is currently a member of Black Landscape Architecture Network (BlackLAN) and the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Board of Directors. Zie is a 2016 LAF Olmsted Scholar and the co-founder of Blackscapes, an initiative that explores the intersection of the Black experience in the built environment.