Appointed in 2016, Hazel Ruth Edwards is the first woman to chair Howard University's Department of Architecture in the College of Engineering and Architecture, ever since architecture education began at the school in 1911. She is also a third-generation graduate of Howard, where she received her bachelor of architecture degree. 

With 30 years of experience as a researcher and a strong background in grantsmanship, Edwards has worked as a member of Howard's planning and development team and served as the principal designer for many projects that have influenced the campus. Some of her notable projects include the Founders Walk crime-mapping system, a shuttle circulation plan that is still largely intact today, and the seminal book “The Long Walk: The Placemaking Legacy of Howard University” that she co-authored with then-Vice President for University Administration Harry G. Robinson III. The book retraces the 127-year history of the campus' development.

Edwards' role as chairperson also continues her family's legacy of leadership at Howard and as educators at other HBCUs, including her mother, Cecile H. Edwards, who served as Howard's dean of the School of Human Ecology and interim dean of the new School of Pharmacy, Nursing and Allied Health Sciences.