Ngozi Brown Shares Her Passion for Teaching and Developing Thought-Provoking Curriculum

Tara Ferkel

Ngozi Brown is an assistant professor of practice in architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, as well as a licensed architect and an NCIDQ-certified interior designer.

Editor's Note: As the U of A strives to become an employer of choice, the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design is highlighting the faculty and staff who help the school excel. 

Ngozi "Nome" Brown is an assistant professor of practice in architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. She started working part time at the Fay Jones School in 2020 after she connected with John Folan, a professor and head of the Department of Architecture, at an AIA Arkansas board retreat. Due to the pandemic, she taught virtually while living in Little Rock. In 2022, she transitioned to full-time teaching after moving to Northwest Arkansas.

Brown, AIA, ASID, NOMA, NCARB, NCIDQ, M.Ed., LEED AP ND, EDAC, GPCP, is a licensed architect and an NCIDQ-certified interior designer. She is the owner and principal of NOB A+D, PLC, an architecture and interior design firm in central Arkansas. Her firm has been honored as a finalist for Minority Business of the Year and Emerging Minority Business of the Year by the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. Her expertise includes learning environment design and evidence-based design.

Brown said that, while she feels comfortable as a woman and as a Black person in architecture and academia, there are unique challenges related to race and gender. One struggle she said she faces is the self-imposed pressure to be a role model for students.

"You know that minority students are not going to see another person like you, probably ever, so you feel such a responsibility to make sure you connect with every single student, so they don't feel completely alone," Brown said. "It becomes both an exciting, yet sobering situation — exciting because you are able to connect in a unique way, and sobering because you're one, and there's 40 to 60 students that you are going to encounter in a two- or three-year span."

While sometimes challenging, she said she really cares about each of her students and values the time she spends with them.

"I believe that if you love everybody, sometimes people assume your love won't stretch far enough. But love is infinite. I love all my students, and they all are very special to me," Brown said.

It is because of her concern for her students that she encourages students to tackle difficult topics that are important as architects. While she doesn't expect them to have a particular political view, she said there is value in processing difficult topics. This includes considering the wide range of clients that design can serve.

"There aren't always hard and fast rules, but I want them to think about why they're designing what they're designing. I try to bring that into the discussion," Brown said. "I want students to care about this work because they can create spaces that are lifetime prisons, tucked away in the middle of nowhere. We sometimes don't think of spaces like prisons or forensic psychiatric hospital facilities as design, but someone is going to live 30 to 40 years in a room drawn and designed by an architect."

Those topics are something Brown focuses on in the curriculums she has developed. Since joining the Fay Jones School, Brown has developed curricula for two courses and is working on a third.

Her Archageddon elective relies heavily on dystopian literature. Brown developed the course after she saw how many dystopian stories portray the tension between how laypeople and architects perceive architecture and how design supports or discourages relationships and community. She said all the books they discuss talk about architecture, and many of the stories rely on architecture for the horrible things that happen. As students learn to analyze the prose of the books, especially relating to architecture and place, they realize the importance of what they design.

At the foundation of her work, Brown wants students to grasp the potential impact of their designs.

"I am proud when my students say that I make them think about how architecture hurts people and helps people," Brown said. "That is exactly what I'm trying to do. Architecture and design have the potential to be enormous forces for good."

She said another highlight in her career was when the first group of students she taught graduated in May 2023. Now, she is looking forward to when they come back with their licenses and reports of their accomplishments yet to come.

Brown is a previous inductee into the Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 class as well as Building Design + Construction magazine's nationwide 40 Under 40 class. In 2019, Brown was honored as a National ASID Ones to Watch Scholar — one of only eight inductees in the country.

Brown has served on the AIA Arkansas Board of Directors as the AIA Central Section chair; in this capacity, she worked on several committees, including the Women in Architecture committee and the Diversity Committee. She continues to serve as a director on the AIA Arkansas board.

Brown holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Tuskegee University and a Master of Education from Concordia University. 

Read the full Q&A with Ngozi Brown.