Bio: LaShana Broussard-Morris,  a design entrepreneur, is the owner of Mpresion, LLC, where she creates “Beauty in Design” through customized digital and print materials for clients. Previously, she owned a bakery where she designed and prepared cakes and cookies from scratch. She started her career in finance.

A New Orleans native, LaShana draws inspiration from the architecture, music, food, and the melding of French, Spanish, and Caribbean cultures that are integral to her home city.  She earned her B.A. from Xavier University and her MBA from Meredith College. She and her husband, David, have 2 children, Victoria and David III.

Research interest: Solving the issue of access to distributors and end-users who may routinely bulk purchase wearables designed for the masses by design entrepreneurs and artisans.

Bio: Having grown up in the rural landscape of the Midwest US, Teresa developed a keen interest in the natural world and small towns.  After earning an MLA from the University of Michigan, she worked in an urban design firm in Ann Arbor to launch her landscape architecture career.  The firm focused on community engagement and public design (parks, downtowns and greenways). About 15 years ago, Teresa and her husband moved to Boone, NC for his faculty position at Appalachian State University. Finding herself once again living in a small town, which had no urban design firm, Teresa created her own in 2012.
Research Interests: Teresa’s research interests include how to adapt urban design and community engagement for rural areas and small towns.

Bio: Lee has software development & project management experience as a technical producer, interactive designer and information architect. He has designed large-scale media projects that leverage technology, user experience design and information graphics for such companies as AmericanExpress, Accipiter, Böwe Bell & Howell, GlaxoSmithKline, Grant Hill Ventures, IBM, NBC Sports and USTA. He has a BA in Industrial Design from the College of Design and a MBA in Innovation Management from the Poole College of Management. Currently Lee manages and supports the research efforts within the Experience Design Lab and facilitates daily activities within the Information Technology Lab at the College of Design.

Research Interests: Researching areas of Explainable AI and Understandable AI, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, IoT, Big Data and Data Visualizations;  examining the impact of close interactions between people and emerging technology by determining how empathy, trust and decision making processes are influenced when working with systems/frameworks that integrate and leverage intelligent agents such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Bio: Carla Delcambre is the Director of the Graduate Program and a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at North Carolina State University.  She has been teaching for 13 years and is a registered landscape architect. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.

Before accepting a position at North Carolina State University she was a Senior Landscape Designer at OLIN in Philadelphia where she worked on a variety of project types encompassing urban design, master planning and public gardens.  Her passion in teaching is focused on digital representation, construction methods and ecological issues related to sustainable design, urban agriculture, stormwater management, and brownfield redevelopment. Carla is also the mother of two boys, who love to play in the landscapes she has designed.

Research area of interest: I want to research tactical, computer visualization tools which create immersive environments and identify best practices in sustainable design.

Bio: Since retiring from the University of North Carolina System  as Senior Vice President, Kevin FitzGerald has served as Interim Director of the North Carolina Area Health Education System, Interim General Manager of UNC-TV, and is a faculty member of the UNC Department of Family Medicine. He worked at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he started the Center for Public Technology at the School of Government and served as Special Assistant to the Chancellor, and Vice Dean for Finance and Administration and Chief of Staff at the UNC School of Medicine and UNC Health Care System.

Research Interest: Interested in exploring how, across multiple disciplines, design processes can be used to better define complex, adaptive problems. By their nature, these problems are hard to define due to asymmetry of information, power and semantic disposition of multiple stakeholders. Kevin aims to understand the power of design in better addressing these kinds of problems.

Bio: Saraa Green is originally from Jersey City and now resides in Portland, Oregon where she works for Adidas as a new Footwear Developer in basketball. Previously Saraa worked as a Footwear Knit Technical Manager. Her team focuses on researching and implementing new innovations and technologies in knit for footwear as well as apparel. As an undergraduate student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Saraa studied Fashion Design with a specialization in Knitwear. She is inspired by all things creative and innovative. Studying Knit Design allowed her to think and design outside the box. As a former athlete, meshing knit materials and designing product for track athletes to help them perform better is an ultimate passion for Saraa.

Research Interest: Track athletes injuries are very common, especially in Elite athletes. When pushing the body’s physical limits injury is prone to occur; however, there are materials that can assist in healing and prevention.

Bio: Emily Burch Harris is a former copy and slot editor, page designer and reporter. She has been a Knight Fellow at UNC-Chapel Hill, Reynolds Fellow at Arizona State University and a Dow Jones News Fund Digital Journalist at Western Kentucky University.

She left the professional newsroom in 2007 to lead the students who work for The A&T Register, the student newspaper for North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. The paper transitioned to a fully digital entity in fall 2018.

She and her husband have a son, two dogs and two fish.

Research Interests: Examining how K-12 students use media to obtain news and information. She is also interested in how critical thinking skills are used and enhanced or hindered by information design.

Bio: Justin is a game designer and assistant professor of Simulation and Game Design at William Peace University. He has over ten years of experience in game development at AAA and indie studios, serving in a variety of roles such as: level designer,UI designer, environment artist, character artist, and programmer. Justin has a passion for using games as a platform for design and research. He also enjoys teaching and stays current in games through freelance and contract work.

Research interests: Justin has interest in environmental design for games, and how it affects a user’s experience. He is also interested in how the aesthetic qualities can influence decision making inside and outside of games, using VR as an additional layer of immersion.

Bio: Buthaina is an interior designer and assistant teacher at the University of Bahrain. She has 10 years of experience in Interior Design and 3 years of experience as a faculty in the interior design department. She has also taught at Miami International University of Art and Design. Buthiana has passion in digital 3D fabrication and furniture design. She has been proposing conceptual public art pieces and conceptual furniture design during the past 2 years. Her first solo exhibition was in March 2019 where she had exhibited an art installation called “The Printed Room.”
Research Interests: 3D Printing and digital fabrication have been strong tools in the design industry, but it also has its obstacles, errors, and risks. Considering printed materials versus man-made materials, what if we combine both materials in the design? What will the outcome look like? How time-efficient is the procedure and how will it enable a new typographic experience? Can we enhance the quality of 3D printed furniture by doing that? How are these items going to affect the environment?

Bio: Mike is a native of North Carolina and currently the Ag and Food Systems Economic Developer for Orange County, North Carolina.  He came to this position following a wide variety of experience as a Soil Scientist, Landscape Architect, and entrepreneur. That experience includes; soils and environmental analysis, planning and design, environmental restoration, agriculture, food systems, business management, and community and economic development.  His interests have always centered on how we relate to our environment; how we affect it, are affected by it, and the degree to which design can influence that relationship.

Research Interest: Promotion of regional food systems as a programmatic driver for regional community and economic development. The basic question is; “what can design offer this process and what would it look like in our region”?

Bio: Herb Vincent Peterson is an award-winning multidisciplinary creative director, design researcher, and educator with a background in strategic branding and social design practices. After a career working with global brand giants (Gap, Old Navy, GM and Urban Outfitters) Peterson pivoted his practice to focus more glocally on individuals and organizations aimed with meaningful missions to do good. Peterson has taught design at universities including, the Herron School of Art and Design, Ohio Dominican University, The Ohio State University and Indiana Wesleyan University where he currently serves as an associate professor and coordinator of the Visual Communication Design program.

Research interest: Peterson’s research lies at the intersection of community, higher-ed, and design pedagogy aimed to bring sustainable change to in rural America. In 2016 he co-founded, Marion Design Co. a socially driven design studio that applies design focused research into action.

Bio: Anne received her Bachelor’s degree in Horticultural Science and her Masters of Landscape Architecture from the University of Illinois. She worked for a landscape design/build firm and the Army Corps of Engineers before launching into her teaching career. She taught in the School of Landscape Architecture at Louisiana State University then made her way to North Carolina State University where she currently teaches six landscape design courses in the Department of Horticultural Science. Her work has centered around people-plant-environments, most notably rain gardens and pollinator habitats. However, her heart has always been anchored in the environment-behavior arena.

Research interests: Anne’s interest is piqued by the efficacy of therapeutic landscapes, and how landscapes can be tailored better for specific population groups. She is also passionate about researching landscapes that improve mental health.

Bio: Senior UX Designer with 7 years in UX and branding for companies of all scales across pharma, education, telecom, and hospitality. AJ holds a Masters in User Experience and Business from Rutgers University, where he serves as UXD Program Coordinator & Industry Advisory Board Member.

AJ currently works at Educational Testing Services, and his claim to fame is his ability to design in real-time. He loves to teach, learn alongside others, and ask a ton of questions. Other likes include video games, martial arts, and problem-solving.

Favorite Quote: “It’s not who you know– It’s who knows you!” – Unknown

Research Interest: My research area of interest is in new synchronous learning models to both: (1) increase the desirability of Continuing Ed; especially design education, (2) create new business models for education.

Bio: Juhann Waller is a registered Professional Engineer in North Carolina, South Carolina (License #28395) and Virginia with 13 years of experience in the private consulting practice of civil engineering. Mr. Waller has experience in the design, management and construction administration of civil engineering projects in the areas of site development, water and sewer utilities, stormwater design/management and roadway improvements. Mr. Waller research interest is urban stormwater infrastructure resiliency.