Born and raised in Mercedes, Texas, Jamie was confronted with the realities of wealth disparity at a very young age. Inspired to change and improve the communities in which she lived, she pursued a degree in Architectural Engineering, followed by a master’s in Structural Engineering and Mechanics of Materials, specializing in earthquake engineering. She spent the next several years learning and mastering the structural needs of the Los Angeles community, before launching The Design Collaborative in 2017. Rooted in her passion for community, sustainability, and design, Jamie hopes to foster an environment of openly flowing ideas from people of diverse and often underrepresented communities. She believes that when we collaborate, we can build something beautiful.

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Throughout her 17-year career, Jamie has led the structural design for projects in the Education, Civic, Aviation, Residential, Hospitality, Fine Arts, Performing Arts, Healthcare, and Commercial sectors. She has utilized performance-based engineering to design, retrofit, and evaluate over 40 buildings. Some of her most notable projects include leading the innovative retrofit of the LAX Theme Building, structural design of the new Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Beverly Hills, and structural design of four student housing towers at Stanford University. 
                       
Jamie recently co-authored the paper, “Should We Rely on Existing Building Lateral Systems when Retrofitting Buildings?,” and presented the findings during the 2018 Structural Engineering Association of California Convention. The research provides an overview of our building codes and analysis tools, as well as a complete picture of what earthquake resilience requires. Jamie is committed to collaborating with clients and architects to truly implement resilient structural design.