For over two decades, McKay has been recognized as an authority on the retail store architecture, with a particular focus on the work of Daniel Burnham, especially the Marshall Field and Company Building. His expertise has been featured in over 100 media outlets, including BBC World Service, NPR, PBS, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CBS Sunday Morning, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Reader, New City, and many other local and national media outlets. Jim has leveraged social media strategies to achieve advocacy and relationship building.McKay has also provided digital design consulting for major projects such as the Sofitel Chicago Magnificent Mile, Millennium Park Garage, and United Airlines maintenance facilities. Jim McKay took a step back from full-time employment during the COVID-19 pandemic to address a family health crisis, which has since been fully resolved. Throughout this period, he remained active in the professional world by consulting on short-term community engagement projects. Jim is now available to re-engage full-time in roles that combine his expertise in community engagement with design, planning, and architecture, particularly in collaboration with not-for-profits, universities, civic organizations, and similar institutions.Jim holds a Master of Architecture in design behavior research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. A native Chicagoan, he remains deeply committed to the intersection of architecture, community engagement, historical preservation, culture, and all great things Chicago.

From 2012 to 2018, James McKay (“Jim”) served as Director of Community Engagement at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), where he also taught interdisciplinary service-learning in architecture.In this role, McKay contributed to IIT’s master planning and prototyping initiatives aimed at revitalizing Bronzeville's business corridors, focusing on streetscape and business façade initiatives. Jim fostered partnerships between and promoted historic preservation and educational tourism, in areas of Black history, jazz, blues and gospel music. Jim fostered deep connections with over two dozen community and civic organizations, playing an instrumental role in organizing IIT-co-sponsored events such as health fairs, community planning meetings, and Black history lectures.As an instructor, McKay's Interprofessional Project (IPRO) courses emphasized collaborative, inter-disciplinary projects between IIT students and surrounding neighborhoods, including Bronzeville, Chicago Chinatown, and Bridgeport/Canaryville. Examples of student-to-community IPRO and architecture studio collaborations include “Sidewalk Benches for Community Sharing,” “Black Veterans’ Chess Pavilion at 35th Street Bridge,” and “Bronzeville Match,” a prototypical app which paired vacant retail space with potential tenants.

Prior to IIT, Jim McKay led digital media pedagogy at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) School of Architecture where he taught undergraduate and graduate studios focused on digital media, design precision, digital vs. analogue design processes, and design behavior. Throughout his time with UIC, Jim played a significant role in the management of the school's Gallery 1100 lecture series and exhibitions.

McKay managed digital technology for the Illinois School of Architecture and was primary technology advisor to the Dean of the University of Illinois College of Fine and Applied Arts. Jim oversaw the implementation of technology for the School of Architecture during its move-in to the then-new Temple Hoyne Buell Hall.