When Kimberly Dowdell becomes president of the American Institute of Architects next month, her ascent will be noteworthy. Ms. Dowdell, an architect in a profession that is overwhelmingly white and male, is a Black woman, the first to fill the post in the group’s 166-year history. African Americans make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. population, but only 1.8 percent of licensed architects in the country are Black, according to the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. Fewer than a quarter of the nearly 120,000 licensed architects in the United States are women, and not even one half of 1 percent of architects are Black women. There are small signs of change: Nearly 3 percent of architects who received their license last year were Black, and 43 percent of new architects were women.

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Persons: Kimberly Dowdell, Dowdell Organizations: American Institute of Architects, National Council of Locations: United States