Kimberly Drennan, AIA  LEED AP, is an architect and assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.  In her professional and academic work, she specializes in the design and construction of high-performance housing systems. Her research into alternative ecological models of thermoregulation translates into innovative solutions to environmental challenges of our built environment. 

Drennan leads a research and development team that leverages expertise in environmental design, engineering, and biology to develop solutions for complex problems that lie at the intersection of traditional disciplines.  Specifically, her team combines an expertise in architectural design, embedded sensor data collection (IoT technology) and basic biological research to develop and commercialize tools and products to improve the health of commercial honeybees. 

Drennan’s fascination with honeybees is rooted in her upbringing in rural Texas. She spent much of her formative years in Bee House, Texas, a tiny hamlet in unincorporated Coryell county named for the prolific hives early settlers found there. She hiked the Wind River Wilderness as a teen, worked as an outdoor educator at Rocky River Ranch in Wimberly, Texas, and celebrated her graduation from Trinity University with a foot trek through Kenya. Her love of the natural world prompted her to become one of the first LEED-accredited professionals shortly after earning her master’s in architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2002. She developed her approach to “ranch-tech” from working at the award-winning architecture firm Lake | Flato Architects in San Antonio.