2026 Administrators Conference

This year’s Administrators Conference, taking place October 29–31, 2026, in Tucson, Arizona, is designed for current and emerging educational leaders. The program will feature a series of in-person sessions and roundtables focused on collaboration, idea-sharing, and discussion.

Extreme Shifts

We are living through a dizzying moment of extreme environmental, social, political, and economic shifts. These seismic forces vary in tone, intensity, and impact across the architectural ecosystem of academic institutions where, collectively, we educate the future leaders of our shared discipline and the profession it supports. At the 2026 ACSA Administrators Conference, we ask how leaders can manage and influence positive and proactive responses to ongoing shifts, while anticipating future change. How can we identify shared values that provide stability for our communities, while learning from our differences? How do we build a stronger field, together?

The Sonoran Desert region of Tucson, Arizona, is no stranger to extremes. In the borderland, national debates play out on the ground in daily life: growing populations of immigrants and migrants; diminishing resources due to extreme heat and water scarcity; lack of adequate housing and shelter; and tensions over land stewardship and widening economic disparities. At the same time, the area is a vibrant research center for the study of indigenous cultures, next-generation energy, space science, and innovative engineering. The Sonoran Desert, while uniquely extreme, is perhaps a harbinger of changes coming to other locales.

Steering Committee

Ryan E. Smith
University of Arizona

June Williamson
City College of New York

Laura Hollengreen
University of Arizona

Clare Robinson
University of Arizona

Courtney Crosson
University of Arizona

Michael Monti
Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture

Location

Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, Arizona, is a vibrant, sunny city in the Sonoran Desert, renowned for its rich Spanish, Mexican, and Native American culture. As Arizona’s second-largest city, it is known for the University of Arizona, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and being a UNESCO City of Gastronomy. Tucson offers a low cost of living, dramatic mountain scenery, and year-round outdoor adventures.

Keynote

Ladd Keith

University of Arizona

Ladd Keith, Ph.D., is a climate planner and Associate Professor in the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning at the University of Arizona, where he directs the Heat Resilience Initiative. He is also an Associate Research Professor at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and a University of Arizona Distinguished Scholar.

His research focuses on heat planning, policy, and governance, helping communities, regions, and nations build heat resilience. He argues that our cities were built for a climate that no longer exists, and that we are living through a “heatshed moment” — a turning point at which extreme heat, already the deadliest weather hazard in the United States, must be addressed as urgently as any other climate risk.

He defined heat governance in a Nature comment, and co-authored Planning for Urban Heat Resilience, the American Planning Association’s first guidebook on heat for planning practitioners.

He has led and co-led heat research programs funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, NOAA, and the CDC, including the Center for Heat Resilient Communities and the Southwest Urban Corridor Integrated Field Laboratory. Internationally, he serves on the management committee of the Global Heat Health Information Network, a joint initiative of the World Health Organization and the World Meteorological Organization.

He served a full term on the City of Tucson’s Planning Commission, where he chaired the development and adoption of the city’s comprehensive plan.

A frequent commentator on extreme heat for national and international media, he delivered the TEDx talk “A Heatshed Moment for Communities in Crisis.” He has a Ph.D. in Arid Lands Resource Sciences and an M.S. in Planning from the University of Arizona.