Nmadili Okwumabua is a cultural designer, urbanist and educator in African architecture and urban planning. Her passion for design is rooted in a vision where communities in Africa and the Diaspora are developed with new architectural languages that preserve heritage, and are culturally and environmentally sustainable. In 2005, she founded Southern Sahara USA, a research incubator for defining these new culture-informed design languages. The Community Planning & Design Initiative, Africa, CPDI Africa, was birthed in 2014 in response to these efforts, launching the first ever Afrocentric architecture design competitions worldwide. Her work in African and black culture architecture has been studied worldwide via her projects and lectures as a visiting professor, international design workshops and the Art of African Architecture, a curated exhibition of winning designs from CPDI Africa biannual competitions. She has presented research papers on design, culture, science and technology in over a hundred international conferences, universities and centers for the preservation of history and culture.
 

Ms. Okwumabua launched the Global Studio for African Centered Architecture (GSACA) in 2021,
the premier academy for teaching this new pedagogy to students, faculty, policymakers, and shapers
of the envisioned future. In 2024 she opened the Center for Afrocentric Design Advancement(CADA), at the African University of Science & Technology (Abuja,Nigeria), one of the three prestigious Mandela Institutes. The hub serves as a resource center for African design and planning education, research publications, documentary film, art, and a source for sustainable, standardized
local building materials.
 

Nmadili Okwumabuas’ career as a built environment professional span over 30 years. She studied
architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and earned her bachelors in Community
Planning & Development from Georgia State University. She holds a master’s degree in African and
African American studies from Clark Atlanta University, where her research centered on the evolution of modern vernacular architecture. She is a licensed Realtor in the State of Georgia and a Certified Property Manager with Broll CBRE South Africa. Nmadili Okwumabua spends her time between Atlanta Georgia and Abuja Nigeria, where she offers international consultancy services in
urban design, hospitality, and real estate asset management, passionately sharing her vision with the
future shapers of African and global built environments.