Melvin L. Mitchell has been a practicing architect in Washington, D.C., for forty-five years. He is a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects, a past president of the D.C. Board of Architecture, and former director of the School of Architecture & Planning at Morgan State University in Baltimore (1997–2002). He was a professor at the University of the District of Columbia (1986–1994, 2003–2014); and James E. Silcott Professor of Architecture at Howard University (2016–2018). His degrees are from Howard University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.