Sharon E. Sutton

General Information

Dr. Sharon E. Sutton, FAIA is Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Adjunct Professor of Social Work, and Director of CEEDS (Center for Environment, Education, and Design Studies) at the University of Washington. She 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.

The author of numerous books, book chapters, reports, and articles, Sutton’s research focuses on youth, community, and social justice, including the career development of minority populations. Currently, she is co-editing a book, The Paradox of Urban Spaces, which demonstrates the importance of place as both a site of oppression and transformation. Sutton is also studying the life histories of the African American and Puerto Rican students who were recruited to Columbia University's School of Architecture during the Civil Rights Movement. Her recent co-authored monograph, Urban Youth Programs in America, describes what low-income and minority youth contribute to community development; her earlier book, Weaving a Tapestry of Resistance, is based on a three-year evaluation of a K-12 design education program she founded while at the University of Michigan. Sutton has lectured at more than 40 colleges and universities internationally, in community settings, and at professional conferences in art, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, planning, and psychology.

Formerly a Kellogg National Fellow as well as a Danforth Fellow, Sutton has degrees in music, architecture, psychology, and philosophy, all earned in New York City. She is a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects, a Distinguished Professor of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, and an inductee in the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame. Her fine art has been exhibited in and collected by galleries and museums, business enterprises, colleges and universities, and the Library of Congress. Sutton previously practiced architecture in New York City, once performed in the orchestras of the Bolshoi and other ballet companies, and has played in the orchestras of such Broadway hits as Man of La Mancha, Fiddler on the Roof, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She received numerous awards for her community and public service.