Celebrating Our Business Woman of the Year: Amy Tobia

Late last year, finalists for the San Diego Business Journal’s Business Women of the Year were announced — and FS Design Group Principal Amy Tobia was one of them!

Amy is extraordinary for running a well-established, fast-paced, in-demand design firm specializing in commercial and healthcare interiors, but her influence extends even further.

Voter Rights Advocacy

An active advocate for voter rights, Amy is a member of several local coalitions that, among other things, support efforts to modernize San Diego elections with programs including campaign finance transparency, democracy dollars and ranked choice voting. 

Under her leadership of the local RepresentUs chapter, Amy and the chapter developed a video about election reform, entitled Democracy Dollars: Driving Us Forward, that won an Emmy award in 2023! Amy wrote the script and raised funds for the video. RepresentUs is a national, non-partisan organization focused on building a better democracy by improving elections.

For two years Amy sat as board proxy for Represent Us on the NANR board, too. The National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers is a member-led association dedicated to structural election reforms in the public interest.

Nurturing Talent

Amy also caught the judges’ notice with her unconventional-but-successful approach to staff training. Rather than strictly defining roles at FS Design Group, she ensures her staff has opportunities to learn all phases of design. Team members continue to work on a project from start to finish, providing continuity and dependability for our clients.

Whether it’s designing for healthcare, PACE (Programs of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly), tenant improvement, salon or multifamily common spaces… or whatever fun design work we take on, Amy knows her team is prepared.

Within our greater commercial real estate industry, Amy has given generously of her time to CREW San Diego. CREW brings women together to build professional and personal relationships, expand industry knowledge and expertise and support career development within our industry.

As CREW’s immediate-past Programs Committee co-chair, she helped determine and engage speakers for forward-thinking luncheons, leadership breakfasts and networking events. Amy previously served as co-chair of CREW San Diego’s Education Committee and served on that committee for five years.

Looking Ahead

It’s no wonder that this civic-minded influencer is also instrumental in growing our client base to include many recognizable, leading firms. She’s also helped grow our staff to its largest number ever. While the San Diego Business Journal’s competition may have been focused on 2023, we see great things to come for Amy and the rest of our team in 2024 also!