Byron Mouton
Director of URBANbuild
Senior Professor of Practice
Byron J. Mouton is an established architect, educator, New Orleans native, and alumnus of Tulane University. He now runs his practice BILD Design in conjunction with his academic role as Senior Professor of Practice at Tulane’s School of Architecture and Director of URBANbuild.
Emilie Taylor Welty
Design/Build Manager, Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design
Professor of Practice
Emilie Taylor Welty was a member of the first URBANbuild studio and helped to lead builds two through five as well, before joining the leadership at the Small Center for Collaborative Design and running her firm Colectivo.
Nick LiCausi
Digital Fabrication Manager
LiCausi received a Bachelors of Architecture from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where he studied motion graphics, digital fabrication, and computational design alongside architecture. In professional practice in New York City, he specialized in 3D printing, virtual reality, and other digital technologies.
Emily Parsons
Director of Undergraduate Advising and Student Affairs
Emily Parsons worked in architectural practice specializing in metal building fabrication, and now applies her talents to Admissions and Advising and the Tulane School of Architecture.
Robin Stead
Director of Student Affairs
Robin Stead joined the Tulane staff in 1991 and has worked in several other departments within the university before serving as Tulane School of Architecture’s Director of Financial Services.
Michael J. Cusanza
Assistant Director of Admissions
Michael serves as the Assistant Director of Admissions for the School of Architecture. Based on his experiences in admissions, he believes in recruiting based on building relationships through honest and genuine interactions. He was previously the Senior Admissions Counselor at Loyola University New Orleans. Michael is a born-and-raised New Orleanian who received his Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Louisiana State University in 2017 and his Masters in Business Administration from Loyola University New Orleans in 2020.
Christy Crosby
Director of Administration
Christy received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature at Missouri State University, and worked for six years as a legal secretary in Austin, Texas and New Orleans. She is currently finishing a certificate in Human Resource Management at the Tulane School of Professional Studies.
Naomi King Englar
Senior Marketing and Communications Coordinator
Naomi received a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in communications with honors certificate and a minor in environmental studies from Loyola University New Orleans in 2006. She worked for seven years leading communications and training activities for two centers at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine: the Tulane Prevention Research Center and the Tulane Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health.
Benjamin J. Smith
Former Director of Graduate Architecture and Assistant Professor of Architecture
Ben Smith is a scholar, designer, and educator whose work locates advanced practices for architecture. Fundamental to his teaching approach is his encouragement of students’ confidence to do, to act, and to make.
Alan Lewis
Former faculty and former co-director of the Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design (formerly Tulane City Center)
Alan Lewis was one of the founding directors of the Tulane City Center and was instrumental in generating initial funding to begin addressing the myriad difficulties faced by New Orleans post-Katrina.
Coleman Coker
Former faculty and director of GreenBUILD
Coleman Coker launched his firm buildingstudio in 1999 after a thirteen-year partnership with Samuel Mockbee as Mockbee/Coker Architects, and was the visiting Favrot Chair at Tulane University School of Architecture.
Dan Etheridge
Former co-director of the Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design (formerly Tulane City Center)
Dan Etheridge was instrumental in shaping the Small Center for Collaborative Design’s mission and approach to community-engaged design. He is now the owner of Pagoda Cafe, a 1920s Chinese laundromat-turned-restaurant.
Elizabeth Gamard
Emerita Associate Professor
Elizabeth Gamard taught in the Tulane School of Architecture for seventeen years, and served as Associate Dean post-Katrina. (deceased)
Ila Berman
Former Associate Dean and co-director of URBANbuild
Ila Berman was a founding director of URBANbuild, and is now a member of the faculty at the University of Virginia School of Architecture.
Mona El Khafif
Former Visiting Assistant Professor
In 2006-2007 Mona El Khafif joined the URBANbuild HUD grant at Tulane University School of Architecture, and is co-author of the award winning publication ‘URBANbuild: Local/Global’ (with Ila Berman).
Reed Kroloff
Former Dean of the Tulane School of Architecture
Reed Kroloff was Dean of Architecture at Tulane University in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and co-chaired the commission charged with developing the initial master plan for rebuilding the city in the wake of the storm and subsequent flooding. He is now the Director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum.
Sandi Stroud
Former faculty and director of the Master of Sustainable Real Estate Development program at Tulane.
Sandi Stroud is founding Director of the Master of Sustainable Real Estate Development at Tulane, and now runs her own real estate and consulting businesses.
Doug Harmon
Former Adjunct Associate Professor
Creator of URBANbuild concept
Doug Harmon served as director of the CityBuild program, which operated from 2005–2007. Doug continues to teach as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture, in addition to running his own design practice in New Orleans.
Kenneth Schwartz
Professor of Architecture
Director of Phyllis Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking
Former Dean of the Tulane School of Architecture
Since Kenneth Schwartz was appointed as dean in 2008, Tulane School of Architecture has become one of the most visible units of Tulane University in creating a national model of innovative, engaged and empathetic pedagogy working in close partnership with neighborhood and non-profit organizations throughout New Orleans and beyond.
Sam Richards
Former Shop and Building Manager
Former Co-Director of Construction
Sam was the Shop Director and Building Manager for the Tulane School of Architecture, and former co-director of construction for URBANbuild.
Scott Bernhard
Associate Professor of Architecture
Former Director of the Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design (formerly Tulane City Center).
Scott Bernhard has been a member of the School of Architecture faculty for more than 25 years and helped to establish Tulane School of Architecture’s outreach programs.
Seth Welty
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Seth Welty was a member of the first URBANbuild studio, and in addition to teaching several studio classes at the School of Architecture, is the principal architect at the Colectivo design firm in New Orleans.
Tom Holloman
Former Adjunct Assistant Professor
Tom Holloman is an architect and educator who taught several studio courses at the Tulane School of Architecture.
John Tyler Young
Former Co-Director of Construction
Tyler Young received his undergraduate degree from Auburn University in 2008 where he studied at the Rural Studio. In 2014 he moved to New Orleans and began working with BILD Design as a fabricator and project manager.