AN speaks with NOMA president Bryan C. Lee, Jr. about how the organization is navigating the political moment

Bryan C Lee Sq2

Lee took over as NOMA’s president on January 1, 2025. (Courtesy NOMA)

By Daniel Jonas Roche

Bryan C. Lee, Jr. is president of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA); founder and director of Colloqate Design, a New Orleans– and Portland, Oregon–based practice; a licensed architect and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects; and a lecturer at Harvard GSD.

NOMA, like many organizations, is navigating our present political moment in which executive orders from the Trump administration threaten civil rights; freedom of speech; and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which are at the core of NOMA’s mission. 

Lee became NOMA’s president in January and will serve a two-year term, through 2026. AN interviewed Lee to check in about how the organization is doing and his plans for his presidency. The interview was conducted over Zoom and finalized via email.

AN: What is morale like at NOMA right now? What are NOMA’s current priorities?

Bryan C. Lee, Jr. (BL): NOMA is an organization with a history of challenging these moments, stepping up, and being forthright about situations like this. I’d say we’re ready for this fight, but we’re tired of having to keep having this fight over and over again. But, you know, we’ve done it before. And we’ll do it again.

Our board and membership are concerned about the rollback of DEI as it pertains to student chapters being at risk in our universities and as it relates to MWBE certification for federal and state projects. We also have concerns around issues in Palestine, the genocide, and the erasure of culture there. 

There are a lot of issues getting brought up that our membership is at the forefront of, whether through organizing on the ground or directly at their universities. 

For NOMA’s board, our job right now is working through the chaos and responding in a way that actually has meaningful outputs that can make our students safer and our membership more resilient through the hardest few years we’re going to go through in a while.