Kimberly Dowdell collaborates with other members of the leadership team in HOK’s Chicago studio on strategic business development and marketing initiatives. In addition to cultivating and maintaining relationships with clients and partners, she is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events and a mentor to HOK’s emerging leaders. She is a co-chair of HOK’s Diversity Advisory Council.

In 2021, Ms. Dowdell joined the board of directors of the Architects Foundation, the philanthropic partner of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). She also joined the board of the Chicago Area Central Committee (CCAC), which works to shape the city’s growth, equity and quality of place. She is a board member of Ingenuity Chicago, which increases arts education access, equity and quality.

Ms. Dowdell is the past president (2019-2020) of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) and a member of the National Organization of Minority Architects Council (NOMAC), which is the organization’s highest level of recognition.

She was a 2020 AIA Young Architects Award recipient and was recognized for her activism efforts by Architectural Record’s 2020 Women in Architecture Awards program.

Kimberly Dowdell is a member of the Urban Land Institute. She initiated the concept behind Social Economic Environmental Design, an organization that she co-founded in 2005, and was a “40 Under 40” honoree in both Crain’s Chicago Business and Crain’s Detroit Business. In 2019, she delivered the 19th Annual Dunlop Lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.