Callender now leading MSU School of Architecture
Contact: Christie McNeal
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Jassen Callender, longtime director of the Mississippi State University School of Architecture’s Jackson Center, has been named F.L. Crane Professor and interim director of the school.
Callender accepted the role in Starkville Aug. 15 as Professor Karen Spence, who has served as director since 2021, transitioned to full-time teaching and Visiting Professor David Buege took the reins at the Jackson Center.
“I am thankful for the leadership of Karen Spence over these past four years and the support she and others on the faculty and staff have shown in this transition,” said Callender, who is a 1994 School of Architecture alumnus.
Callender has taught architecture at the university for more than 20 years. Since 2006, he worked in Jackson at the school’s Fifth-Year Program, where he helped establish a study abroad program in Rome, re-initiated the Jackson Community Design Center research center, and served as interim director in 2008 before becoming program director the following year.
“Serving as Jackson Center director for the last 17 years has been an extraordinary honor, and I will miss both the fifth-year students, faculty and staff as well as the partners and clients we served through the Jackson Community Design Center,” Callender said. “This new position, however, is a profound opportunity. The School of Architecture recently celebrated its 50th anniversary during which it established itself as a prominent program in the Southeast. It is time to begin reimagining the school in preparation for the next half century.”
Learn more about MSU’s College of Architecture, Art and Design and its School of Architecture at www.caad.msstate.edu/sarc and on Facebook and Instagram @CAADatMSU.
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