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ProPEL The ACSA College of Distinguished Professors Announces 2025-2026 Executive Committee
Washington D.C., August 1, 2025 – The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture is proud to announce the 2025-2026 Executive Committee for the ACSA College of Distinguished Professors: Thomas Fisher as Chancellor, Marilys Nepomechie as Past Chancellor, Renée Cheng as Vice Chancellor, and Joanna L. Lombard as Secretary.
Officers are elected following the College’s annual meeting. In recent years, the College has partnered with the board to award the ACSA Annual Meeting Best Paper and Best Project Awards, as well as to contribute funds to program faculty travel grants to the ACSA Administrators Conference and Annual Meeting. In 2025-2026, the College will continue to organize a skill-building workshop at the ACSA Administrators Conference for prospective or current administrators. The College is also currently working with the ACSA Board of Directors to initiate a mentoring program to support faculty at ACSA member schools..
Founded in 2010, the College is composed of ACSA members who receive the ACSA Distinguished Professor Award or the ACSA/AIA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education. College membership is one of the highest honors the ACSA can bestow upon an educator. The College was set up to provide guidance to emerging faculty; identify and disseminate best practices in teaching, research, scholarship, and service; stimulate a sharing of interest among DPACSA colleagues; promote the purposes of the ACSA; advance architectural education; and be of ever-increasing services to society at large.
Explore the biographies of the 2025-2026 DPACSA Officers below.
Chancellor
Thomas Fisher, Assoc. AIA, is the Director of the Minnesota Design Center. Fisher has spearheaded initiatives that focus on asset-based community development and sustainability. Under his leadership, the center has secured over $5.7 million in funding to tackle critical issues such as climate resilience, equity, and public health. His efforts include projects that reimagine urban infrastructure, such as autonomous vehicle systems and equitable streetscapes, as well as systemic redesigns like a new 911 emergency response systems framework. Beyond research, Fisher has emphasized actionable solutions for underserved communities, including launching nonprofits dedicated to addressing homelessness and digital equity and creating programs that train young people in design thinking and technology.
Past Chancellor
Marilys R. Nepomechie, FAIA, is a professor of architecture and associate dean of faculty and program development in the College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts at Florida International University. Nepomechie is a registered architect whose writing, research, urban design, and building projects focus on the cultural, social, and environmental contexts of design. Included in the archives of the U.S. National Building Museum, the work of her practice has been honored with numerous professional and academic awards, national and international exhibition, and wide publication. Her design work has earned a National Honor Award in Urban and Regional Design—the highest distinction bestowed by the national chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
Vice Chancellor
Renée Cheng is the dean of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and senior vice provost at Arizona State University. Prior to joining ASU, she served as dean of the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington, where she led the college to rapid expansion of research and enrollment while increasing integration and collaboration across disciplines. Previously, Cheng was a professor, associate dean of research, and head of the school of architecture at the University of Minnesota. There, she founded an innovative graduate program linking research with practice and licensure that continues at Minnesota and Washington. Earlier in her career, she taught at the University of Michigan and the University of Arizona. She is a graduate of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and Harvard College.
Secretary
Joanna Lombard, AIA, LEED AP, is a registered architect and professor at the University of Miami School of Architecture with a joint appointment in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the Miller School of Medicine and an Abess Faculty Scholar in the Leonard and Jayne Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Tulane University and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. A founding member of the UM Built-Environment Behavior & Health Research Group with funded projects in the area of neighborhood design and health, she investigates the impacts of greenness and greening initiatives.
About the ACSA
The mission of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) is to lead architectural education and research. Founded in 1912 by 10 charter members, ACSA is an international association of architecture schools preparing future architects, designers, and change agents. Our full members include all of the accredited professional degree programs in the United States and Canada, as well as international schools and two- and four-year programs. Together, ACSA schools represent some 7,000 faculty educating more than 40,000 students.
ACSA seeks to empower faculty and schools to educate increasingly diverse students, expand disciplinary impacts, and create knowledge for the advancement of architecture. For more information, visit www.acsa-arch.org.
Questions
Hanifah Jones
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202-785-2324
hjones@acsa-arch.org
