The AIA Vermont membership voted in favor of adding four new board members to the organizations leadership during the Annual Meeting and Design Awards event on December 5th, 2024. The new board members include:

Anthony Caldwell, Assoc. AIA, is an architectural historian, educator, and digital humanist with over thirty years of experience studying, preserving, and re-imagining architectural heritage. Holding a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Anthony developed a deep appreciation for the cultural and historical significance of the built environment.

Recently retired from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Anthony served as Assistant Director of UCLA’s Digital Research Consortium and Manager of the Scholarly Innovation Labs. Anthony led initiatives to advance architectural history and preservation through innovative digital methodologies during this time. This work included reconstructing the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome, and Los Angeles’ historic theaters, blending rigorous historical research with state-of-the-art technology to bring these structures to life.

Education has been central to Anthony’s career. He has taught at UCLA and SCI-Arc, designing courses and workshops on architectural history, cultural heritage preservation, and digital visualization techniques. Sharing a passion for exploring and preserving architectural history has been one of the most fulfilling aspects of his professional journey. Anthony has presented work at prominent conferences, including those hosted by the Society of Architectural Historians and the Construction History Society of America, contributing to global conversations about the role of history in shaping our understanding of architecture.

In retirement, Anthony remains committed to architectural preservation and education, advocating for the built environment’s cultural and historical significance. Through ongoing education, research, and advocacy, he aims to inspire others to recognize architectural heritage’s enduring importance and protect it for future generations.

Misty Kaplan, AIA, is the Principal of Fifth Wall Architecture as well as a Visiting Instructor in Architecture at Middlebury College where she teaches studios in architectural design. After earning a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University, she spent 20 years in California honing her craft while working for prominent architecture and design firms in both San Francisco and Los Angeles before returning to her hometown of Burlington in 2019 to establish her practice. With more than 25 years of experience ranging from single family homes to large-scale multi-family and mixed use projects, her work as both a teacher and as an architect seeks to bridge modernism and humanism and is founded on the idea that design can be both a community service and a shared, aspirational language.

Ryan Dirks, AIA, is an architect and sustainability specialist at Perkins Eastman, with over 15 years of experience in a wide range of project types and sizes. His expertise is in all things related to building enclosures, building science education, and especially energy and carbon. He applies his experience as a project architect to help teams find cost-effective solutions that reduce carbon emissions while simultaneously improving the quality of experience for the building’s occupants.  

Since 2008, Ryan has worked in a variety of practice areas, ranging from single- family Passive Houses to hospital towers and nearly everything in between. He applies this breadth of experience to every project and strives to help create practical solutions that improve

performance no matter what the project constraints are.

Originally from Iowa, he recently moved to Essex to get closer to family and the many outdoor activities that Vermont offers. He has an undergraduate degree from Iowa State University and a Master of Science in Architecture degree from the University of Oregon, where he also helped teach courses in the field of sustainability. Ryan is especially passionate about the Passive House certification system due to its exceptional track record of delivering significant energy savings while providing superior indoor environmental quality.  He helped write the textbook Passive House Details, has presented at several conferences on the subject of carbon, and loves mentoring emerging professionals about the positive impact that sustainable design has on our communities and climate.

Devin Bushey, AIA, NCARB is a Senior Project Architect at TruexCullins. She holds a B.Arch with a focus on Sustainability Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. As a Vermont native, she is passionate about small-scale community engagement and improving access to the architecture profession for the next generation. She contributes to this effort through her work with NCARB as an Architect Licensing Advisor and within AIA as a Young Architect Representative.