Building Her Own Blueprint
Architect and College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture Associate Professor of Practice Teresa Rosano has built an award-winning career in higher education by continually stepping beyond her comfort zone.
Greg Veitch
If Teresa Rosano ’94 could offer her 20-year-old self one piece of advice, it would be to take more risks.
“Obviously, I don’t mean doing dangerous things,” she clarifies with a laugh. “I mean taking creative risks, social risks and intellectual risks. Trying things that you think may be a long shot.”
A Tucson native, Rosano grew up in an adobe home built by her father. He wasn’t an architect, but his work and the surrounding Sonoran Desert inspired her fascination with design.
After earning a bachelor’s of architecture from the University of Arizona, Rosano co-founded Ibarra Rosano Design Architects. After 25 years in the field, she felt pulled in a new direction.
She joined the faculty at the U of A’s College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, where she later began teaching full time. Even then, she continued to push herself, returning to school to earn a certificate in college teaching.
“I was 47 when I went back to school,” Rosano says. “I [was in classes] with people who were half my age.”
Her boldest risk, she says, came when she applied for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture’s Distinguished Professor Award. She not only received the competitive national honor but also learned she was the first U of A professor to do so.
“When you feel like you need to make a big change, don’t be afraid to do it,” she says. “Even though it may feel daunting.”