IESNYC Vice President Zachary Pearson on his Tenure

We are proud to share that Designer Zachary Pearson has been serving as Vice President of the IESNYC since June 2023. A few months away from finishing his term, Zachary reflects on his achievements and how he has engaged with and given back to the Lighting Community. As Vice President, Zachary has guided the Board and Executive team, fostering committee engagement. He has supported and volunteered at the IESYNC Student Lighting Competition, been invited to lead panel discussions and roundtable workshops at the national Leadership Forum, and shepherded the younger generation as a professor at the School of Visual Arts.

A dedicated and passionate member of the community, Zachary is an advocate of ‘paying it forward’ – his involvement began when he was awarded the IESNYC Merit Scholarship during his time as a student at the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Zachary went on to serve on the committee to select the next recipient of the same scholarship in 2020 and 2021, “becoming involved in the same committee that encouraged, supported and drove me to become the member of the Lighting Community that I am”.

As a member on the Board of Managers, Zachary founded the IESNYC NextGen Committee and Programming. One of his proudest achievements during his tenure, the program engages and welcomes students and emerging professionals into the world of lighting. Zachary has developed, organized and run 6 to 8 of these events each year for the past 3 years. These programs have reached hundreds of students, allowing them to network and find opportunities in Lighting Design.

Looking ahead, Zachary plans to continue his engagement and inspire future designers as a faculty member at the SVA in New York as well as in his Guest Lecture series at various other colleges and universities. He hopes to foster an understanding of Lighting Design for students at Architecture, Interior Design and Architectural Engineering institutions by continuing his participation as a guest critic for student midterms and final reviews.

In 2021, Zachary stated that his mission was to “develop ways to engage our lighting community with the ephemeral and experiential side of light and contribute to generating opportunities to bring the enchantment of light to young, potential designers, and creators and to cultivate an incredibly diverse and imaginative future for our profession”. He has achieved his objective and more, and we would like to thank Zachary for his unwavering commitment to our industry (and the people in it) and congratulate him on the fruits of his labors.