I consider myself an urbanist because I approach the practice and study of architecture through a sociological framework. I am a licensed architect and urban planner with projects across the United States, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. I am also an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Clemson University where I teach and conduct research in the Architecture + Health Graduate Program. My work investigates and challenges concepts of health across a wide range of venues from the design of healthcare facilities to the role of equitable planning participation in community health. Across all endeavors, I am inspired by the capacity of design to empower stakeholders toward collaborative solutions.
In the past 15 years, I’ve worked on 20+ architecture projects and 70+ master/urban planning projects. My sustainable designs have been featured in Architect Magazine (2011) and received 20 awards including the Lafarge Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction (2012), the APA’s Outstanding Collaborative Planning Project (2016), the Mayor’s Choice Award, City of Eugene (2017).
I am interested in how urban design impacts community health, especially for underserved area: How is the built environment a vehicle for exacerbating social inequalities and how can it be a solution? How does the human context of design reflect and inscribe social attitudes in a city? How can architecture advance public health, social sustainability, and urban resilience? In 2021, the University of Oregon awarded me a Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture for my dissertation titled, No Place to Play? Studies of How Adolescents Use Public Space in Dispossessed Communities. My research has received the Julie and Roxy Dixon Fellowship (2017) and the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship (2019) and support from partner organizations such as Save the Children Philippines and the Hyderabad Urban Lab. As a peer-reviewed measure of significance, my dissertation work with adolescents received the Environmental Design Research Association’s Great Places Award for Research (2021) and the Architecture Research Center’s Consortium King Medal for Research Excellence (2020).
My most recent publications include the chapter “Dispossession, Adolescence, and the Missing Public Spaces of Hyderabad, India” in The Routledge Handbook of Diverse Childhoods and the Environmental Experience (Exp. 2023) and “Freedman’s Town versus Frenchtown: A Spatial History of Black Settlements in Houston, TX” in Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review (Spring 2020).
