Shawna began her career as a graduate of Mississippi State University School of Architecture and joined a local firm on the beautiful Gulf Coast. There she worked on exciting projects of all types; educational, healthcare, mixed use, residential, and commercial. While there, the Mississippi coast experienced a surge of vitality in new construction with the legalization of casinos and the emergence of the hospitality sector. As a result, Shawna’s work includes new and renovated school facilities for the Cities of Biloxi, Gulfport, and Harrison County School Districts, among other important projects for the coastal counties.

Educational design remained a significant segment of her ongoing work experience for the next 20 years, part of a diverse range of project types and sizes. Now living in Tennessee, Shawna is delighted to be working on Industrial projects for large-scale manufacturing facilities, a type of construction that she has always found intriguing. She enjoys the structural language and complex functionality of Architecture as an expression of the manufacturing process itself. Having grown up in East Tennessee, Shawna has joined DIA and is excited to continue her passion for Architecture of all types in her hometown, Knoxville.