Sarah Whiting, dean of the Rice University School of Architecture, has been named the next permanent dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). Whiting, an educator and practicing architect through her firm WW Architecture, will take over for Mohsen Mostafavi on July 1 of this year.

Whiting has served as the dean at Rice’s School of Architecture since 2010, but previously served as a design critic, and an assistant, then associate professor at the GSD Department of Architecture from 1999 to 2005.

“The GSD has long been a center of gravity for my thinking and actions, and I’m thrilled to be returning,” said Whiting in a press release. “It is altogether tantalizing to look across the School’s three departments, with their individual and collective capacities to shape new horizons within Gund Hall. And it’s even more enticing to envision working with the GSD’s remarkable faculty, students, staff, and alumni to help imagine and create new futures for the world, not just at Harvard but beyond.”

Whiting’s work and areas of education are frequently interdisciplinary, placing architecture within a holistic urban context.

“Sarah Whiting is an exemplary academic leader and colleague. Her intellectual commitment to design education has enhanced the future of practice,” said Mostafavi, who had previously served as dean for 11 years. “I am delighted that she will be returning to the GSD to help shape the next phase of this incredible school’s journey.”