Dr. Sharon Egretta Sutton

Dr. Sharon Egretta Sutton, FAIA is distinguished visiting professor at Parsons School of Design and has also served on the faculties of Columbia University, Pratt Institute, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington. The twelfth African American woman in the United States to be licensed to practice architecture, the first to be promoted to full professor of architecture, and the second to be elected a fellow in the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Dr. Sutton is a distinguished professor of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, and served as president of the National Architectural Accrediting Board. She received the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award from the American Institute of Architects, the Medal of Honor from both the New York and Seattle chapters of that organization, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame. Her latest book, When Ivory Towers Were Black (Fordham University Press, 2017), describes the nation's boldest recruitment of minority architecture and planning students during the Civil Rights Movement. An upcoming book, A Pedagogy of Hope (Fordham University Press, 2021), shows how low-income, youth of color can, and do, change a racist, consumerist society by transforming their surroundings.