Joel Towers became The New School’s tenth president on August 1, 2024. An architect by training, an educator at heart, and a passionate advocate for design-based solutions to climate change, he has served at The New School for more than 20 years, including
a decade as executive dean of Parsons School of Design. In that role and others, he has strengthened the university’s capacities in education, research, and creative practice integrating design, policy, and collaborative approaches to advancing social
and ecological resilience. He is also University Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design.
President Towers joined Parsons in 2004 as a member of the full-time faculty and the school’s first director of Sustainable Design and Urban Ecology. In 2006, he was named associate provost for Environmental Studies and founded the university’s Tishman Environment
and Design Center, which promotes the integration of bold design, policy, and social justice approaches to environmental issues. From 2007 to 2009, he served as the founding dean of the School of Design Strategies and as associate dean of Parsons.
President Towers was named executive dean of Parsons in 2009 and served in that role until 2019. During that time, Parsons completed major curricular reforms, launched new graduate and undergraduate programs, expanded its full-time faculty, and opened an integrated
26,000-square-foot cross-disciplinary facility called the Making Center. President Towers led and supported initiatives to expand the school’s research capabilities and reach. Under his leadership, Parsons consistently ranked as the top school for art and design
in the United States, a position it holds today.
Throughout President Towers’ career, he has focused on sustainability, resilience, and the development of policy and design-based solutions to climate change and the construction of healthful environments. Before joining The New School, he worked with William McDonough
Architects, where he directed projects that helped codify that firm’s environmental thinking. In 1992, he co-founded Sislian Rothstein and Towers Architects (SR+T). Over 18 years, SR+T completed a number of award-winning projects and served as a testing
ground for the integration of research, scholarship, and creative practice. In 2019, President Towers was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to serve as co-chair of The New York City Panel on Climate Change.
President Towers received a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation.