Team Members

John Maximuk is currently Planning and Development Director with the City of Chamblee, Georgia. For over 25 years, John has been a city planner and design champion working in sustainable development, planning management, strategic community development, education, and facilitation. John has served on the board of the Architecture and Design Center since 2014. He holds an undergraduate degree in environmental geography from Ohio University and a master's degree in regional planning from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He lives in Atlanta with his family.

Brian Dempsey is an Atlanta-based architect with more than 25 years of experience. As owner of Freespace Architecture, he focuses on designing for the education, recreation, dining, and theatrical industries. He also serves as adjunct professor for 5th-year focus studio students at Kennesaw State University.

Laura Sherman is a registered architect based in Atlanta, holding a bachelors of Architecture from Kennesaw State University (summa cum laude, honors college ‘17). She twice received honors from the Georgia Senate and House on winning the national AIA COTE Top Ten competition for the “O2O4W” project and for nationally representing the University System of Georgia . Her thesis won the 2017 KSU_Arch Thesis Competition by a jury of nationally acclaimed designers. She has won two AIA Georgia Design awards as a student and another as a professional with the Robert M. Cain, Architect design team. She currently works as a principal designer at Gensler and has held several notable positions with organization such as the National Organization for Minority Architects (NOMA), the American Institute of Architects of Atlanta (AIA ATL), and The Young Architects Forum (YAF).

David Hamilton is an Atlanta architect who has devoted a substantial part of his career to advancing the quality of design and urbanism in a rapidly evolving City. As a principal at Praxis3 architecture, he has been responsible for the design of significant local and regional buildings. David has been involved in a number of arts and civic organizations, including Central Atlanta Progress- The Downtown Arts and Entertainment District, the Freedom Park Conservancy, and serves on the Atlanta Beltline Design Review Committee.

Katherine Moore, AICP, has served in the community development field for over 20 years. She currently serves as President of Georgia Conservancy, a statewide conservation organization promoting sustainability in the built and natural environments. Katherine's interest is advancing the connection between urban design and sustainability in communities of all sizes.

Clementine is an accomplished artist, writer, and strategist dedicated to fostering connections between people, places, and ideas through creative expression. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Georgia State University, where she first became deeply involved in Atlanta’s vibrant art community. She enjoyed the independent gallery scene circa 2009-2013, and exhibited her artwork in many shows including galleries like White Space, Mint, ABV, BeepBeep, and more. Her work with organizations such as Dashboard Co-op, The ArtsXchange, One Love Foundation, and C4 provided her with a strong foundation in entrepreneurial development for artists in Atlanta. Currently, she advances this mission through her role at the Architecture and Design Center, where she works to bridge the gap between the public audience and the opportunities available through the community of art and design organizations.

As a writer and designer, Clementine has co-led a prominent writing group, Write On Ann Arbor, and created a popular subgroup focused on editing. Working professionally with GracePoint Publishing and Courage Publishing, she sharpened her eye for detail and deepened her understanding of the publishing industry and practices. She has worked with hundreds of clients and designed the interior of over 40 books. She now consults with clients through her consulting business and has a couple of creative projects that she is building on her website, Clemstarz.com. Her entrepreneurial experience spans multiple industries, including home services and concierge, founding the errand-running service Errand Tiger at a time when Atlanta's concierge industry was growing. Outside of her professional endeavors, she enjoys writing paranormal and fantasy fiction, gardening, creating art, and teaching.

As a young design professional, Nghi is a pragmatic designer whose design philosophy aims to enrich the people’s experience of the built environment. She believes that architecture is not limited to aesthetic qualities but is also a psychological provocation. The human experience of architecture is more than just the language of geometries. It includes the synergy of textures, colors, sounds, spatial scales, qualities of lighting whether natural or artificial, and context to regionalism. These combined visual and cerebral qualities forge an enduring connection between user and space that is beyond a mere memory; it becomes a sensation of architecture.

Nghi is a transplant from the city of Savannah, GA and have since been a long-time resident of Atlanta. She is an active volunteer for Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, serving as Volunteer Skill Supervisor. In years past, she has volunteered with AIA Young Architect Forum and assisted in community outreach and various YAF sponsored design competitions. She has successfully completed projects with Atlanta Beltline in their annual Art on the Beltline exhibition. Professionally, she has founded studio nd llc, a design venture with roots in architecture and pursuits of creative challenges . She has a passion for design and seeks opportunities to enhance the interplay between human condition and creative constructs.

Ed Akins is an educator and architect in Atlanta, GA. He is dedicated to the exploration and integration of practice within academia and community engagement. Ed views design as the ideal quality-focused mediator between human occupation and site at variable scales. His design inquiry prioritizes human and ecological characteristics in an effort to reinforce systemic clarity of the built environment.