MASS Announces Promotions in 2022

BOSTON & KIGALI Rwanda, February 10, 2022 – Our first, largest, and longest-running design project is the design of our practice. The creativity, talent, and dedication of our team of over 250 architects, landscape architects, engineers, writers, filmmakers, and researchers—representing twenty countries around the world—is what makes MASS unique. We are proud to announce staff promotions and welcome new team members.

Principal Promotions 

Jha D Amazi is the Director of the Public Memory and Memorials Lab which is an initiative that advances research, training, and built work around a central thesis: spatializing memory can heal us and inspire collective action for generations to come. Projects in the Lab’s portfolio include the Sugar Land 95 Cemetery Revitalization Project, Harris County Remembrance Project and several initiatives with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Jha D is a spoken word artist, event producer, and SpaceMaker for the LGBTQ+ communities of color.

Anton Larsen leads project teams from the Kigali office on projects across the continent. His research is focused on climate positive design contributing to seminal projects like the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture and in developing viable opportunities for affordable housing in East Africa with projects like the Masaka Affordable Housing and Mvule Gardens for 14 Trees. Anton has been advancing the work of the Performance and Provenance Council, contributing to MASS’s organizational sustainability goals and implementing carbon targets and measurement tools across project teams. 

Jeffrey Yasuo Mansfield leads MASS’s Deaf Space and Disability Justice Lab, uplifting the lived experience of Deaf and Disabled communities to bring equity and dignity on a number of education and cultural projects. Jeffrey is a recipient of the Ford and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Disability Futures fellowship, a John W. Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress, and co-author of The Architecture of Health with Michael Murphy. He has taught design studios at the University of Michigan and Harvard Graduate School of Design. Deaf since birth, Jeffrey’s current research explores the formation of Deaf and Disability spaces as expressions of cultural resistance. 

Caitlin Taylor is an architect with a background in food and farming. In her role directing MASS’s Food System Design Lab, she develops interdisciplinary research at the intersection of food systems, regional ecologies, and the built environment. Caitlin is leading design projects around the country including the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture and the Pepper Place Pavilion. She is a professor at the Yale School of Architecture and lives on the farm that she owns and runs with her family.

2022 Promotions 

Congratulations to the following MASS team members on their recent promotions: 

Welcome to MASS

Bob Stern joins MASS as the inaugural Director of Graphic Design. He will move the firm’s brand forward in all mediums, develop strategic management of MASS’s fast-growing archive of visual assets, provide design direction and graphic support to business development and project leadership through refinement and development of graphic standards and templates. He also joins MASS’s expanding exhibit design practice, and contributes environmental graphics and wayfinding expertise to architectural and planning projects. 

We welcome the following individuals who have recently joined the MASS Team! 

Kelvin Adjei-Akosah, Junior Filmmaker

Mahdi Ahmed, Designer

Megan Altendorf, Senior Architect

Nicki Ambrose, HR Coordinator

Antonieta Boxce, Assistant Editor and Media Manager

Celina Brownotter, Designer

Francisco Coch, Junior Designer

Talent Davis, Lead for Poughkeepsie Fellow

Tyler Denton, Advancement Consultant

Kyle Digby, Design Consultant

Sylvie Dufitimana, GHC Fellow

Bonney Prudent Duhujuburanga, Carpenter

Francis Fotsing, Engineer Grade 2

Sharon Marie Furaha, Operations Coordinator

Serge Iradukunda, Engineer Grade 2

Tamara Jamil, Designer

Nixon Magese, Engineer Grade 3

Pacifique Mpambara, Carpenter

Jean Bosco Mugabe, Finance Coordinator

Joel Muhozi, Filmmaker

Tamer Musharbesh, Landscape Architect

Barthazarad Nteziryayo, Carpenter

John Padmore, Senior Designer

Sarah Payton, Designer

Terri Pham, YPTC

Diego Rigalies, Operations Coordinator

Brian Sandford, Designer

Nailla Simbi, Filmmaker

Jennifer Tran, Landscape Designer

Joselyne Uwineza, GHC Fellow

Jessica Wetters, Senior Architect

Kara Westhoven, Communications Specialist

DaMario Walker Brown, Designer

Andrew Younker, Designer

Learn more about people at MASS here.