ACSA Announces 2024 Recipients of Faculty Fellowship to Advance Equity in Architecture

Rana Abughannam is an assistant professor at the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia. She is a Palestinian architect and scholar with a research focus on paradigms of counter-colonization exemplified in Indigenous, bottom-up, and constant practices of resistance against ongoing colonial projects. Rana has collaborated with grassroots organizations in Palestine on various rehabilitation and design projects. She has also taught at Carleton University, the Canadian University Dubai, and Birzeit University. She holds PhD in Architecture (Carleton University), a master of History and Theory of Architecture (McGill University), and a professional architectural engineering degree (Birzeit University).

Rayshad Dorsey is a full-time lecturer at Clemson University’s School of Architecture and an architectural designer in South Carolina. He co-founded and directs the collective Partners of Place and is the founding partner of Studio Rayshad Dorsey. Rayshad earned a Master of Architecture with Distinction from Harvard GSD, where he received the Araldo A. Cossutta Prize for Design Excellence and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Clemson University. His professional background includes roles at Atelier Cory Henry, Höweler + Yoon, Urban AC, WW Architecture, and Patterhn Ives. Rayshad’s teaching and research focus on architecture, critical conservation, culture, and community, with a commitment to restorative, inclusive, and impactful design.

Suzanne Lettieri is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University and co-principle of JE-LE. Her work focuses on educational justice by creating inclusive design tactics that bridge the gap between aesthetics and socially conscious design. She has been named a University of Michigan‐Mellon Design Fellow in Egalitarianism and the Metropolis, a MacDowell Fellow, and a Cornell Faculty Fellow in Engaged Scholarship; has received a Graham Foundation grant and the ACSA Diversity Achievement Honorable Mention; and is a co-editor of Junior Architects (forthcoming, Park Books). Her work has been published in Project, The Cornell Journal of Architecture, The Plan Journal, Plat, Cartha, and JAE.

Ceara O’Leary, AIA, is a Professor of Practice at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture + Community Development, teaching public interest design and community development courses. She is an architect, planner and faculty partner with the Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC), where she was Co-Executive Director from 2019-2023 and continues to lead collaborative design and planning projects citywide. Her practice, research and teaching focus on equitable neighborhood spaces at the intersection of policy and community resilience. She speaks nationally on community-engaged design and teaching and is in the process of launching her own practice, studioCO’.