Milagros ZINGONI PHIELIPP

Associate Professor Milagros Zingoni is the Director of the School of Interior Architecture at the University of Tennessee and the Director of Diversity Relations for the College of Architecture and Design. Before this, she was tenured Associate Professor at Arizona State University where she started her academic career 16 years ago. During this tenure, she taught for nine years in Architecture and Urban Design, before joining in 2013 the Interior Design Program in where she shaped the Master in Interior Architecture.

Zingoni is originally from Argentina, where she is a registered architect, and has additional study Habitat Design and Urban and Environmental Planning. Milagros’s experience as both a designer, planner and educator allow her to move easily across scales: from the city to the scale of the body.

Her research explores interiority as ephemeral and spatial experiences inside and outside, leveraging design education to develop agency in underrepresented communities and developing pedagogical approaches that can enable design students to develop soft skills with special emphasis in empathy and collaboration, expanding design-build studios in interior architecture and cross disciplinary design thinking. Her studios focus on community and commitment to public engagement through participatory design-build collaboration that address notions of interiority. Zingoni leverages the resources of Public Research 1 Land Grand universities for the public good addressing new ways of learning, emphasizing problem solving skills and collaboration that creates communities of learning. Zingoni was recognized in 2019 by the Interior Design Educator’s Council (IDEC) with the National Teaching Excellence Award, by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Arizona Chapter with the honor of 2019 Educators of the Year Award, by the annual DesignIntelligence rankings as one of the top twelve most admired educators in the country, by Arizona State University 2020 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Awards, by the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) 2022 Diversity Educator Award in recognition of her work to elevate underrepresented groups through and in design, by the 2022 Phil Freelon Professional Design Award awarded by the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), 2023 ACSA Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Diversity Achievement Award, and by the 2023 American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) 2023 Educator Award (TN Chapter).

Zingoni is a strong advocate for community causes, serving on multiple non-profit and civic boards.