President
Samantha Barnes is a graphic designer and web developer living and working in New Orleans. Sam believes in design is the brainchild of creativity and divergent thinking and is a vital force for ingenuity and innovation. While earning her BFA from Nicholls State University, Sam served the Nicholls AIGA student chapter as president for two consecutive terms before graduating. Post-graduation, she worked under the direction of a couple of design firms before striking out on her own as a subcontractor. She joined the AIGA New Orleans board as Secretary / Project Manager in 2010 before her nomination and election to president in 2012.
Sam has a sharp mind and zealous appetite for life, a passion and soapbox for user experience and usability, and is an intensely curious professional. In her spare free time, Sam buries herself in good books or a Doctor Who marathon and warm mugs of Earl Grey with cream.
Vice President
Magen Raine Gladden is a designer and marketing professional currently enveloped in the design community of New Orleans. Not long after receiving her BFA from Louisiana State University, she found herself wearing many hats as the Communications Design Manager for Eskew+Dumez+Ripple architects including marketing, public relations, branding, environmental signage and print production management. Prior to that experience, she worked with a variety of clients – ranging from Grammy award-winning choirs and local celebrities to home automation engineers and human rights organizations. In her elusive free time, Magen enjoys working in her studio sans any technology, dabbling in just about every media from assemblage sculpture to textural painting.
Incoming President, Secretary and Project Manager
Julia Rose Sevin
Financial Officer
Joshua Matthews
Special Projects Director
Nancy Sharon Collins has been a permanent fixture on the AIGA board and in the design industry of Louisiana. Presently, she serves the board as Special Project Director, overseeing the Louisiana Design History project and collecting oral histories from among the design community at large. She also teaches graphic design history at Loyola University.
Education Director
Richard Doubleday
Communications Director
Adam Smith
Social Engagement Director
Azu (Ah-Sue) Romá is an artist, designer, and first generation Guatemalan-American happy to be working, living, and creating in her hometown, New Orleans. Azu enjoys working with digital and traditional mediums, particularly hand dyed sawdust, and is currently experimenting with projects melding the two. Recently, she has taken part in the Nola Now: Part II exhibit at the CAC and was a demonstration artist at the 2012 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. She is passionate about NOLA, fueled by coffee, and excited about Saints season. Who Dat. Have any ideas for AIGA events or speakers? Let’s talk!
Membership Director
Reba Joy Billups is an emerging designer born and raised in New Orleans, who recently graduated from Loyola University New Orleans in 2011. Upon graduation, I interned at MacStanley Studios and Peter A. Mayer. After the completion of my internship with Peter A. Mayer I was hired for a full time position as a Studio Specialist and now work as a Associate Art Director.
During my undergraduate years I served on the AIGA Loyola board of executives as the V.P. of Public Relations, maintaing all social media, and e-marketing needs.
Open Positions
Board terms typically last 2 years, but our board is organic in nature. If you want to get involved, just give us a shout and let’s get to work.
