DesignPhiladelphia Educator Award to Dr. Andrew Phillips, Drexel University’s Architecture Program Director

 

DesignPhiladelphia is thrilled to present its first inaugural honoree for the Designing Futures Annual Breakfast, Dr. Andrew Phillips!

Dr. Andrew Phillips is well known to many in Philadelphia as an accomplished, respected educator and an award-winning architect. Through his work, he earned a strong reputation as an intuitive and highly successful teacher of architecture and design at both high school and university levels. Andrew is a tireless ally of marginalized communities, who has helped generations of students develop their design agency as a vehicle for empowerment and positive change.

Andrew served as Chief Innovation Officer and Director of Design Education at the Charter High School for Architecture + Design (CHAD) and, more recently, as Chair of Design at String Theory Schools. He is also Drexel University’s Architecture Program Director in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. Andrew proved his leadership skills and his unique ability to empower students of all backgrounds, especially those faced with socioeconomic inequities and systemic racism. During the first half of his education career, Andrew taught at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design and helped to spearhead a deep exploration into the discipline of architecture, its inquiry processes, and its representational dialogues. His interest in critical making, the affordances of design tools and techniques, the mindsets, and the means necessary for catalysts of agency and social change have been a common thread and priority throughout Andrew’s career.

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