Both Michele and Kelly have eerily similar beginnings that should serve as a warning to all designers: Never attend your first AIGA meeting unless you’re prepared to immediately run the entire organization.

Kelly went to ONE committee meeting. ONE. Bill Deering took one look at her and basically said, “You seem competent—congrats, you’re the education chair!” Meanwhile, Michele showed up in 1999 and faster than you could say kerning, she was somehow the PR chair (a position that apparently doesn’t even exist anymore—RIP PR chairs of yesteryear, and that was my first AIGA role too).

Design leadership is like a surprise birthday party: you walk into a room for the snacks, and suddenly everyone’s yelling SURPRISE! YOU’RE THE PRESIDENT NOW!

For years, the Philadelphia chapter was basically running on Monopoly money and good vibes. They had no idea they were supposed to be getting membership funds from national. It was like realizing you’d been eligible for a decade of tax refunds—except instead of a couple hundred bucks, it was let’s hire design legend Michael Beirut to come speak money.

Enter Amy Davis, treasurer extraordinaire, who had the financial detective skills of a forensic accountant. She cracked the case, the money started flowing, and suddenly Philly went from should we meet in someone’s apartment? to let’s host a sustainability conference with Paul Pollock.

But the real magic? The AIGA leadership retreats. Picture this: 250+ designers from across the country, armed with Sharpies instead of smartphones, creating what can only be described as controlled creative mayhem.

Michele mentioned that Facebook was brand new during the Omaha retreat, and she was joining just to connect with retreat friends.

The retreats had everything:

Here’s what became crystal clear: Philadelphia wasn’t just participating in AIGA community—they were setting the standard. If you wanted fun at a leadership retreat, you found the Philly room.

Michele noticed that even now, AIGA folks still meet up with their retreat friends when traveling. Decades later, the network still stands! But built on pyramids, buttons, and Facebook photos people begged to be untagged from.

Both Michele and Kelly are still woven into this world. Kelly’s former grad student is now the incoming AIGA Philly president, design leadership royalty passed down through the generations.

And they’re still collaborating: We the Women Design, protest poster workshops, Sisters in Solidarity. Once you’ve built human pyramids together, you’re bonded for life.

If there’s one thing I learned from them, it’s that the best design leadership happens when you:

And maybe most importantly: leadership doesn’t always happen in the boardroom, it happens in the Philly room.

P.S. If you’re a current AIGA member, think twice before your next chapter meeting. You might walk in for snacks and leave with a presidency. 😛

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