For the first time in its history, UNM’s School of Architecture and Planning has a woman as its new dean. 

Geraldine Forbes Isais, the architecture program director since 2005, was promoted to dean at the end of spring 2010 semester and assumed her role this summer. She succeeds Roger Schluntz, who served as dean for UNM’s School of Architecture and Planning for more than a decade.

“It is a fantastic honor to be named the first woman dean for the school of Architecture and Planning … To be named dean in a time of change and be the first Hispanic woman to be dean is a great honor,” she said.
Architecture professor Mark Childs said Forbes Isais will push the program forward.

“Geraldine cares deeply about the members of our community — the students, faculty, and staff, as well as our professions,” Childs said. “In these difficult times, she has been urging us to build on our strengths of community engagement, critical thinking, inventiveness and scholarship and to keep moving forward.” 

On top of making her mark in academia, she is instrumental in helping women and minorities break through the glass ceiling. The School of Architecture and Planning has about 30 percent female students, and Forbes Isais said there is always room for improvement.

Forbes Isais served as the first president of the Women’s Leadership Council, which was developed in an effort to expand contributions from women in the architecture field.

While the new dean is not a New Mexico native, associate professor Tim Castillo said Forbes Isais has deep cultural connection to the state. He said he worked with Forbes Isais on a project based in northern New Mexico that concentrates on the evolution of historic towns such as Dixon and Embudo.

Castillo said Forbes Isais was instrumental in securing funding for the project.
“She brings energy and passion to her position,” he said.