ACSA Announces Lynne M. Dearborn as 2020-2021 ACSA President

For Immediate Release: 

Washington D.C., July 1, 2020 – The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) is pleased to announce Lynne M. Dearborn as the organization’s 2020-2021 president. Dr. Dearborn is an architect and Professor of Architecture and Chair of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Illinois’ School of Architecture in Urbana-Champaign. She holds a B.ARCH from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an M.ARCH from The University of Oregon, and a Ph.D. from The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Dearborn has served the ACSA in many roles, including ACSA First Vice President in 2019-2020. She served the ACSA as the inaugural Chair of the Education Committee following its recasting in the ACSA’s 2016 – 2019 Strategic Plan. Under her leadership, the committee made substantial progress in identifying and analyzing exemplary partnerships between community college programs and accredited architecture programs. Subsequently, the ACSA has increased dialogue with the Consortium of Community College Architecture Programs (CCCAP). She also led sessions at the 2016 ACSA Administrators Conference and the 2017 Annual Meeting to identify challenges, opportunities, and best practices to diversify the path to architectural education, support diverse architecture students, and grow and retain more diverse architecture faculties. Prior to her service to the ACSA as Education Committee Chair, she led the 2014 Haiti Summer Studio and established one of the founding research teams in the AIA-ACSA Design + Health Consortium. 

Regarding her new position, Dearborn stated:

I am eager to identify opportunities to strengthen existing ties with NAAB, NCARB, AIA, AIAS as well as other architecturally-focused organizations like CCCAP, NOMA, and NOMAS to build new bridges to organizations that may become our partners in interdisciplinary initiatives to address the complex challenges that confront societies around the globe. It is through such partnerships that we can realize the possibilities that the field of architecture offers.

We are poised to lead the charge for a more equitable, socially just, and ecologically sound world and to help others imagine a world rich with possibilities for future generations. As we advance in that direction, it is my honor to serve the ACSA and each of its constituent parts as president of the organization.

Under Dearborn’s leadership, the ACSA will advance its initiatives to address racial justice within the organization and architectural education. It will also assess the needs of faculty members to support diverse academic cultures and approaches to the education of future architects. The organization will develop resources and programs to help faculty engage and nurture the full breadth of architecture students in ways that ensure all students know their ideas are valued and they are welcomed as future professionals.

Dearborn focuses on the mutual interaction of people and their environments, particularly the relationship between residential environments and cultural change. Her research and courses explore social justice and equity among minority people, engaging physical, social, economic, and political aspects of the environment to address human health and well-being. Currently, she focuses on health equity and inclusion where it  links to environmental policy and the physical design of neighborhoods, housing, and places of significance to marginalized groups.

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