Meeting/Event Information

Ellyn Wulfe
Gensler 

Ellyn leads Gensler’s Firmwide Civic + Culture Practice, a specialization within the global architecture and design firm dedicated to supporting the needs and missions of nonprofit community and cultural organizations. She firmly believes that a nonprofit organization’s facilities can have a major impact on their brand, business, and culture and is a very passionate advocate in conveying that story to prospective donors and employees.

Ellyn brings an important perspective to her leadership. With 10 years’ prior experience as a Marketing Director, Ellyn understands the art of storytelling. For the past eight years, she has led a year-long class to hone storytelling skills for a select group of next-gen leaders in Gensler’s Houston, Dallas, and Austin offices. Ellyn also developed and leads a storytelling workshop to a select group of Gensler professionals across the firm. 

Dedicated to raising the profile of, and financial opportunities for, nonprofit organizations, Ellyn has served as co-chair of the Scenic Houston dinner honoring Mayor Sylvester Turner and auction chair for the annual galas for nonprofits such as Stages Repertory Theatre, AIA Houston, and Annunciation Orthodox School, in each case completely re-thinking their approach and raising record revenues. She is a proud member of the Boards of Directors of Buffalo Bayou Partnership and Rice Design Alliance, and serves as Chair of Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s Visitor Experience and Engagement Committee and as a member of Covenant House Texas’ Development Committee. Ellyn began her career as a mergers and acquisitions attorney with Vinson & Elkins in Houston and holds both a Bachelor in Business Administration Degree and Law Degree from The University of Texas.

Raylena Browning
Manhattan Construction

Raylena Browning is the Preconstruction Director for the Houston Division of Manhattan Construction, a privately-owned construction company that has been in business in the Houston market for over 74 years.  Manhattan Construction focuses primarily as a Construction Manager at Risk, providing building excellence & best value solutions for their clients throughout preconstruction & construction. 

Raylena brings over 18 years of experience, leading teams to deliver full preconstruction services focused on providing best value solutions to clients & design teams.  These services include project estimating, scheduling, value engineering options & constructability reviews.  One of the most important elements to any given client is cost certainty.  She ensures cost certainty by understanding, communicating, & accounting for cost for all scope items and elements of the documents, including during early design.   A proud alumni of the University of Houston, Raylena has spent her entire career fostering relationships with a wide range of subcontractors here in Houston.  This is a great value to driving cost certainty to clients by having a wealth of resources to reach out to understand the current market conditions at any given time.

Raylena has also spent time as an adjunct professor for the University of Houston, giving back to the next generation of our construction industry leaders. In her spare time, she is an advocate for animal rights and is involved in animal rescue organizations here in Houston.  She is also a supporter of University of Houston & a proud football season ticket holder.  

Emily Howard-Wilson
Cushman & Wakefield

Emily Howard-Wilson has the privilege of solely representing office tenants in their commercial real estate needs by identifying and evaluating office buildings, structuring transactions, and negotiating the necessary documents to memorialize agreements. In serving the tenant's best interests, her responsibilities may also include negotiating buyouts, subleasing space, and buying/selling property. Ms. Howard-Wilson’s commercial interiors background provides an unparalleled foundation in analyzing commercial office spaces as she had developed strategies for work environments that uniquely reflected each client's corporate culture, vision and business objectives. Her clients value her passion for delivering creative solutions and thoughtful, detail-oriented approach.

Lauri Goodman Lampson
PDR Corporation

Lauri changes the way organizations think about work and place.  She works with executives to “future-cast”, challenging them to redefine the purpose of bringing people together at work. Lauri advises the world’s most influential industry leaders including, ExxonMobil, Hines, HP, Chevron, and Sonos, developing strategies to break through the Innovation Barrier and position their organizations for the future.  Her Business, Workplace, Engagement, and Design Strategies have been transforming business for 30 years. Lauri believes thoughtful placemaking connects people and inspires organizations to thrive.  She is the ultimate optimist about the opportunity of automation to free humans to focus on work that matters.  PDR, a workplace consulting, design and architecture firm, creates places for work that unleash human potential and delight workers across the globe, impacting hundreds of thousands of workers in 35 countries from their own One Room Wonder.