Maia Kumari Bree Chowdhury (Maia Gilman) is a Registered Architect and Registered Environmental Professional in both Canada and the United States, with experience in bringing together a diversity of cultures, interests, and technical insights. Finding elegant, economical and ecologically friendly solutions to persistent problems is a talent she brings to every job, no matter its scale. She was the Vice Chair of the US Green Building Council's New Jersey Chapter MLAB and was featured in USGBC's Asian American Heritage reporting. She is a current board member of Thaumazo.

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Working within the framework of multinational engineering companies and within the United Nations has given her a unique perspective on the array of approaches that are taken across the board. Her own twist on problem-solving is enhanced by not only this international corporate exposure and intergovernmental experience, but also by her broad-minded perspective as an artist, author, VR designer, and Reiki Master.  

 

Maia teaches adults and teens about space and place-making and develops curricula on the same subjects. She is the author of two ecofiction novels that have been shortlisted for international publishing awards in Visionary Fiction: The Erenwine Agenda: A Hydraulic Fracturing Love Story, and Otter Coast: A Medical Marijuana Mystery. She is the author of Reiki: a manual; is a contributor to Anthology House: a visionary ecology project, Volumes 1 and 2; her work has been included as a case study in the book How to Design and Build a Green Office Building. 

 

With many years on the public speaking circuit (including CBC national radio and a TEDx talk at Seton Hall University), Maia is well-poised to address a wide audience on environmental topics that range from the general (“what makes a healthy space?”) to the very specific (“how can the lay consumer better understand low VOC paint labeling standards?”). She was a regular contributor to Green-Buildings.com, the New York Real Estate Journal and to Thrive Global, a workplace wellness platform. Maia presented on a panel of speakers for FIDIC, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, on the topic of bridging the sustainability skills gap worldwide.