HED’s Ersa Llakmani Receives 2026 AIA Associates Award

Ersa Llakmani, MBA, Associate AIA, NOMA, LEED Green Associate, has been named a recipient of the 2026 AIA Associates Award, one of the American Institute of Architects’ highest honors for early-career professionals. The award recognizes associate members who demonstrate exceptional leadership and make meaningful contributions to their communities and the profession.

Selected from a national pool, this year’s honorees represent a small group of emerging leaders shaping the future of architecture through advocacy, mentorship, and professional engagement.

Ersa’s recognition reflects a body of work that extends beyond project delivery. Her leadership is defined by a sustained commitment to advocacy, mentorship, and inclusive practice that strengthens pathways for emerging professionals while building stronger connections between local and national engagement.

Within HED, that ethos is tangible. She is a connector by instinct and by practice as someone who expands the room, invites others in, and insists that the profession reflect the breadth of the communities it serves. Her work advances not only design outcomes, but the conditions that make better design possible: shared knowledge, equitable opportunity, and a culture that invests in its future.

The AIA Associates Award is given to individuals who are not yet licensed architects but are already influencing the direction of the field through leadership and service. In Ersa, that influence feels both immediate and durable, where her work is rooted in action, and oriented toward what comes next.

We are proud to celebrate this recognition and the example it sets across our practice.

Read the original announcement from the AIA here: AIA Associates Award 2026 | The American Institute of Architects