Kelly MacKinnon is an award-winning Architect, Associate Professor in Architecture at Northumbria University. She has over 20 years experience of the education sector and governance within a university setting. As an industry-facing architect-academic, she contributes and leads on practice-based research and teaching through live projects in the region and beyond.

Kelly is also the Co-Director of Cultural Partnerships at Northumbria University; a cross-faculty set of responsibilities collaborating with various cultural partners, charities, and local authorities. She leads and supports the university strategically with their cultural partnership portfolio working with partners such as the Venice Biennale, Live Theatre, North East Museums, New Writing North and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. She has led on various projects with regional and cultural partners with the aim of providing opportunities for local communities, regional economies, and the wider region.

Kelly has an international reputation in Architecture with an advisory role to the Architects Registration Board. She has externally examined at several universities nationally and works with English Heritage as a critical friend on their National Blue Plaques scheme. Kelly also sits on the advisory panel for three local authorities and their corresponding Creative and Cultural Zone projects and has led on the Venice Biennale Fellowship Scheme in partnership with the British Council.

Kelly is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), member of the RIBA Validation Panel and has taught at various institutions including: Northumbria University, Strathclyde University, Glasgow School of Art. She has acted as external examiner to the undergraduate degrees in architecture at Birmingham City university and the University of Strathclyde, and the postgraduate degree in architecture at the University of Kent.

Working at the intersection of academia and industry, Kelly’s teaching, research and practice spans interests in design, cultural heritage and adaptive re-use, collaborative practice and in architecture education. Her research, teaching and practice combine interests in working with young people and children – who regularly become a missing voice in design processes and community participation when discussing the future of their built environment.