For as long as I can remember I’ve struggled with defining myself as any one thing. I’m a multidimensional designer, professor, writer, consultant, maker, leader, organizer, mom, and on any given day something else new. My research interests are in systems thinking for sustainable behavior change. My design pedagogy includes community engaged learning and design activism, teaching a new generation to use design for social good. As a consultant, I am passionate about making academic research and industry jargon accessible to the masses so we can create the regenerative change needed in the climate crisis.
Attending the Maryland Institute College of Art at the turn of the millennium, a time when analog tools were still taught as the digital was introduced, gave me an appreciation for materiality and a criticality for technology. I earned my MFA from the University of San Diego where I also worked as a researcher in the Center for Research and Computing in the Arts (CRCA). My combined degrees from a small, private, east-coast, art school and large, public, west-cost, research institution gave diverse perspectives and opportunities. I was drawn to stay in academia for the very reason I struggle to define myself by any one thing - the ability to never stop learning; to research and create; to teach and lead others; while being a part of conversations, communities and movements. Over the course of my career my research has evolved from a fine arts exhibition practice, to critical research and publishing, to a strategic organizing, leadership and consulting.
Currently I am a Professor in Design at the University of San Francisco, where I have taught since 2009. At USF I have served as the Design Program Director, the Chair of the Department of Art + Architecture, a steering committee member for the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), a member of the College of Arts & Sciences Sustainability Task Force, University Strategic Planning, and a variety of other committees. I was the founder and faculty advisor for the AIGA student group at USF from 2009-16 and the faculty advisor to the Graphics Center, an on campus student run design firm, from 2009-15. I have been honored to receive numerous faculty development grants in addition to the 2012 Faculty Team Innovation Award and the 2015 Distinguished Teaching Award. In 2023 I will serve as visiting faculty at the Presidio Graduate School teaching courses in Design Thinking for Innovation to MBA students.
In 2017 I published the Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Design which received the 2019 Design Incubation Award for Excellence in Scholarship. A 2nd updated edition was published in 2024. I have contributed to Routledge’s Sustainability Hub and serve as a regular reviewer of sustainable design texts. Believing in the power of education to move sustainable action forward, I have been a part of ASHEE’s Sustainability Across the Curriculum Program, and presented my work on sustainable design education at the AIGA Design Educators Forum, AIGA National Conference, Design Incubation, PALS (Partnership for Academic Leadership), the School of Visual Arts in New York, San Francisco Art Institute, and others. I served as a moderator for Compostmodern which is devoted to establishing sustainable design solutions. In 2020 I joined the Climate Reality Project as a Climate Reality Leader. I am also a member of Women Talk Design.
My artistic work has been included in major exhibitions such as the Boston Cyber Arts Festival, ISEA, La Noche en Blanco in Madrid, Art in Storefronts in San Francisco and at The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, The Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) London, The Banff Centre for the Arts, and many others. I have been an artist in residence at Tsinghua University in Beijing, the University of Brighton in the UK, and other local organizations. As a designer my work can be seen on Regina Spektor’s Begin To Hope Album (Warner Brothers, 2006), as well as in both local and international publications such as Art Forum, The San Francisco Chronicle, Media-N, and others.
I currently live in Oakland, California with my husband, 2 daughters, a large white fluffy samoyed puppy and the memory of our beloved dachshund.