Monica Rhodes
Monica Rhodes joins MIT DUSP and CoLab during the 2026-2027 academic year as a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Scholar.
Monica is a nationally recognized historic preservationist, entrepreneur, and public intellectual whose work examines the relationship between the past and possibility. As founder and president of Rhodes Heritage Group, she leads interdisciplinary work at the intersection of preservation consulting, creative storytelling, and place-based investment, helping communities preserve and sustain places that hold deep cultural and historical significance. During her time in DUSP, Monica will explore what she calls the "future of the past" by asking how preservation can move beyond reacting to threats and instead become a forward-looking practice that uses history to help communities imagine, prepare for, and shape the next fifty years.
Beyond her practice, Monica brings substantial international standing to this work. She is an elected board member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the world's leading organization dedicated to the conservation and stewardship of cultural heritage, and is currently a candidate for ICOMOS Vice President of the Americas. She also served as a presidentially appointed Expert Member of the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation; the ACHP advises the President and Congress on historic preservation policy at the federal level. Monica brought to this national role her experience navigating preservation policy and expanding awareness of the field. She is also a Rome Prize Fellow in Historic Preservation and Conservation at the American Academy in Rome and a Harvard Loeb Fellow.
Monica's work engages questions of sustainability, climate change, and the long-term stewardship of cultural landscapes, and includes experience with Indigenous communities, young people interested in preservation, and Tribal Historic Preservation Officers. She served as founding director of the Hands-On Preservation Experience — known as HOPE Crew — a groundbreaking initiative that created pathways for young people and emerging preservationists to gain hands-on experience while caring for culturally significant places.
