Amber is the inaugural Matt and Erika Nord Director of the Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites (CPCRS) and Presidential Associate Professor in Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design.
She has over 15 years of experience teaching on the university level and has taught in a school of architecture, small liberal arts college, and a research one state school prior to coming to the University of Pennsylvania. Amber has dedicated her professional career to advancing the history and narrative of design and preservation in Black communities, as well as advocating for theoretically rigorous, thoughtful, and inclusive expansions of preservation policy and practice.
Her main research, teaching, and practice commitments are
an approach to interdisciplinarity
offering students opportunities in applied learning
a commitment to the serious issues of equity and justice.
She firmly believes cultural and educational institutions are obligated to actively engage the communities in which they reside, and to increase their accessibility to a diversified constituency through innovative partnerships.
Amber received her Ph.D. in American Studies from George Washington University. She also holds a Master’s in Architectural History and Certificate in Historic Preservation from the University of Virginia School of Architecture, and a B.A. in Architecture from Yale University. She is a native of Oklahoma City with roots in Washington, DC, Maryland, North Carolina, and Arkansas.