Sandy Mendler, AIA, LEED Fellow

Sandy is a nationally recognized architect and planner focused on creating inspiring new models for healthy, sustainable living. She brings deep expertise as an Education practice area leader for Gensler’s Northwest region, driving the design of college and university facilities that build vibrant communities, advance research, and support student-centered experiential learning. Sandy advocates for the transformative potential of campus buildings and landscapes, as these mission-driven projects act as prototypes and pedagogy for the positive future.

She is recognized as a LEED fellow by the USGBC, a senior fellow of the Design Futures Council, and serves on numerous committees and boards driving sustainability, equity, and resilience. An early sustainability pioneer and lead author of one of Wiley’s best-selling sustainable design texts, she contributed to the early development of the LEED green building rating system as a national director of the USGBC and served as past chair of AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE). In addition to degrees in architecture from Washington University and Pratt Institute, she recently completed a doctorate in Policy, Planning and Development at USC with her dissertation entitled “Resilient and Equitable Urbanism by Design: Insights from the collaborative process to reimagine the SF Bay Area.”