Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP) Dean J. Meejin Yoon has been reappointed to her post for a second term after a vote from the university’s Board of Trustees in October.

Yoon will begin her second term in January of 2024, extending for five years a tenure that brought “dramatic institutional change” to the campus, according to Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff, who made the announcement yesterday.

Yoon has been credited with doubling the college’s endowment in the process of funding the establishment of several influential centers and recruiting more than a third of its tenured faculty.

Her time as Dean also included the founding of the AAP’s first Office of Diversity and Inclusion, in addition to creating grant opportunities and other academic programs geared specifically towards racial and social justice causes. She was also instrumental in leading the college as it grappled with the pandemic and its profound effects on the delivery of architectural education, while finally using her own expertise as a designer to eke out an expansion of physical spaces for students and their instructors at a critical time.

“The last few years have presented unprecedented challenges and opportunities, and it has been an honor and a privilege to be part of such an inspiring community of leaders, faculty, staff, students, and alumni,” Yoon said at the announcement. “Thanks to the dedication and support of so many, we continue to catalyze critical collaborations and partnerships that build on the strengths of the college and university, enabling us to tackle some of the greatest challenges facing cities and communities today and advance AAP’s mission to create a more just, sustainable and thriving world.”