Wadiah Akbar is an architect in Maryland and has been actively involved in the AIA Baltimore community from the beginning of her career. Since her involvement in Civic Lab in 2019, she rose to become a co-chair of the Emerging Professionals committee, helping reignite participation post-pandemic. A year on the AIA Maryland board gave her a deeper understanding of the civic responsibilities of architects. In her current role on the AIA Baltimore board, she is enthusiastic about supporting innovative programming, and strengthening our community. As an architect at Quinn Evans, she takes a leadership role in early career recruitment and mentoring, and she regularly engages with local university architecture programs as a guest critic. Wadiah is driven by a commitment to forging connections between various groups to amplify their collective impact, and supporting the next generation of architects