Clarifying Overlapping Practice Between Design Professions

NeoCon Presentation Description: The ICOR Practice Overlap Initiative brings together leaders from the design discipline's landscape architecture, architecture, engineering, surveying, and interior design to clarify where practice overlap is appropriate and where distinct professional scopes exist. This session highlights research that incorporates diverse disciplinary perspectives that informed this work and the collaborative approach to defining how practice overlap is defined and regulated. By identifying clear practice boundaries, this effort promotes fair and competency-based regulation while reducing confusion and inconsistency across jurisdictions. It also helps ensure that all design professionals, including interior designers, can contribute fully within their scope of practice. The panel will discuss how defining acceptable overlap and scope distinctions benefits all disciplines, fosters greater clarity in regulation, and strengthens collaboration across professions.

Matthew Barusch, CAE

Director, Government Affairs and Advocacy

Council for Interior Design Qualification

Matt supports and advances CIDQ’s policy agenda at the state and provincial level. He is responsible for monitoring legislation, analyzing threats to the public from deregulatory efforts, and developing strategies to support our stakeholders in educating policymakers on the value of meaningful interior design regulation. Before CIDQ, Matt held state advocacy positions with the National Association for Music Education and the National Court Reporters Association, where he advocated for reasonable regulation of court reporters. Matt holds a master’s in public administration from Arizona State University and a bachelor’s in political science from the State University of New York.

Stacey Crumbaker, IIDA, Assoc AIA, ALEP

Associate Principal

Mahlum

Stacey Crumbaker practices at the intersection of architecture and interiors, grounding her work in human experience and community voice. With 20 years of experience, she focuses on innovative learning experiences and is an Accredited Learning Environments Planner (ALEP) at Mahlum. She serves as President of the IIDA International Board of Directors and previously served as IIDA National Vice President of Advocacy (2022–2024). She is a member of the ICOR Practice Overlap Task Force Steering Committee and formerly served as Director of DEI for the Washington State A4LE Chapter. Stacey holds degrees in Interior Design and Architecture from Arizona State University.

This content will not be available until 06/07/2026 at 8:00 AM (EDT)