In April, the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) named Sarah Whiting its incoming dean, making her the first woman to lead the GSD since its founding in 1936. The post marks a return to Harvard for Whiting, who taught at the GSD early in her career, prior to joining the faculty at Princeton University School of Architecture and becoming dean of the Rice School of Architecture in 2010.

Whiting replaces Mohsen Mostafavi, who stepped down after 11 years, during which he expanded the GSD’s programming and student body. Whiting—a 2011 Women in Architecture award-winner—brings a perspective rooted in her own interdisciplinary journey as an academic, author, and practicing professional at the helm of WW Architecture, the firm she founded with her husband, Ron Witte, in 1999.