Call for Applications: 2025-26 ACSA Board of Directors

The ACSA invites applications for three positions on the Board of Directors—a Second Vice President and two At-Large Directors. The applications will be for consideration by the ACSA Nominations Committee, which recommends a slate of at least two candidates for elected board positions.

Please review the following eligibility requirements, timeline, and background information that describes the organization’s intended directions in coming years.

Open Board Positions: Second Vice President, Two At-Large Directors 

Eligible applicants for all Board positions must meet the following requirements:

• Second Vice President. Candidates shall be full-time, tenured, tenure-track, or fixed-term faculty members of a Full Member school at the time of application and throughout the four-year term of office.
• At-Large Director. The ACSA Bylaws permit no more than one At-Large Director to come from a school that is not a Full Member. The 2025-26 Board will have a director that fits this description. Therefore, the Nominations Committee will consider candidates from full-member schools for the two At-Large Director positions.

Position Descriptions

Terms for directors begin on July 1, 2025, with terms of service noted below. All directors are expected to attend three in-person board meetings a year: a summer meeting, typically held in early August; a fall meeting, which typically occurs in conjunction with the Administrators Conference; and a spring meeting, which typically occurs in conjunction with the ACSA Annual Meeting. Additionally, board members serve on committees, which may entail travel to a meeting one time per year and conference calls one to two times per month.

The Second Vice President serves a four-year term. The elected person serves for one year, respectively, as Second Vice President, First Vice President/President-Elect, President, and Past President. The President is responsible for calling meetings of the Board of Directors, preparing an agenda, and presiding at such meetings. The President coordinates activities of the board, ACSA committees, and liaison representatives. The President serves as ACSA liaison with the officers of the American Institute of Architects, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, the National Architectural Accrediting Board, the National Organization of Minority Architects, and the American Institute of Architecture Students. During the term of office, the President also prepares a brief report of activities of the organization and the Board of Directors for dissemination to the constituent associations. As First Vice President, the person will chair the Planning Committee, and, as Past President, the person will chair the Nominations Committee.

The At-Large Directors serve a three-year term as voting members of the Board. In addition, they serve as liaison to member schools, including participating in organized business meetings; maintaining contact with Faculty Councilors and others associated with member schools; assisting member schools upon request; advising Candidate or Affiliate member schools; and advising the Board of issues and concerns raised by members. At-Large Directors contribute to the work of the Board through actively serving on Board committees, contributing to collective deliberations, and performing other duties as provided by the Rules of the Board of Directors or as requested by the Board.

Note the Nominations Committee is developing a review process that may include a questionnaire for the prospective candidates or a video conference meeting with members of the Nominations Committee.

The 2024-25 Nominations Committee will be announced in late April 2024.

Timeline

The deadline for applications is October 9, 2024. ACSA will publish a preliminary slate of Board approved candidates in November 2024, followed by a period during which members may petition for the inclusion of additional candidates to the slate. A final slate of candidates, including candidates by petition, will be published in early January, when the online balloting process will open. Candidates will be notified of the results in mid-February. The results of this election will be announced online soon after the ballot deadline.

Application Requirements

Applications for all ACSA Board positions should include the following, included in a single PDF in this order:

•  Downloaded volunteer cover sheet confirming you have created or review a My ACSA profile;
• Cover letter (2 pages maximum) that (a) indicates your engagement with, participation with, or contributions to ACSA and (b) addresses your potential to contribute to ACSA values and strategic plan priorities, as outlined below (click here to download);
• Current curriculum vitae (2 pages maximum) highlighting relevant research, teaching, and service.

Applications should be sent by email to Abel Chanyalew, Membership Coordinator, achanyalew@acsa-arch.org, with the subject line “ACSA Board Application.”

DESIRED COMPETENCIES AND BACKGROUNDS FOR NOMINEES

ACSA actively seeks equitable and representative involvement by a broad range of people on its Board and other volunteer bodies. The Board of Directors should represent a diversity of background, experiences, expertise, and geography. This shall also include racial, ethnic, and gender diversity. We encourage nominations from Black, Indigenous/Native, and people of color, as well as from individuals teaching at minority-serving institutions.

Prospective candidates are encouraged to review the strategic initiatives and priority objectives, included below, to understand future directions for ACSA board activities. The areas described below include (but are not limited to) experience producing scholarship and/or funded research, understanding processes for recruiting students from a variety of backgrounds, and experience communicating the value of architecture, whether in a disciplinary or professional context. However, the desired competencies of board members should not be narrowly understood. Regional and racial, ethnic, and gender diversity are also important to the ACSA. The vacancies on the board come from directors whose primary affiliations are in the U.S. Northwest, West, and Southwest. Ensuring regional diversity, therefore, is among the Board’s priorities. Finally, previous experience with ACSA committees, conference leadership, or other Board appointments is desired.

ACSA Strategic Planning Process 2024-25 and Beyond

In the 2024-25 year ACSA will embark on a revision of its 2022-2025 strategic plan. This work will occur through the board’s Planning Committee, which will oversee a process of collecting feedback from members and other stakeholders on the organization’s recent priorities and what is changing in architectural education, practice, and higher education. Directors new to the board in 2025-26 will participate in this process, and we encourage candidates for the open positions to note their experience with strategic planning.

The following section provides information on ACSA’s current strategic plan and the organization’s priorities through 2024-25.

ACSA Values and Strategic Plan Plan Priorities: 2022-2025

With the 2022-23 academic year, ACSA started its work in a new strategic plan cycle that elevates ACSA’s commitment to increase racial equity in architectural education and in the ACSA. The plan’s objectives also sharpen the organization’s focus on climate action by calling out the imperative to promote and disseminate more scholarship that contributes to efforts in architecture and design to mitigate the effects of climate change on local communities.

ACSA expects to focus on pathways into architectural education for students of color, particularly community college students. We anticipate investing time and money to continue our work to make the transfer process for community college students more transparent and easier to navigate. We also seek to connect member schools working on K-12 educational outreach, which can take many forms, such as afterschool programs, summer programs, or one-on-one mentoring.

An equitable learning culture will also remain a strong focus, with the ACSA continuing to work to empower members to implement changes in their schools that welcome students of all backgrounds and enable them to thrive. This focus on informal culture and formal policies extends to both students and faculty. ACSA recognizes that a key factor in creating an equitable learning culture is for the faculty and staff at schools to reflect increasingly diverse student populations.

The role of the built environment in contributing to climate change and the agency of professionals working in architecture and design is also a high priority for ACSA. We seek to intensify our scholarly programs in support of climate action, and we aim to expand the impact of these programs to more students and professionals. We recognize that this work takes many forms and threads through the entire discipline. We seek to connect people working across the curriculum on climate mitigation strategies.

In the spring of 2022, ACSA sharpened the language in our core values to highlight Equity, Social Justice, and Climate Action; Teaching and Learning; and Research, Scholarship, and Creative Practice. We aim to invest the organization’s financial and human resources in programs that have measurable impact and bring about positive change within the discipline.