AIA CA Inaugural Leadership Academy
Learning to Lead
In 2025, Michael Cintron completed AIA California's inaugural Emerging Professionals Leadership Academy, an eight-month program built to develop the next generation of architectural leaders across the state. As part of the first cohort to go through it, he joined emerging professionals from AIA chapters throughout California for a year of leadership development, statewide networking, and hands-on chapter work.
What the Academy was
Running from March through October, the Academy combined six virtual sessions with two in-person gatherings, a structure designed to build real relationships across a state as large and varied as California. The curriculum was broad by design, moving through self-awareness and emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, team building, advocacy, organizational leadership, communication, and ethical decision-making.
Much of the year was anchored in Brené Brown's "Dare to Lead," with participants putting its ideas to work on real chapter projects rather than keeping them theoretical. That was part of the point. The program was built to bridge the gap between AIA California at the state level and the local chapters where most of the day-to-day work happens, and to leave something of value behind in those communities.
What it built
The most durable part of a program like this is often the people. Bringing together emerging professionals from chapters up and down the state, from the Central Coast to San Diego to the Bay Area, created a network of peers navigating the same early-career questions at the same time. For Michael, whose work already centers on licensure and supporting emerging professionals as Licensing Advisor, South for AIA California, the Academy reinforced a throughline he has followed for years: the profession is stronger when it invests in the people coming up through it.
Looking ahead
Leadership in this profession is not reserved for principals and firm owners. It shows up in chapters, on committees, and in the quiet work of helping the next person find their footing. If you are an emerging professional in California, the Leadership Academy is worth pursuing, and the network that comes with it is worth keeping. Stay tuned for the return of the Leadership Academy in 2027.