The University of Minnesota (UMN) announced today that Jennifer Yoos, FAIA has been named the new head of its School of Architecture. CEO and a principal of the Minneapolis-based firm VJAA, Yoos is an alumna of UMN and the Architectural Association in London. In 2002, she received a Loeb Fellowship in Urban and Environmental Studies at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and was inducted into the AIA’s College of Fellows in 2013.

Yoos has taught architecture at Cooper Union, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Arkansas, and UMN. In this new role, she will provide strategic leadership and administrative oversight to the College of Design’s School of Architecture, while retaining her position with VJAA.

“I am honored to return to the University of Minnesota as the head of the School of Architecture,” Yoos said in a statement. “The school and its graduates are critical to the success of the architecture community and to the region. I am indebted to the School for providing a solid foundation for my academic and professional career, and look forward to working closely with faculty and students to further the School’s success and increase its influence.”

Yoos is the latest in a string of women rising to top spots at architecture schools in recent years, joining Lesley Lokko (Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York), Sarah Whiting (Harvard Graduate School of Design), Michelle Addington (University of Texas at Austin Architecture School), and Deborah Berke (Yale School of Architecture).

She will step into the role on June 8, 2020, pending approval by the UMN Board of Regents.