Fay Jones School Alumnus Brandon Bibby to Deliver 2023 Spring Commencement Address

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Brandon Bibby, an alumnus of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, will deliver the school's 2023 Spring Commencement address on May 13.

Brandon Bibby, an alumnus of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, will return to the U of A campus to deliver the school's 2023 Spring Commencement address.

Commencement for the school's class of 2023 will take place at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, May 13, in Barnhill Arena.

Bibby, ASID, AIA, NCARB, NOMA, WELL AP, is an artist, activist and architect raised in the plains of Arkansas, where the Delta meets the Ozarks. He is a multidiscipline researcher and designer invested in questioning narrative, representation and access in the built environment and its impacts on memory and behavior for marginalized communities. He is a next-generation preservationist motivated by movement, memory and culture in contemporary Black space.  

In his current role at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Bibby is the Senior Preservation Architect for the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

Founded in 2017, the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is the largest program in the United States dedicated to preserving Black spaces and the contributions of African American sites of activism, achievement and resilience in the American landscape. His portfolio of past and ongoing work includes stewarding the preservation, design and interpretation of sites, including the John and Alice Coltrane Home in Dix Hills, Langston Hughes House in Harlem, Robert's Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago and King's Chapel Memorial to Enslaved Persons in Boston.   

Bibby began his journey in architectural and preservation practice with WER Architects and Planners in Little Rock, and before joining the Action Fund in September 2022, was a Space and Society Fellow and Senior Architect in the Public Memory and Memorials Lab at the 2022 AIA Architecture Firm of the Year, MASS Design Group. He graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Architecture from the Fay Jones School, where he also was awarded the Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal.    

Celebrated for his design leadership and community activism, Bibby is a 2022 Ones To Watch Awardee and Scholar with the American Society of Interior Designers. In 2019, he was named a "New Influential" in Arkansas Business' list of 20 in their 20s. He has taught with the Boston Architectural College; lectured with the American Institute of Architects, Architecture and Design Network and AARP; and served as a Health Equity Advisor with the International Well Building Institute.  

More details about the 2023 Spring Commencement, as well as live streaming and parking information, can be found on the Fay Jones School website.