Dr. Sharon Egretta Sutton, FAIA is distinguished visiting professor at Parsons School of Design and has served on the faculties of Columbia University, Pratt Institute, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington. She was the first African American to receive both the ACSA Distinguished Professor Award and the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education. 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 also received the AIA Whitney M. Young Jr. Award, the Medal of Honor from its New York and Seattle chapters, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame. Her books include Pedagogy of a Beloved Community: Pursuing Democracy’s Promise through Place-Based Activism (Fordham University Press, 2023), When Ivory Towers Were Black: A Story about Race in America’s Cities and Universities (Fordham University Press, 2017), The Paradox of Urban Space: Inequality and Transformation in Marginalized Communities (Palgrave Macmillian, 2011, co-edited with Susan P. Kemp), and Weaving a Tapestry of Resistance: The Places, Power, and Poetry of a Sustainable Society (Bergin and Garvey Publishers, 1996). Dr. Sutton has been a professional musician, fine artist, and practicing architect, and was once a member of the musician’s union in New York City; she holds five academic degrees—in music, architecture, philosophy, and psychology and has studied printmaking internationally; her fine art is in the Library of Congress.