A former professor at Columbia University and the University of California at Berkeley, Hutson is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of community development, environmental justice and urban health.
Read the full UVA Today announcement by Alexandra Rebhorn.
I’m thrilled to be joining the School of Architecture as dean. The A-School faculty and students are at the cutting edge of research, teaching and creative practice. Collectively the A-School community is working to address some of the most pressing issues facing our society, ranging from climate resilience to environmental health and racial justice.
Malo A. Hutson, PhD
Dr. Hutson is an academic scholar and practitioner in the areas of community development; urban sustainability/circular economy; racial and ethnic inequalities and urban policy (metropolitan fragmentation, segregation and health); built environment and health. Prior to his recent appointment as Dean of the UVA School of Architecture, he held several crucial roles at Columbia University: Associate Professor of Urban Planning and the founder and Director of the Urban Community and Health Equity Lab at the university's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), Associate Member of the Earth Institute faculty, and Director of Project Development for Columbia World Projects, a new initiative at Columbia University that aims to systematically bring university research out into the world in the form of projects that will have a significant and lasting positive impact on people’s lives and will help guide the way to solutions to intractable problems, while also enriching research and scholarship.
Malo brings a depth and breadth of experience and scholarly accomplishment that stand out in his field, UVA Provost Liz Magill said. Just as important is his vision for the future of UVA Architecture and its ability to create solutions for real-world problems. Malo has continuously demonstrated strategic brilliance in connecting architecture and urban planning to other disciplines for the benefit of his community, his students and his profession.
Prior to joining the faculty at UVA and Columbia University, Dr. Hutson was an Associate Professor and the Chancellor's Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley and Associate Director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD) within the College of Environmental Design. Dr. Hutson has received numerous awards and grants for his research, writing, and practice. He also has over 15 years of experience working on numerous academic and community-centered projects, both nationally and internationally, in cities such as Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, New Orleans, Oakland, San Francisco, Santiago, Chile, and Toronto, Canada. Dr. Hutson was also invited as a guest to the White House as an expert in the area of community development, environmental justice, and urban health to participate in the first-ever Environmental Justice Forum. Dr. Hutson earned both his bachelor of arts in sociology and master of city planning degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and his doctorate in urban and regional planning from the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the faculty at Berkeley, Professor Hutson was a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. At Berkeley, Dr. Hutson is a faculty member of the Diversity and Health Disparities Cluster at Berkeley. He has been interviewed by a range of media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, NBC News Bay Area, and National Public Radio, to name a few.
Among Dr. Hutson’s many qualities that impressed us is his commitment to advancing the public good through both institutional leadership and relevant scholarship, said Jeana Ripple, UVA associate professor of architecture, director of the Master of Architecture program and co-chair of the search committee. The committee is thrilled with Malo’s vision, experience, generosity, dedication to advancing design and scholarship, inclusive excellence, alumni engagement and funded research capacity.
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Read the full UVA Today announcement by Alexandra Rebhorn
Read Dr. Hutson's Columbia University bio
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