Devanshi Purohit Named Boston’s 2023 Emerging Executive
CBT’s Devanshi Purohit was recently honored with the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Emerging Executive Award at the 2023 Pinnacle Awards. The Pinnacle Awards recognize dynamic leading women for their workplace contributions and commitment to the community. The Emerging Executive award is given to a woman under 40 in her early career who exhibits strong leadership potential. Devanshi actively engages in work supporting climate resiliency, community connections, and social equity, and is a sought-after speaker at conferences leading conversations about climate change preparedness and mitigation strategies and solutions.
Here, we visit some of the accomplishments that earned Devanshi this prestigious award, as well as some of the wisdom she imparted on more than 1,000 guests of the award ceremony:
In 2021, Devanshi Purohit was the youngest woman to be named an Associate Principal at CBT. Her natural leadership and growing expertise are fueling several vital climate-sensitive city-building projects in the local region to the Middle East, and beyond.
Devanshi recent and ongoing work on standard-raising projects in Greater Boston include: the redevelopment of the award-winning, highly resilient Suffolk Downs Master Plan, the multi-award-winning Cambridge Crossing Master Plan, the ongoing planning for the redevelopment of South Boston’s Mary Ellen McCormack housing community, and the Abu Dhabi Climate Resilience Initiative in the Middle East. Additionally, Devanshi is a co-creator and guiding force for CBT’s Women in Design Group, which creates robust and creative programs aimed to elevate and celebrate women design professionals.
A current participant in the Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Women’s Leadership Program, Devanshi’s attributes her drive in the work she does to her “commitment to creating connected, equitable, and resilient cities for all.”
During her acceptance speech, Devanshi described her early experiences growing up in India in a family that redefined “normal:” a mother who was a professor and who pursued her PhD despite most odds; and a father who brought her along to work at his advertising studio as a young child igniting her passion for design and creativity. By always redefining the normal and looking to improve it, this early mantra of Devanshi’s has paved the way for her current and future ambitions. She seeks to “be a cultural and environmental change agent, expanding architecture beyond buildings and designing neighborhoods that empower diverse community voices.” These goals resonate throughout her work at CBT and in the community. Her commitment to training rising professionals, to lead critical conversations, and to bring communities together is a common thread in Devanshi’s professional mission. As an urban designer whose work continually pushes the limits of what is viewed as possible, Devanshi vows to create her own normal, which “will always include eliminating knowledge barriers; and to engage Boston and beyond in a dialogue around the power of design to solve the problems of today and tomorrow,” concluding that doing so “will make this world better for future generations.”
From all of your proud and admiring colleagues here at CBT, Devanshi, congratulations again, on this inspiring achievement!!
