Cast your vote for the next leaders of the AIGA Houston chapter.

In accordance with our chapter bylaws, the next group of AIGA Houston board and committee members to serve the local community will be elected by a majority vote of the members of the AIGA Houston chapter.

This year’s chapter slate election is a continuation of the board nomination process:

• Chapter slate vote: After reviewing all submissions from the 2022 Board Nominations, the Nominating Committee proposes a slate of nominees to be approved by the current board. The chapter slate is then presented to all AIGA Houston members for a majority vote election. Slate voting is fast and easy with a simple up or down vote of the entire chapter slate.
• Term start: Elected candidates will be onboarded and new board/committee members will begin their term on July 1, 2022.

2022 Nominating Committee

Thank you to the 2022 Nominating Committee for their time in reviewing this year’s nominations.

• Michelle Coffey, President emeritus
• Rachel Flores, Past officer
• Natalie Thayer, Outgoing board member, previous Nominating Committee member

Election Period

Friday, May 13, 12:00 am CDT – Friday, June 3, 11:59 pm CDT
Results will be announced Friday, June 10.
Incoming, outgoing, and continuing members will be listed in the announcement.

Ready to Vote?

Please note: duplicate votes and votes by non-members will not be counted. Not a member? Join now!

2022 Chapter Slate

We are excited to present this year’s chapter slate for consideration. Learn more about each nominee below.

Executive

President | Tracy Ngo
Tracy Ngo (she/her) is a Vietnamese + Chinese American based in Houston. She received her BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Houston and works as an in-house designer for Lockton. Tracy is a cat-and-dog-owning creative: graphic designer, writer, illustrator, arts appreciator, nonprofit volunteer and leader. As an INFJ, her superpower is overthinking. 

Tracy also makes time to give back to her local creative community. From a student volunteer in 2015 to joining the Board of Directors in 2018, Tracy stays active through her involvement with the non-profit, AIGA Houston. Over the years, she has planned, supported and executed AIGA initiatives by developing programming events, such as skill-building talks and workshops and more. She currently serves as AIGA Houston’s Operations Director, where she develops and maintains internal structures, strategies, policies, and protocols to help the board operate efficiently.

Membership 

Membership Director | Face (Alexis) Burger
Face (Alexis) Burger is the founder of Le Veux, a creative agency that promotes the advancement and collaboration of creative communities primarily between Chicago and Houston. Face is a dedicated customer service specialist, trainer, team leader, and creator who will bring a positive attitude and ability to multitask–both individually and collectively–to her work with the board. 

Programming

Focus areas: community, education

Programming Chair (Education) | Sandy Pham
Sandy Pham is currently a Design Lead at Umbrage Studios in Houston, Texas. She has worked on a range of digital products that establish software solutions for global clients to help them thrive in their new revenue channels. Sandy is passionate about what she does, what she creates and strives to find inspiration in all things. Sandy designs and leads a team in areas of user experience design, interactions and visual design for specific digital products.

Programming Chair (Education) | Alexandra Velez
Alexandra Velez is a bold, strategic, experimental UX designer with 7+ years of visual design experience blending extensive marketing experience to drive business growth with evidenced based design. As a highly sought after UX designer, Alexandra has been invited to teach UX Design at ThriveU, DigitalCrafts, and General Assembly. From the music industry to energy industry to local businesses to startups, she has done marketing and design work for a wide range of businesses. An expressive, entrepreneurial, experimental UX designer with a flair for presentation and practical designs, she educates routinely on UX design in workshops.

She’s currently a UX Designer Specialist at BHP. In her next role, she will be a Senior UX Designer at Charles Schwabb.

Programming Ambassador (Community) | Jessica Tsao
Jessica Tsao is a Houston-based brand specialist and graphic designer. She brings 11 years of working in design, brand management, and art direction — with another two years of employment at an architecture agency — and has guided and developed her interests in design on a multidisciplinary level. The ability to advance brands through effective communication and design standards has been her greatest strength and is what she believes to be the standard for a company’s success.

Design Advocacy

Design Advocacy Chair | Sam Benitez
Sam Benitez is a UX/UI Designer, who leverages her extensive design and front-end knowledge and background in psychological research to tackle complex human-centered problems requiring critical thinking and creativity. Through empathy and inquisitive nature, Sam methodically gathers and synthesizes data into an intuitive design solution and takes it to production through strategic planning, meticulous organization, and communication. She currently serves as AIGA Houston’s Design Advocacy Ambassador.

Design Advocacy Chair | Qi Guo
Qi Guo is a multimedia designer. She earned a BFA in Graphic Design from Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY while minoring in Creative Technology and Art History. Qi spent three years interning at an advertising agency based in New York and worked with several of their clients closely, (Grand Central Terminal, Fresh & Co., Montclair State University, and more) on a wide variety of projects from brand identity design to motion graphics. She currently serves as AIGA Houston’s DEI Coordinator.

Design Advocacy Ambassador | Samantha Delgado
Samantha Delgado is an experienced Graphic Designer with a demonstrated history of working in the secondary and higher education industry. She is skilled in Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Indesign CC, and Adobe Illustrator and has a strong creative background with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art/Design from University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Chair | Chris Robinson
Houston, Texas-based illustrator Chris Robinson’s (he/him) work brings together his professional experience in graphic design and his personal cultural heritage. His illustrations depict subjects playfully while remaining deeply rooted in rich family and cultural histories. Chris currently serves as AIGA Houston’s DEI Coordinator

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Coordinator | Sanders Anderson
Sanders Anderson uses creativity and strategic thinking to tackle brand identity design, positioning, campaigns, and integrated marketing. He has 10+ years of experience spanning identity and packaging, billboards and outdoor signage, websites and digital experiences, advertising, and communications. Sanders currently serves as AIGA Houston’s DEI Ambassador.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Coordinator | Joshua Unikel
Joshua Unikel is an assistant professor in the University of Houston’s School of Art and currently serves as AIGA Houston’s DEI Coordinator. As a Jewish designer, Joshua has experienced first-hand how necessary DEI initiatives are. As a white male designer, he knows the importance of listening to others’ perspectives on DEI issues and the importance of being an ally. As a professor at the University of Houston, he understands up-and-coming Houston area designers: designers who are largely BIPOC and mostly women of color. 

Joshua also has experience implementing DEI-based change. He has helped to diversify the design curriculum at UH to include even more BIPOC graphic designers and projects addressing BIPOC issues. He has used his role on committees to ensure that scholarships, project funding, exhibitions and visiting speakers represent the diverse range of designers in Houston.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Ambassador | Flor Barajas
Flor Barajas is a bilingual digital marketing designer and freelance visual designer. She implements a human-centered design approach to design concept-driven brand, product, editorial, and UX/UI design. 

As a digital marketing designer at Page, Inc., Flor conceptually designed user-centered design projects, motion graphics, marketing material, and editorial content that span across various departments within multiple languages in the architecture/design firm. Overall, a research-based designer, educator, creative thinker, and problem solver with a passion for art direction, data visualization, and a geeky love for typography and EGD systems.

Communications 

Focus areas: communications, email, social media, web

Communications Director | Sabrina Smith
Sabrina Smith is a graphic designer based in Houston, Texas. She wants to create meaningful design in a visually saturated world. Sabrina currently serves as AIGA Houston’s Communications (Social Media) Coordinator. She loves giving back to her design community through creating graphics and running AIGA Houston’s social media pages.

Communications Coordinator (Email) | Hannah Fei
Hannah Fei is a results-oriented and innovative professional, who provides global experience and cross-functional exposure in marketing, design, event management, media, public relation, and brand management. She currently serves as AIGA Houston’s Communications (Email) Coordinator.

Finance (Partnerships)

Partnerships Chair | Gracie Padron
Gracie Padron is the founder of Padrón & Co., a Houston-based marketing agency specializing in nonprofits, tech startups, and small businesses. She currently serves as AIGA Houston’s Partnerships Chair.

Ready to Vote?

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