Connecticut -- What’s in store for Connecticut’s future? Look to these 40 shooting stars. Across the state and beyond, they’re influencing, innovating, creating, rebelling and soaring high. As in years past, these up-and-comers were nominated by friends, family, co-workers, fans and Connecticut Magazine staff.

Omarys Vasquez / 38 / Watertown

Architect

When Vasquez was 9 years old, her father shared with her a foam-board scale model of the home he dreamed of building one day in his native Dominican Republic. Although the family was living in New York City public housing at the time and, alas, her dad’s dream home never came to fruition, that moment stayed with Vasquez, a first-generation American who quickly learned “the impact that space, volume and ambiance can have on your growth,” and grew up determined to “make great design more accessible and inclusive in order to allow everyone the opportunity to have beautiful spaces in their lives.” In January 2021, Vasquez, an associate architect at Svigals + Partners in New Haven whose recent projects include the Elm City’s wonderfully whimsical new Ronald McDonald House, took yet another step in that direction as one of three Connecticut architects to establish a Connecticut chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMAct), which advocates for “equity, diversity and inclusion in the architectural profession.” Vasquez, who is NOMA Connecticut’s vice president/president-elect for 2023, was  also recently named to the University of Hartford Department of Architecture’s advisory board, and works to promote equity and human rights as a committee member of the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Knowledge Community for the American Institute of Architects Connecticut. — MBA 

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