DIRECTING DESIGN FOR HIGHER ED INITIATIVES
Role: Creative Lead, Faculty Director & Community Organizer
Years: 2016–Present
Institutions: La Salle University, Kutztown University, CUNY, CalArts
Scope: Academic programming, including end-of-year showcases, travel-study courses, speaker series, recruitment events, industry programs
Partners: PAX East, and others
Reach: Cross-departmental institutional programs, ongoing across multiple appointments
OVERVIEW
Across my appointments at La Salle University, Kutztown University, and earlier institutional roles, I have directed design for a wide range of academic programming: end-of-year showcases, travel-study courses, speaker and colloquium series, recruitment events, and industry-facing programs at venues like PAX East. These initiatives sit at the intersection of design practice, curriculum development, event production, and faculty leadership. I treat academic programming as a form of community-building: programs shape how a department is seen, how students find their way into it, and how faculty contributions become legible to peers, prospective students, and the broader field.
CHALLENGE
Design is often an afterthought in higher education programming. Initiatives are typically planned without dedicated design support, each needing its own visual identity built from scratch, with limited budgets and stakeholders spread across departments. My challenge was to bring sustained design leadership to programs that were rarely planned with it and build each initiative not as a one-time deliverable, but as a program with enough visual and structural integrity to outlast a single semester or academic year.
APPROACH
HIGHER EDUCATION INITIATIVES
I led design direction and event planning for faculty initiatives and student events, including the cross-disciplinary La Salle End-of-Year Showcase, panel presentations exploring the psychological impact of product experiences at PAX Boston, and a travel study course to Tokyo. I led visual branding efforts and developed presentation templates to unify work across multiple disciplines.
IMPACT
Sustained design leadership produced sustained programs. The Digital Arts End-of-Year Showcase, which I established and have directed since my appointment at La Salle, is now entering its fifth year as an annual cross-departmental tradition and recognized by the Dean and Provost as a signature event for the department. Travel-study courses I designed and led have expanded the department’s programming into immersive, international learning experiences. Across showcases, speaker series, recruitment events, and industry-facing programs, student engagement has grown meaningfully under design-led programming. The cumulative outcome is a department whose programming is visible, valued, and durable; built to outlast individual semesters and continue shaping how students experience digital arts at the institution.