This Black History Month, the design and sustainability communities saw a significant first: Dr. Erica Cochran Hameen became the first Black person to achieve the role of Associate Professor with Indefinite Tenure in the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

Erica – who became Green Building Alliance’s Board Chair in 2024 – has demonstrated incredibly significant leadership in critical areas of the built environment. Her research and instruction focus dually on energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality, and she has dedicated her career to increasing diversity and inclusion within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries and prioritizing disenfranchised communities.

Erica grew up seeing firsthand the positive and negative ways the built environment impacts communities, and these observations shaped her views on the critical role architects, designers, engineers and urban planners had on everyone in the community.

“These experiences and questions inspired me to use architecture as a tool to improve the lives of communities, especially vulnerable populations,” Erica says. “They inspire me to provide new programs and curriculums that are inviting, inclusive and in support of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) students and professionals. These experiences are a reminder of the value of education, the importance of quality and sustainability in the built environment and what happens when these goals are neglected.”

Erica’s recent tenure achievement is critically important for the green building and design industries. In the U.S. on average, between only 1 and 3 Black women receive a PhD in Architecture annually. Currently Black women represent about 0.4% of architects in the U.S.. “As a Black American woman, my awareness of this lack of diversity and past challenges make it all the more important that I serve as a role model and mentor to other women and BIPOC individuals,” she says.

One of Erica’s most impactful projects to date is her involvement in the UDream program, where she serves as the Program Director and Principal Investigator for its sponsored research. UDream was developed to increase the representation of Black and Hispanic architects and urban designers in Pittsburgh. According to Erica, when the program started, there were four Black architects in the city of Pittsburgh. Over the course of a decade, UDream was successful in creating a pathway for professional and academic success for 86 BIPOC candidates. The program resulted in a 400% increase in minority representation in the Architecture and Design field in Pittsburgh, as well as up to a 60% retention rate of professionals in the regional workforce during the program. UDream was responsible for more than 85% of all Black and Hispanic architecture graduate students at CMU during the program’s tenure.

Given Erica’s contributions to sustainable design on a regional, national, and global scale, GBA’s team is proud and excited about what this accomplishment means for Erica’s work and the future of the industry. We recently spoke with Erica about her latest achievement and the students and professionals she mentors.

You are the first Black person to achieve tenure in CMU’s School of Architecture! Tell us about what this means to you.

It is a signal of my commitment to the research and the work that I do. It is about equitable sustainability, it is about having good indoor environmental quality for everyone, and it is a testament to the contributions of the built environment to climate change that other researchers across the world see as critical. Receiving tenure is a recognition that this is important work – that the work we’ve been doing together is critical to our society.

On a personal note, it’s very exciting. It’s weird to think that in 2024 there are still “firsts” of things that Black and Brown people are doing – but there are still so many professional avenues that we haven’t even crossed into, and this is another one. I am excited, I am proud to be the first. I am also hopeful and very encouraged that I will not be the last. There are others coming behind me that I am excited about, and I am super happy and proud – but I also feel like it’s good for the students to see another woman, another Black person achieve these accomplishments. Not just for Black people but for all people who are of a demographic that is not part of the majority – and I see myself as their role model. I want to do my best because I know I’m their role model. I have to show them that they can do it too.

You are very involved locally and nationally in NOMA (the National Organization of Minority Architects), AIA (the American Institute of Architects), and UDream. How does your tenure advance the goals of these groups, and what message does it send to those participants?

Carnegie Mellon University and the Heinz Endowments have been very instrumental in supporting diversity in the built environment. After all, people really make up the built environment. And people come from every race, culture, and background – therefore the architects who are making the designs should be representative of the people who are receiving the designs.

That is what we’re trying to do with the UDream program: to acknowledge that our community is diverse, and the people who are designing that community and making the plans and building the buildings also need to be of the community. With diversity, you bring about different types of ideas. When you gather people from diverse backgrounds and demographics in a room together, there is more creativity – so the UDream program also provides the opportunity for that increased creativity in design.

With diversity, you bring about different types of ideas. When you gather people from diverse backgrounds and demographics in a room together, there is more creativity… ”

Dr. Erica Cochran Hameen
Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture

NOMA and AIA also have strong commitments to diversity in the field of architecture; the UDream program is possible because of them and our other partners and funders – they are all committing to changing our built environment. So many of us have goals about carbon neutrality, goals that everyone should have access to fresh air, and that should have a home that doesn’t require a disproportionate amount of income on heating and cooling… if these are our goals, then we need new solutions. The way to get that high level of creativity and new solutions is through diversity.

As the incoming Board Chair of Green Building Alliance, what are you most excited about?

I love working with GBA, and I have been working with GBA since I was a student at CMU. All the goals that GBA stands for are so exciting to me. One of my initial goals as Board Chair is to discuss our plan for the next few years. We’ve been talking about the 2030 challenge for a long time, but now it’s 2024!

When I think about the 2030 goals, what comes to mind is – we’ve got this! Therefore, let’s start having more conversations about 2050. Let’s push some goals and continue the work that, under Jenna’s leadership, has elevated GBA as not just a regional leader but a global leader in climate action through the built environment – and I will use whatever connections and expertise I have to push that work forward. If we were to make the next five-year strategic plan, that would take us to 2029, so what we need to do now is to start talking about 2050.

Another priority I have is to consider how we communicate things. I’m really interested in that. With my work at CMU and with GBA, I want to help people without PhDs understand the importance of energy efficiency and climate change. If we communicate with only technical language and jargon, most people won’t get it. But if you communicate in terms of human lives and children’s health, people understand that.

“ If we communicate with only technical language and jargon, most people won’t get it. But if you communicate in terms of human lives and children’s health, people understand that. ”

Dr. Erica Cochran Hameen
Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture

Similarly, another of my major goals at CMU in particular is to look at our curriculum: how do we educate? Traditional ways of educating people don’t necessarily work today. For example, a lot of curricula was developed when we didn’t have women and people of diverse racial and cultural demographics in the architecture classroom, and things have changed. The classroom of today is much more diverse, there are more women, more BIPOC students, and more international students. I want to make sure our curriculum respects and acknowledges that great diversity. I am always challenging myself and asking questions – how should we teach, how do we educate, how should we deliver our messages – does it reach everyone? And I want to do the same work at GBA.

I really look forward to working with GBA’s leadership to determine how I can help, the expertise I can bring to push new ambitious goals for 2050, and push for climate neutrality.

About Dr. Erica Cochran Hameen

Dr. Erica Cochran Hameen holds her PhD in Building Performance and Diagnostics and Master of Science in Sustainable Design from Carnegie Mellon University and her Bachelor of Architecture from Virginia Tech. She is the Inaugural Director of Diversity, Equity of Inclusion at CMU’s School of Architecture, the Co-Director of CMU’s Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, and an Assistant Professor in the CMU School of Architecture. Erica has long been involved with Green Building Alliance, the American Institute of Architects, and the National Organization of Minority Architects. Her vast professional and service appointments include:

• AIA UN COP27 and COP28 Work Group examining how to position architects as an essential part of the global response to climate change and establish a strategic approach to AIA’s UNFCCC engagement and future COPs
• AIA Delegate for United Nations Convention on Climate Change (COP27), Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
• Immediate past Chair of the Board of Trustees for Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

Erica’s work and mission can be summarized by this excerpt from her tenure packet’s personal statement:

“ It is important to ask ourselves, what happens if we do not acknowledge the persistent inequities within the built environment? Not addressing these physical environmental inequities means that we are not just ignoring the plight of vulnerable and disenfranchised populations, but we are helping to keep the status quo. It is my position that not only must the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) profession address these inequities, but we must ask ourselves, what if it was me or a family member in this situation. What would I do if I could not afford to heat or cool my home? What would I do if my air was toxic? What would I do if the walls of my children’s school were crumbling? ”

The team at Green Building Alliance is grateful for the work and leadership of Dr. Erica Cochran Hameen and all the ways in which she is guiding us towards a future where every building and every community can be sustainable so that every person can thrive!