Henry R. Muñoz III
Visiting Lecturer
Henry R. Muñoz III is a nationally respected voice in the discourse about the imprint of Latino culture and identity upon American Society in the 21st Century. A Designer, Social Activist, Opinion Leader and Philanthropist, Muñoz works across multiple platforms that converge at the intersection of politics and the built environment. As Chairman of the Board and Chief Creative Officer of Muñoz & Company, Mr. Muñoz leads one of the largest and oldest minority-owned design practices in the country. Under the three decades of his leadership, Muñoz & Company has pioneered an approach to architecture and design that acknowledges the rapidly shifting demographics of the United States.
Muñoz & Company shapes the skyline and the landscape of the U.S. Mexico Borderlands, practicing a community based architecture, in pursuit of a blended cultural expression that more fully reflects our multicultural reality. This exploration of American civilization through public space and public buildings has given birth to both Mestizo Regionalism and Latino Urbanism. These distinct design theories have formed the foundation of over 100 recent design projects for universities, schools, cities, cultural institutions, corporations and non-profit organizations. For this approach, Mr. Muñoz and his colleagues have been recognized with over 140 juried design awards and their work has been featured in The New York Times, Architectural Record, Architectural Digest, Smithsonian Magazine, World Architecture News, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Lehrer News Hour and The Huffington Post.
Mr. Muñoz’s work on behalf of cultural institutions reflects his belief that at this moment in our country’s history, cultural understanding could not be more important to the enduring strength of our democratic ideals. His cultural activism pushes the boundaries of institutions to be more inclusive in their recollection of history and heritage, more fluid in their depiction of identity and more proactive in their outreach and educational initiatives. He is a founder of the effort to create a National Latino Museum on the Mall in Washington D.C., appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the National Commission established to study the creation of what will be known as The Smithsonian American Latino Museum and elected by his colleagues to serve as the commission’s Chairman. Muñoz is a former Vice Chairman of the Smithsonian National Board, Chairman Emeritus of the Smithsonian National Latino Board and serves as a Trustee of The Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. He is the Founding Chairman of The Alameda School for Art and Design and for many years has served as a Member of the National Committee for the Performing Arts of the John F. Kennedy Center where he is currently serving on the Latino Advisory Board. He was appointed to the Board of the National Parks Foundation, where he established The American Latino Heritage Fund, that supports the creation of National Monuments and Heritage Sites that record the contributions of Latinos to the history of our country. In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, Mr. Muñoz, together with Don Graham, Co-Founded The Dream.US, a groundbreaking scholarship initiative for undocumented students that has already raised over $130 million dollars in resources to transform the lives of thousands of young people.
Mr. Muñoz has devoted much of his volunteer resources towards the creation of Latino political engagement and empowerment, working as a key strategist in the re-election of President Barack Obama, to design The Futuro Fund, the Latino fundraising and outreach movement widely credited with catalyzing an historic level of support to re-elect the President of the United States. As National Co- Chairman of The Futuro Fund, Mr. Muñoz helped to facilitate the critical dialogue between the Latino community and the re-election campaign. Mr. Muñoz, working closely with Eva Longoria, established The Latino Victory Project to create a sustainable, longer term vision of Latino political power across the United States by building the next generation of thought leaders from the fast growing, but vastly underrepresented Latino community.
In January 2013 Mr. Muñoz was elected Finance Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the first minority or openly gay citizen to hold such a position for an American political party. In this role, he led the effort to erase a $35 million debt and has raised over $500 million in resources for The Democratic Party and its candidates, up and down the ballot. In 2017, Mr. Muñoz was unanimously reelected to this position.
In summary, the primary focus of Mr. Muñoz’s life and career has been to illuminate a more complete American story for the benefit of all people.
