Faculty & Staff News
Updates from our campus community
College Honors 20 Faculty, Staff at Spring Kickoff
The College of Architecture recognized faculty and staff at its 2026 Spring Kickoff on Jan. 9 in Geren Auditorium, celebrating recent award recipients and employees marking major service milestones.
Staff Awards
The college presented one Staff Excellence Award honoring staff performance over the past two years that exceeds position expectations. The college awards one Staff Excellence Award every spring and fall semester.
- Kelsey Tisdel, Instructional Designer, Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning.
Faculty Awards
Eight faculty awards recognized excellence in teaching, research, mentoring, service and interdisciplinary work:
J. Thomas Regan Interdisciplinary Faculty Prize
- Benjamin Ennemoser, assistant professor, Department of Architecture
Teaching Excellence Award
- Early Career — Dr. Fabrizio Aimar, assistant professor of the practice, director of the Center for Heritage Conservation, Department of Architecture
- Senior Career — Michael O’Brien, professor, Department of Architecture
Scholarly Excellence Award
- Early Career — Dr. Ashrant Aryal, assistant professor, Department of Construction Science
- Senior Career — Dr. Kunhee (KC) Choi, professor, Department of Construction Science
Outstanding Mentor Award
- Dr. Michelle Meyer, associate professor, Director of the Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center, Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
Outstanding Service Award
- Justin Golbabai, associate professor of the practice, Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
Career Achievement Award
- Dr. Jeff S. Haberl, professor, associate director of the Energy Systems Laboratory, Department of Architecture
Service
The college also recognized faculty and staff for service milestones to the Texas A&M System:
20 years
- Dr. Weiling He, associate professor, Department of Architecture
- Dr. Wei Yan, interim department head, Department of Architecture
- Dr. Sarel Lavy, professor, Department of Construction Science
- Debby Heckler, administrative associate, Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
- Dr. Shannon Van Zandt, professor, Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
25 years
- Monica Garner, graduate advisor and senior administrative coordinator I, Department of Architecture
- Debra Ellis, senior lecturer, Department of Construction Science
30 years
- Shelley Holliday, associate dean for academic affairs, Office of the Dean
- Anne McGowan, instructional professor, Department of Construction Science
- Dr. Chang-Shan Huang, associate professor, Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
45 years
- Melinda Randle, senior administrative coordinator I, Department of Architecture
GeoSAT Center Hosts Early GIS Pioneer Dr. Michael Goodchild
Early geographic information science pioneer Dr. Michael Goodchild visited Texas A&M as a Hagler Distinguished Lecturer and capped his 10-day residency with a public talk on Nov. 7, 2025 at the Nolanville SMART Museum.
Hosted by the College of Architecture’s Center for Geospatial Sciences, Applications and Technology (GeoSAT), the lecture highlighted how digital maps — now behind everyday tools from phone navigation to delivery tracking — can better serve communities when paired with local knowledge.
Goodchild emphasized that geospatial tools, citizen-generated data and AI can strengthen emergency preparedness and resilience, especially through GeoSAT’s long-term partnership with Nolanville, where smart city tools are tested with residents. “Don’t think of this as pure technology,” he said. “Think of it as collaboration between the machine and the human.”
Goodchild, who coined the term “volunteered geographic information,” pointed to OpenStreetMap as a model for community-built data, citing cases like the 2010 Haiti earthquake response where volunteer maps outperformed official sources. He urged communities to identify what maps they’re missing and to map evacuation routes and bottlenecks before disasters occur.
While AI is increasingly necessary to process massive volumes of geographic data, Goodchild cautioned that technology still has limits, closing with a reminder that even the best maps can’t replace understanding what’s happening on the ground.
