Sharon E. Sutton, Ph. D., FAIA

Professor Sutton has been an architecture educator since 1975, having held positions at Pratt Institute, Columbia University, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Michigan where she became the first African American woman in the United States to be promoted to full professor of architecture.

Sutton teaches an undergraduate design studio in architecture (ARCH 400), offers graduate seminars on the ethics of professional practice (ARCH 577) and community leadership practices (ARCH 576), and advises doctoral students in social work and education. She convenes an annual interdisciplinary design charrette at the beginning of spring quarter that involves 50-60 practitioners, faculty, and students in developing alternatives for a local urban design problem.

Sutton's research focuses on youth, culture, and the environment. Her book, Weaving a Tapestry of Resistance: The Places, Power, and Poetry of a Sustainable Society, is based on a three-year evaluation of the Urban Network, a K-12 urban design program she founded while at the University of Michigan. Her research has been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Tukwila School District, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington. Sutton is a frequent distinguished lecturer at colleges and universities, and has keynoted professional conferences in art education, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, planning, and psychology.