Deborah Berke Named Yale SOA Dean

Berke, who served as an adjunct professor at the school since 1987, will become the first woman to lead the SOA, which turns 100 next year. She joins a growing number of women leading schools of architecture in the United States, a list that includes Amala Andraos at Columbia, Monica Ponce de Leon at Princeton, and Sarah Whiting at Rice.

She told the New York Times that "women are underrepresented in the architecture profession — that is a shame and needs to change. But so are racial, ethnic and socioeconomic minorities not represented in architecture. That is an equal problem and addressing that will be part of my mission at Yale."

Yale University President Peter Salovey said in a statement: "As a practicing architect and a long-time faculty member in the School of Architecture, Professor Berke is ideally positioned to lead it toward a successful future as it begins its second century. For more than 30 years, she has dedicated her career — in equal measures — to education and practice. She has taught architectural design using disciplinary approaches both integral to and less commonly associated with the world of architecture. This perspective, in her own words, helps students to understand they are part of a larger cultural conversation."

Her firm, Deborah Berke Partners, is known for its institutional and commercial buildings; the former consists of numerous galleries and university commissions (including the renovation of Yale's School of Art), and the latter is anchored by the 21c Hotels realized in Kentucky, Ohio, Arkansas and, most recently, North Carolina. Per Yale's statement, Berke "will maintain her active role in the creative direction of the practice" after she takes her new position on 1 July 2016.