Elizabeth Debs

Elizabeth Debs, AIA, NOMA, has been involved in architecture/planning, community development and nonprofit work for over 25 years. She is especially interested in issues of social equity and focuses her work and volunteer activities there. Elizabeth has worked in real estate development, as the executive director of a community-based organization, and as the principal of an architectural practice. In the past several years, she has become interested in innovations in professional and higher education and the ways in which academia interacts with the larger community.

She has been teaching in the Interior Architecture department at Rhode Island School of Design since 2015 and is very active in the Providence community. She often partners studio work with community organizations’ needs and has coordinated the department’s charette project for a number of years. Elizabeth is on the Board of Trustees of the Providence Public Library and was recently appointed by the governor to the Rhode Island State House Restoration Commission. She was the 2021 chair of the Institute of Architects National Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community.

Previously she was a board member of the West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation after several years as the co-chair of the Sankofa food and culture initiative. She is also an advisory group member of the Venture Farm Institute at the UConn Agricultural Extension.