Victoria Kiechel

A practicing architect and urbanist, Victoria Kiechel (Vicky) is a faculty member in the department of Environment, Development, and Health in American University’s School of International Service. Vicky teaches climate-resilient design and urbanism in such courses as Climate Resilient Cities, Environmental Sustainability and Global Health, Global Cities, Sustainable Design and LEED, and the Climate and Conflict Migration graduate practicum and undergraduate capstone. The inaugural recipient of AU’s Most Innovative Green Teacher of the Year award, she is also an Academic Fellow at New York University – Washington, DC’s campus. As a Senior Associate at the Cadmus Group, an environmental consultancy, Vicky has supported the creation of climate-resilient new and existing buildings, urban infrastructure, and related policies and research for diverse clients, including the U.S. Green Building Council, the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Smithsonian Institution, Arlington, Virginia, and TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel website. A registered architect, Vicky recently designed a compact biophilic home for a dense urban site in Washington, DC, created to meet its energy and potable water, and a measure of its food supply, needs onsite.