Kathleen R. Lugosch is the founding director of the Master of Architecture program at UMass Amherst, the first accredited architecture degree at a public university in New England. She has distinguished herself as a visionary thinker in architectural education and has developed a nationally acclaimed interdisciplinary curriculum that empowers students from a wide array of intellectual, socio-economic and international backgrounds to excel professionally.

Lugosch has cultivated a learning environment in which students can push their limits as creative thinkers; a respectful environment that allows making mistakes without fear of criticism on one’s path toward discovery. This is now a central philosophy that permeates the Department. Lugosch’s commitment to social justice has also become a hallmark in the ethos of the Department, helping to spawn the Center for Design Engagement, an umbrella organization with the mission of bringing design to underserved communities. Just as important, Lugosch has been a key force in bringing gender diversity to the male-dominated world of architecture.

In her teaching, research and professional work, Lugosch adheres to a belief that architecture embraces technology and art. She has been on the forefront of designing with environmental sustainability as a guiding principle and is committed to integrating new technologies, materials and details into the poetics of design. Her students learn to combine aesthetics with energy efficiency and as professionals, they bring that philosophy to firms as local as the Pioneer Valley and as far away as China.

The Master of Architecture received accreditation from the National Architectural Accrediting Board in 2007. In 2014, the program was elevated to the status of the Department of Architecture. The department is scheduled to move into the Design Building in 2017, a home it will share with landscape architecture, regional planning and building construction technologies, bringing together allied fields currently spread across the UMass Amherst campus. It is expected the new building will receive a U.S. Green Building Council rating of LEED Platinum.

In 2012, Lugosch was named a fellow in the American Institute of Architects, an honor received by less than three percent of the architects in the United States. The following year, the Boston Society of Architects recognized her work with its Women in Design Award of Excellence. She was most recently awarded the 2015 Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Research and Creative Activity, and the University of Massachusetts Graduate Mentor Award. She also won one of the top two spots in the U.S. Green Building Council West Branch Bi-annual ‘Green Giant’ awards in education.

Lugosch is the principal of Lugosch Architects, an award-winning architecture and design firm in Amherst, Massachusetts. She is also a ceramic artist, recently exhibited at the Northampton A.P.E. Gallery in the juried show, ‘Art by Architects.’