Meryati Blackwell, FAIA (Ati) leads an internationally renowned design practice with her partner, AIA Gold Medalist Marlon Blackwell, focusing deliberately on civic projects in education, recreation, health care, and culture that foster the community and the public good. In every instance, she works to offer dignity through design, treating people and places with respect, believing every project demands unique responses that are innovative, tactile, and carefully attuned to local conditions and cultures. Ati’s impactful work is seen through a wide variety of projects that have received recognized with significant publication and more than 200 design awards including the 2016 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture and the 2025 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize. Ati is a constant presence in every project, co-creating architecture of the highest aspirations through a holistic design process that values interior and exterior environments equally. Her situational approach to stewardship of environmental, social, and economic resources, demonstrates that architecture of the highest aspiration can be created anywhere and for everyone, setting an example for firms of all sizes and expanding the presence and effect of architecture in society at large.