Rate My Professor Kristen Parrish

Kristen Parrish is a professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University, within the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. Holding the Willmeng Professorship in Construction, she specializes in sustainable construction practices. Parrish earned her PhD in Civil Engineering Systems from the University of California, Berkeley in 2009, with a dissertation titled "Applying a Set-Based Design Approach to Reinforcing Steel Design." She previously obtained an MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering, focusing on structural engineering, and a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering, both from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2005 and 2004, respectively. Her career at ASU began in 2012 as an Assistant Professor in the Del E. Webb School of Construction, where she advanced to Associate Professor in 2018 and served as Graduate Programs Chair until March 2024. Additional roles include Thrust Lead for Heat at the EXTREME Environments Science & Technology Center since August 2022, Associate Director of the Research in Inclusive STEM Education Center since August 2020, and Senior Sustainability Scientist at the Global Institute of Sustainability since 2012. Prior to ASU, she held positions at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as Building Technologies Postdoctoral Fellow, Scientific Engineering Associate, and Geological Project Scientist from 2009 to 2012, and served as a Lecturer at UC Berkeley in 2010.

Parrish's research interests center on energy efficiency in buildings, building energy analysis, efficient process design and execution, construction planning, and engineering education. She has garnered significant recognition, including the Outstanding AE Educator Award and Outstanding Service Award from the ASCE Architectural Engineering Institute in 2023, multiple Top 5% Teaching Awards from the Fulton Schools of Engineering in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2021, the Distinguished Professor Award from the Construction Industry Institute in 2016, and the Editor’s Choice Award in 2021 for her paper on risks in US nuclear power plant construction. Notable publications include “Finding Connections Between the Diné Philosophy of Life and a Project Definition Rating Index to Develop a Planning Tool for Construction on Tribal Lands” (ASCE Journal of Architectural Engineering, 2024), “Energy Savings Results from Small Commercial Building Retrofits in the US” (Energies, 2021), “Development of a project scope definition and assessment tool for small industrial construction projects” (Journal of Management in Engineering, 2017), and “Making design decisions using choosing by advantages” (Proceedings of the International Group for Lean Construction, 2009). Her contributions have influenced sustainable building retrofits, lean construction methodologies, and inclusive STEM practices.