MGA Partners is a design-oriented firm with experienced and mature leadership. The firm is comprised of three partners and twenty professionals, including registered architects, a graphic designer, and staff.
Doug Schaller
Development Director
Doug leads MGA’s business pursuits, strategic forecasting, and ongoing artistic initiatives for the studio. Our firm’s esteemed teaming, drawn from decades of partnerships, are supported by his efforts. Trained in art history and previously specializing in contemporary art as a gallerist, Doug has worked closely with museums and university galleries for exhibitions and acquisitions over several decades. He has written for history, preservation and design journals, artist monographs, and presented at the Society of Architectural Historians and Docomomo US. At MGA, Doug produced a site specific installation for DesignPhiladelphia and directed the first performance piece at Carpenter’s Hall. His professional associations cross a broad range, engaging with the Library Company, Friends of the Wissahickon, the Athenaeum, and St Mark’s Church. Doug is a native of Delaware.
Margo Angelopoulos, AIA
Associate
Margo’s decade with MGA Partners has been marked by the breadth of its project complexity from specialized Federal workplace studies to multi-phased construction for core university assets and the adaptive reuse and preservation of landmark buildings. Margo’s design contributions have been distinctively honed through additional projects involving cultural venues and Federal courthouses. She oversees internal upgrades for project documentation while overall advancing the staff’s digital acumen with new technology. A proponent for the sport of rowing, Margo has led planning for the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta. Margo is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, and is a native of Connecticut.
Aisha Branham, NOMA
Associate
Aisha focuses on the design, craft and management of complex projects primarily in the institutional and federal sectors. She brings a discerning attention to design through a passion for detail and materials, and through her client-focused practice to achieve strategic goals. Aisha has led Design Excellence projects for multiple federal agencies and is an expert on advanced workplace environments. Aisha is a Buchholz Fellow and a NeoCon Conference lecturer. She has taught architectural studios at Temple University, served as a teaching assistant at the University of Pennsylvania, and juries for the architecture department at Drexel University. Aisha is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, a member of the National Organization of Minority Architects, and she is a native of Pennsylvania.
Christopher Raia, SEGD
Senior Associate
Chris directs the design of experiential and identity elements for our academic, cultural, and federal projects, and guides the creative approach to our studies and masterplans. As Director of Graphics, he leads the studio’s representation of its designs, resulting in well-illustrated publications that gain project advocacy and support fundraising campaigns. With a background in industrial design, he contributes to the craft of details and assemblies in our architectural spaces. Before joining the studio, Chris worked as a creative director in Boston, and taught design studios at Wentworth Institute of Technology and the University of Delaware for 14 years. He is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and a native of Delaware, where he serves on the Board of the Newark Symphony Orchestra and chairs his township’s Public Works Department.
Sara Pettit, AIA
Senior Associate
Sara focuses on the planning, design, and management of significant university projects, which have included several R1 research institutions and one of the most advanced collaborative libraries in the US. Her sensitive leadership and advocacy, along with a deep knowledge of building design and construction, has guided several large-scale building conversions for academic clients to successful completion. Additionally, Sara has led large-scale planning studies for federal campuses. She is a founding director of the University of Pittsburgh summer design program for high school students, teaches a Design Studio in the university’s architecture program, and served for 10 years as a team leader for the ACE Mentor Program. She is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University and is a native of Pittsburgh.
Dan Kelley, FAIA
Partner
Dan leads the overall approach to architecture, planning, and craft—sustaining for over thirty years the direction of the firm’s commissions as well as the continuity of the firm’s portfolio of design. His focus is on making thoughtful and artistically considered architecture that is resonant with its place. His academic affiliations have been with Drexel University where he taught design studios for over twenty years, and with the University of Pennsylvania where he taught a popular undergraduate course on public space and urbanism. He writes and presents subjects of design and the built environment nationally and internationally. He is a graduate of Georgia Tech and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and is a member of the Carpenter’s Company of Philadelphia. Dan is a native of Akron, Ohio.
Catherine Broh, AIA
Partner
Katie directs the firm’s work for academic, cultural, and arts organizations. Her expertise in advancing modern pedagogy for learning, performance, and maker spaces has led to innovative designs that imprint a collaborative and experiential spirit on campuses. Katie has long maintained an immersive leadership role in Philadelphia’s cultural scene through her involvement with two non-profits dedicated to arts education for school children in the city—Musicopia and Dancing Classrooms Philly. She teaches design studios at Drexel University’s Westphal College, presents regularly at SCUP, AIA and NAIS conferences, is a board member of the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia chapters of the AIA, and serves on the Facilities Committee for Germantown Friends School. Katie is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania. She is a native of Michigan.
Amy Stein, AIA
Partner
Amy directs the firm’s work for significant institutional, academic, and federal projects, and those involving masterplans, building renewal and adaptive reuse. Her ability to establish a project vision and advance strategic goals among broad stakeholder groups has led to transformative projects that shape new gateway buildings for expanding programs and new prominence. Amy is active in Philadelphia’s preservation community through her decades-long involvement as a committee member of the Historical Commission, where she has helped guide development and uphold the design integrity of the city’s urban fabric. She has served on national design juries and has lectured at the AIA, the Society for Architectural Historians, and the Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance. She is a graduate of Kent State and a native of Cleveland.
