The International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) has announced that three of its members have achieved the designation of Fellow. They are Katherine C. Abernathy, Janet Lennox Moyer, and Robert Shook. The trio joins 33 of their fellow lighting colleagues.

The IALD Fellow designation is given to those members who have offered “valuable contribution to the art and science of lighting design, and for their continued service to the IALD.” Fellows are also professional members of the association and need to have a minimum of 10 years work experience. The three recipients will be formally inducted during the organization’s annual conference—IALD Enlighten Americas—in Montreal on Oct. 3–5.

Katherine C. Abernathy, FIALD
With more than 20 years in lighting, Abernathy’s root are in theatrical lighting design. She studied theater design at Webster University in St. Louis, Mo., and Croyden College in London. Early on she pursed freelance theatrical lighting design opportunities and then went to work for Randy Burkett Lighting Design in St. Louis. In 2001, she opened her own firm—Abernathy Lighting Design—based in North Providence, R.I. The studio’s portfolio reflects Abernathy’s theatrical training, incorporating architectural lighting strategies with theatrical lighting techniques.

Abernathy has been an active IALD member serving on the association’s Board of Directors and as the IALD president in 2010–2011.

When asked what this honor meant to her, Abernathy says, “The criteria for being a Fellow is: a Professional member of the IALD and an outstanding member of the profession. Those seem to be big shoes to fill and I am honored to even have been considered. I have been very lucky to have served the IALD the past 10-plus years. It’s a real honor to join all those that have taught me.”

Janet Lennox Moyer, FIALD
For nearly 30 years, Moyer has combined her passions for lighting and for landscape into a singular endeavor. In the process she has emerged as the lighting designer who has come to define the specialty of landscape lighting. She wrote what many in the lighting community consider the definitive book on the subject: The Landscape Lighting Book (Wiley, 1992). A third edition has just been released.

Through the Landscape Lighting Institute, which she started in 1997, and is taught on the grounds of her own home and garden, lighting designers experience first-hand this aspect of lighting. Three spots are saved annually for IALD Education Trust students. And last year, she formed the Landscape Lighting Resource (LLR), a nonprofit educational foundation to preserve and promote the history and practice of landscape lighting design.

“In all my endeavors, I always think about how I can connect with the IALD,” she says on receiving this recognition. “This organization continues to represent us, and with my colleagues raising me to the membership level of Fellow, I feel continued responsibility to our young designers. I am honored and touched to join this esteemed group.”

Robert Shook, FIALD
Shook has both design roots in architecture and theatrical lighting design. He is a founding partner of Schuler Shook, an architectural lighting and theatre consulting firm with offices in Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas, and Melbourne, Australia. His lighting portfolio includes notable projects such as the Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Shedd Aquarium.

Shook has always been an advocate of the collaborative process and educating the next generation of lighting designers. He is a contributing author to two lighting textbooks, Scene Design and Stage Lighting, 9th Ed. (Cengage Learning, 2008), and Stage Lighting: Fundamentals and Applicatons (Pearson, 2010).

“I find it very rewarding to change things,” he said in a press statement. “Too many people accept—or complain about—the status quo. Why not get involved in the solutions instead? Whenever I have been able to help a lighting designer or the field of lighting take a step forward, that’s when I’ve felt I’ve accomplished something really valuable.”