Alejandra Menchaca

Alejandra began her career as a rocket scientist who veered off course to address the climate crisis by becoming a natural ventilation expert. After earning a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, she spent several years as a Building Scientist at Payette and later became a Vice President at Thornton Tomasetti, where she built and led their Boston-based sustainability team. Alejandra is the consummate translator, leveraging her technical and architecture experience to provide clients with a clear understanding of how design strategies impact long-term building performance, occupant wellness, and life cycle cost. Alejandra’s expertise includes passive design, occupant and visual thermal comfort, indoor air quality, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), and high performance HVAC systems. Her portfolio spans from energy-intensive to purely passive buildings, and includes several AIA COTE Top Ten recipients. She has served on several of ASHRAE’s technical committees and was a vice-chair of the USGBC Indoor Environmental Quality Technical Advisory Group. Alejandra has lectured at MIT and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and has mentored several brilliant students who have emerged as inspiring disruptors in the AEC industry.