The College of Architecture and Environmental Design welcomes three new faculty members this Fall 2020 Semester.
Andrea Sosa Fontaine
Assistant Professor
Andrea Sosa Fontaine is a graduate from both the Bachelor of Environmental Design and Master of Interior Design programs at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, Canada. She is an NCIDQ certified Professional Interior Designer and holds the LEED GA designation. She has over twelve years of professional experience and eight years’ experience teaching a wide array of interior design courses ranging from Sensory Technology, and Design Studios, to Construction Detailing and Project Management/Professional Practice courses at the University of Manitoba and the RCCIIT Academy of Design where she was involved in the development of a CIDA accredited Bachelor of Interior Design program. Her professional experience includes four years as Senior Interior Designer at HOK in the New York and Toronto offices where she gained experience ranging from access health centers to K-12 schools and workplace design. She has been involved from concept to completion on projects throughout North America including leading the workplace design for TD Bank America. Her awards include a Storefront Manitoba Commerce Design Award for the Patent 5 Distillery and Tasting Room and an ARIDO Design Award of Merit with the HOK Toronto office. Professor Sosa Fontaine is a maker and runs Annex Design.
Keyla Hernandez
Assistant Professor
Keyla Hernandez is a Cuban born designer and educator working in a wide range of international architecture and design projects. She received her Bachelor of Architecture from Florida International University in Miami, and her Master of Architecture from Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). She was a faculty member at Syracuse University School of Architecture and more recently at Kent State’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design where she taught foundation and options studios, computer applications, and drawing courses. Keyla Hernandez has been an invited critic at Yale, the University of Southern California, Syracuse, and SCI-Arc. She has over ten years’ experience in architectural design firms in Miami, Los Angeles, and South America, with experience in projects ranging in scale from interior design to master plans, and type ranging from residential towers to commercial and healthcare. Projects taken from concept to completion with Smith GroupJJR and TechDesign LLC include the Disney Film Cold Vault and Rancho los Amigo Medical Center, both in LA. Her design research focuses on scalability and on small and medium scale digitally fabricated components. She is currently Lead Designer for Flowen LLC where she focuses on aesthetics and the relationship between architecture and the body through the lens of jewelry and wearable design.
Jennifer Meakins
Schidlowski Emerging Faculty Fellow
Jennifer Meakins received her Master of Architecture from the University of Illinois (UIC), Chicago, where she won the AIA Henry Adams Medal Award, and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Environmental Studies from Colgate University. Her professional experience ranges from exhibit and environments designer of Words as Weapons at Cannon Design, LA for the Museum of Tolerance, to exhibition and furniture design at Associates Associates, Chicago, and assistant to the curatorial team at the Art Institute of Chicago for Building: Inside Studio Gang. She is principle and Designer of QLT Studio focused on surface and textile design, object design and construction. Her work, including full-scale textile and weaving installations were shown at the Octagon Gallery at UIC, Sullivan Galleries (with Ania Jaworska) at the Art Institute of Chicago, and at the Graham Foundation. She has lectured and led symposia on Weaving, Textiles, and Craft at Woodbury University, the Free School of Architecture, and at the UIC School of Architecture and is Co-Editor and Designer of aX, Architecture Chicago, funded by the Graham Foundation. Jennifer Meakins taught Architecture and Interior Design studios at Cal Poly Pomona, UCLA, Woodbury University, and at the UIC in Chicago. She joins the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Kent State as the 4th Schidlowski Emerging Faculty Fellow.