The Penn State College of Arts and Architecture has announced Folayemi “Fo” Wilson as their associate dean for access and equity. Wilson will be the first individual to take up the inaugural role, which will be dedicated to helping Penn State question and address assumptions about diversity, inclusion, access and equity. Welcoming Wilson the position, B. Stephen Carpenter II, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture said “[Wilson’s] efforts will lead us forward in response to our commitment to addressing social, cultural, and institutional challenges.”

Wilson is currently co-director of academic diversity, equity and inclusion at Columbia College Chicago, where she is also a professor of art and art history. She is also a co-founder and principal of blkHaUS studios, a socially-focused design studio in Chicago that is centered on transforming and uplifting marginalized communities.

Wilson lectures and exhibits widely, with her design work included in the collection of the Cooper Hewitt National Museum of Design, and has held previous academic positions at University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and the California College of the Arts. She is also a two-time recipient of an individual artist grant from the Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies of the Fine Arts.

Wilson will begin the role on August 14th 2021.

News of Wilson’s appointment comes a week after Penn State student Emmanuella Bakare was announced as one of the 24 students taking part in the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA)’s 2021 NOMA Foundation Fellowship; a two-month research fellowship taking place in collaboration with 19 leading U.S.-based design firms.

Earlier this year, meanwhile, the Penn State team of José Pinto Duarte, PhD, Elena Vazquez, and Zoubeida Ounaies, PhD, along with Neil Katz AIA from Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), were announced as one of four research teams awarded the AIA’s Upjohn Research Initiative, providing up to $30,000 to teams advancing sustainable architecture and design. The Penn State team are currently seeking to generate design guidelines for adaptive building envelopes using bistable laminates.