CADC Welcomes 10 New Faculty, Staff in Fall 2026 Semester

The School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture’s (APLA) welcomes four new Visiting Assistant Professors to the Architecture (ARCH) program.

Adam Barrett Miller specializes in responsive design, environments, collective life, environmental systems, infrastructure, adaptation and human experience through architecture, ephemeral installations and writing. He is Director of PNEU STARS Design Group, a design and build firm specializing in temporary design, including stage production for music festivals.

Coming from the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s (GSD) Design Discovery program, Brandon Soto researches communication methods beyond disciplinary conventions, drawing contemporary art, pop culture and digital media into digital, paper and textile representations.

ARCH alumna Sarah Page ‘19 brings a focus on materials and ecology, emphasizing multi-scalar methods of analysis across variable forms of human habitation. She is currently researching the regional formation of rural communities in relation to the development of the cotton industry as a Harvard GSD Druker Traveling Fellow.

Co-founder of Recess & Theory, Stacy Hope Scott examines how architecture mediates recognition, aspiration, belonging and domestic life, with particular attention to suburban landscapes, Caribbean diasporic interiors and the cultural meanings embedded in ordinary spaces.

An alum of APLA’s Rural Studio, Charlie Firestone ‘20 is returning to Hale County as a Lecturer and Design Build Manager. He brings experience in fabrication and design-build education from Matter, Yestermorrow Design/Build School and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Hannah Keltner has joined APLA’s Landscape Architecture program as a Visiting Assistant Professor bringing expertise in native planting design as well as local and regional scale master-planning in rural communities from Ecological Design Group in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Two staff members have also joined APLA’s Landscape Infrastructure Design Lab. Researcher Jiayu Wu brings experience in natural infrastructure and resilient coastal landscapes from COG Design, a Boston-based nonprofit supporting community-led green spaces, while Research Associate Zoe Swartz focuses on land-based research and participatory design methods, building on her work as the co-founder of nonprofit organization Radical Grandma Collective in Northeast Thailand.

Auburn alumnus Shadi Alathemneh ‘26, who recently completed a doctoral degree at the McWhorter School of Building Science (BSCI), joined the full-time faculty as an Assistant Professor, bringing a specialization in artificial intelligence (AI), Building Information Modeling and reality capture technologies in construction practice and education.

Alum Tim Murphy ‘13 is returning to BSCI as a Lecturer with two decades of diverse construction experience spanning multi-family, commercial, residential, and international oil and gas sectors. He is the founder of T. Murphy Construction, a local residential maintenance and custom construction company in the Auburn-Opelika area.

The School of Industrial and Graphic Design welcomes back two-time alum Luke Hayworth ‘18 ‘22 as a Lecturer. Co-founder and Design Principal of Hayworth Designs, he focuses on the design of sports and outdoors equipment.