: Spring 2024 commencement speaker Gail Anderson laughing with A&A Dean B. Stephen Carpenter II.

A&A Dean

Office of the Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Dean in the College of Arts and Architecture

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Welcome
Office Overview
Contact the Dean
Leadership Perspectives Video
Notes from the Dean
A&A Dean's Circle
Movers Shakers...

The College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State

Welcome to A&A

Our diverse community of faculty, staff, students, and administrators is dedicated to the success of our programs and the college as a whole.

As dean, I am committed to supporting the myriad ways creativity and innovation manifest in visual, performing, design, and scholarly pursuits. Our college creates knowledge and reinvents existing modes of meaning-making across a wide range of disciplines.

My vision for the college rests on three key priorities: supporting student success, cultivating a culture of critical creativity, and increasing our influence and visibility. We strive to be an epicenter of artistic and design innovation, research, creative activity, and cultural production.

In the College of Arts and Architecture, we create and reinvent artistic, research, design, and performance possibilities. Simply put, #WeCreate.

I invite you to explore our departments, schools, programs, and initiatives. Join us in our mission to push the boundaries of creativity and scholarship.

Script writing that reads B Stephen Carpenter

B Stephen Carpenter II
Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Dean in the College of Arts and Architecture
The Pennsylvania State University

Overview of the Office of the Dean

The Office of the Dean provides leadership for the college and all its operations through the administration of financial services, facilities, and human resources.

A primary goal of the office is to provide support to students, staff, faculty, alumni, and friends in order to advance the college’s teaching, research and creative activity, and service missions. The office oversees the implementation of college and university policies and procedures, and takes step towards supporting the college’s efforts in reaching its strategic planning goals.

A&A 2026–2030 Strategic Plan

Contact Dean Carpenter

So as a kid growing up with my brothers, we realized that anything we wanted, anything we could imagine, we could probably make. We'd use old copper pipes or molding for baseboards — any items that my dad was saving for home repairs that would allow us to make those visions or those ideas a reality. My parents really encouraged us to think, to ask critical questions, and then to make other possibilities out of what was given to us.

My undergraduate ceramics professor showed me that you could take clay and sawdust and create vessels that would render water with waterborne disease potable. Seeing what is available and making something different out of it, it can quite literally change the direction of people's lives. Here at Penn State, our faculty are encouraging students to look into the world, to recognize structures and systems and practices and question them in positive ways — through their work as designers, architects, historians, teachers, musicians, actors, writers — and transfer that knowledge out into other realms. Regardless of the medium, if they can imagine a solution, if they can imagine a response to a social issue, they can realize it.

Clay just became a natural material for me to use.If you don't like what you have, you can kind of mold it back together and form a new object. If we give ourselves a set of parameters, we're already confined. But if we allow ourselves to even question the initial notion of those parameters, other possibilities open up. That is what we do in our college. We see the world as it is and imagine it in other ways — and then use our disciplinary practices to make those other ways a reality.

I'm Steve Carpenter, and I empower people to question answers and assumptions in order to make possibilities possible.

Notes from the Dean

Archived Dean's Messages

January 29, 2026

Greetings from a particularly cold and snowy Happy Valley. While a foot of snow and several days of sub-zero temperatures obviously caused some disruptions to school and work schedules, there is something to be said for a good old-fashioned “snow day.” If you were affected by the recent storm, I hope you and your families stayed safe and warm.

It is fitting at the beginning of a calendar year to look ahead – and at Penn State, we have been looking ahead at the next five years. We recently wrapped up the college’s new five-year strategic plan, which includes input from faculty and staff members, students, and many alumni and friends. Thank you to those who participated in our strategic planning workshops during the fall semester. Your input was invaluable.

You can see the final plan on our dedicated strategic plan website. Our new plan has five strategic goals. Below I highlight one goal in particular:

Build a culture of collaboration within and beyond the college that strengthens trust,
connection, and belonging across A&A’s people, partnerships, and programs.

As alumni and friends of college, you are key to this goal. Through your involvement as volunteers, mentors, guest speakers, hosts for class visits and internships, and financial supporters – among other examples – you facilitate the type of collaboration that sets our students up for success. Setting students up for success, while they are with us at University Park and after they graduate, is a key part of the Arts and Architecture plan, and is part of Penn State’s strategic plan as well.

We rely on alumni and friends to help students make the transition from student life on campus to the professional sector or to graduate school. When you serve as mentors for our current students, and facilitate connections for them, you make their pursuit of professional goals beyond their time in the college a bit less intimidating. Thank you.

As always, our college calendar is full, so if you find yourself on campus in the coming months, I encourage you to catch a show or concert, check out an exhibition, or experience one of our guest lectures. There is always something exciting happening in Arts and Architecture.

Thank you for your support. I hope to see you on campus soon.

B Stephen Carpenter II
Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Dean in the College of Arts and Architecture
The Pennsylvania State University

Visionary Leaders Creating Success

A&A Dean’s Circle

Mission: To provide the dean with critical feedback and visionary perspective on the current state and future success of the College of Arts and Architecture.

Inaugural Dean’s Circle Members

Mary Lou Belli

Television director, author, alumna

Emmet Cohen

Pianist, composer

Kim Cosier

Art education scholar, activist, retired professor

John Hoke III

Architect, designer, chief innovation officer, alumnus

Brian Kappel

Graphic designer, entrepreneur, alumnus

Terry Kidd

Higher education administrator, technology scholar

Nicole Robinson

Higher education administrator, music education and diversity scholar

Mark Shulman

Live event producer, alumnus

Jerilea Zempel

Artist, activist, retired university artist-in-residence

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Conversations with Notable A&A Alumni

Movers Shakers Designers Makers

In the “Movers Shakers Designers Makers” video series, Dean Carpenter takes the opportunity to talk with A&A alumni about professions, practice and Penn State. From gorillas and activism to pedagogy and Peachy Paterno, the topics are timely and free-ranging – laugh, learn and enjoy.

Watch the Movers Shakers Designers Makers Playlist on YouTube