The director of the innovative education and employment program at Carnegie Mellon University discusses its potential to change the profession's demographics.
By WANDA LAU
Donald Carter
The minority educational and career placement program UDream (Urban Design Regional Employment Action for Minorities), in Pittsburgh, has been honored with a 2015 AIA Diversity Recognition Program. Since UDream’s founding in 2009, 58 fellows—mostly recent B.Arch. graduates—have completed the 18-week program, which includes an academic boot camp and a paid internship at a local firm or nonprofit. Moreover, 25 fellows have stayed in the Pittsburgh area, a number that more than tripled the population of minority designers there and led to the re-establishment of a local National Organization of Minority Architects chapter. ARCHITECT spoke with Donald Carter, FAIA, director of the Remaking Cities Institute at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Architecture, which runs UDream. For the full interview please click on the title.