CUDC Program Series
Dana Cuff
Livestream or Recording:
Architectures of Spatial Justice
Dana Cuff is a professor, author, and scholar in architecture and urbanism at the University of California, Los Angeles where she is also the founding director of cityLAB, a think tank that explores design innovations in the emerging metropolis. Since receiving her Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, Cuff has published and lectured widely about postwar Los Angeles, modern American urbanism, the architectural profession, affordable housing, and spatially embedded computing. Two books have been particularly important: Architecture: the Story of Practice which remains an influential text about the culture of the design profession, and The Provisional City, a study of residential architecture’s role in transforming Los Angeles over the past century. Her urban and architectural research now span across continents to Sweden, China, Japan, and Mexico. In 2013 and 2016, Cuff received major, multi-year awards from the Mellon Foundation for the Urban Humanities Initiative, bringing design and the humanities together at UCLA.
Omari Souza
Livestream or Recording:
Inclusivity Matters: Elevating Voices in Anthology of Blackness
Omari Souza is a designer and educator. He is an Assistant Professor of Communication Design at the University of North Texas, the organizer of the State of Black Design Conference, and a Design Researcher at Capital One. Formerly, he worked at VIBE magazine, CBS Radio, and Case Western Reserve University.
Savina Romanos
Livestream or Recording:
Grow a Vocation
Most interested in pushing the boundaries of architectural scale and its affect on larger contexts, Savina Romanos practices and teaches in New York City. In her decade at !melk, Savina has led large scale master plans and urban design projects from concept to implementation, both stateside and internationally. Deeply entrenched in the quality of design and the overall character and narrative of urban environments, Savina is adept at developing new and refreshing - but always contextually rooted - urban form. She holds a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture from The Cooper Union, from which her projects have been published and exhibited internationally.
Stephanie Ryberg-Webster
Livestream or Recording:
Preserving the Vanishing City
Stephanie Ryberg-Webster is an Associate Professor in the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs in the Levin College of Public Affairs and Education at Cleveland State University, and is the coeditor of Legacy Cities: Continuity and Change amid Decline and Revival.
Sharon Wohl
Livestream or Recording:
Meanderings: Advocacy, Complexity, & Opportunities in the Urban Sphere
Sharon Wohl is Associate Dean at the CAED. Dr. Wohl joins us from the College of Design at Iowa State University, where she served as Interim Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Success. Alongside that role, she contributed as an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture and to that department’s leadership as Undergraduate Coordinator. Dr. Wohl received her PhD in Spatial Planning and Strategy from Delft Technical University in the Netherlands. Her research examines how principles of complex adaptive systems can be operationalized within the built environment. Her expertise in complexity has been recognized in various ways: through a research fellowship with the Institute for Advanced Studies in Amsterdam, invitations for speaking/guest lecture events, and through her academic appointment as a named FRK Faculty Fellow at ISU. Her research has been published in a variety of journals, including Planning Theory, Progress in Human Geography, and Space and Culture. Prior to completing her doctorate degree, she practiced with the award-winning Canadian Architectural firm, 5468796 Architecture.
Dawn Mayes
Attracting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce: Exploring Barriers and Strategies
Dawn Mayes served as the Senior Program Manager for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at APB Associates. Dawn led this role for the renovations of Progressive Field as well as being a part of the owner’s rep team for the Cleveland Guardians. Her role spans beyond the construction aspect of the project, which includes assisting small businesses, under employed, and unemployed residents with resources to get back into the workforce or to help their businesses accelerate.
Dawn grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. She is an Army veteran, an artist, an entrepreneur, a proud Florida A&M University graduate, where she received her Bachelors of Architectural Studies, and an alumna of Kent State University where she received her Masters in Architecture with a Certificate in Urban Design. In early 2022, she was also awarded an Artist Residency for Karamu House’s Resident in the House program. She was recently accepted into CWRU Weatherhead Executive Leadership Development Experience which is an Executive Coaching certification program.