Titles and contact information are displayed below. Click on a
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section. Click on a name to see full biography for that person.
Ph.D. Geography, University of California, BerkeleyS.M.Arch.S. Architecture and Urbanism, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyB.Arch. Architecture, Cornell University
Ph.D. Art History, University of Texas at Austin, 2001M.A. American Studies, University of Notre Dame, 1994B.A. American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 1991
Field of interest: History and Theory of Architecture, Design and
Science
Ph.D. Art History, Boston UniversityM.A. Art History, University of Texas at AustinB.A. French Language and Literature, Vanderbilt University
Fields of interest: History of modern & contemporary art &
design. Marcel Duchamp, museums, narrative environments, and
experience design. Book design after Mallarmé.
Ph.D. in textiles and clothing, with a minor in sociology, at Texas Woman’s UniversityB.S. in textiles and clothing at the University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D. History of Art, Open UniversityM.A. History of Art, Design & Contextual Studies, Birmingham City UniversityB.A. History, King’s College, University of LondonFields of interest: history and theory of architecture, design and urbanism
Ph.D. Computer Science, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, BrazilM.A. Computer Science, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, BrazilB.A. Computer Science, National Univeristy of San Marcos, Peru
M.F.A. Multi-media and Painting, Washington State UniversityM.S. Experimental Atomic Physics, Kansas State UniversityB.A. Fine Arts and Physics, Lawrence University
Towson University, B.F.A. Digital Art and Design, 2017 University of California, Davis, M.F.A., Design, 2020
Alexa is a creative coder and design researcher who has spent her
career programming mixed reality large-scale and screen-based
data visualizations representing the “quantified self”. Beginning
in the Baltimore art scene, Alexa started a personal practice of
meditational drawings and self-teaching herself code before
moving to the Bay Area. She has exhibited work in and around San
Francisco and East Bay including Kala Art Institute, Gray Area
Foundation for the Arts, and the Exploratorium.
B.A. Fine Art, University of California, Los AngelesM.F.A. Design, University of California Davis (2018)
Justin’s career has spanned museum exhibit installation, art
handling, film/theater set fabrication, and custom design/build
projects for clients ranging from retail spaces to organic farms.
He was a co-founder of the Austin, Texas based artist
collective Okay Mountain, a gallery/studio whose members continue
to exhibit immersive multimedia installations nationwide.
Justin is interested in how we experience and interact with
architectural space, media, and wild places.
A.A. in Fashion Design, Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (2013)B.A. in Design, University of California, Davis (2016)M.F.A. in Design, University of California Davis (2018)
Christine works as a freelance Designer in the Northern
California Bay Area. She has worked with such companies as Cari
Borja Clothesmaker, Community Homework, Ink+Ivy, as well as with
private clients for cosplay design and construction orders. Her
work has been featured by Marvel Comics, and seen on such sites
as Vanity Fair, LA Weekly, the Daily Mail UK, and YouTube.
Christine has worked as an instructor at Arizona State University
in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and here at UC
Davis in Design.
College in Brazil, Bachelor of Arts and Sciences, Graphic Design 2012City College of San Francisco, digital Design for the New Media 2015
Jean was a lead designer and illustrator until 2014, when he
moved to the US to study Digital Interactions and UX Design.
Since then he has developed himself as a Visual Designer
interested in articulating design decisions, rationally
considering projects’ function before their form.
During his time at UC Davis, he has proven to be extremely
motivated and empathetic with his student’s learning
goals—through his classwork, his TA positions, and his
participation in the newly founded Prototyping Lab.
All Design Department staff are listed here, along with
administrative staff located in Cruess hall. Advisers are listed separately. For a
complete listing of The Arts Administrative Group staff, please
see our Staff Directory.
To set up an advising appointment for current students, please click here. If you are not a current student, please call 530-752-0890 to set up an appointment.
Office Hours: 7:30-4:00 M-F Advising: 10:00-12:00 and 1:00-4:00 M-F
Ariel Collatz is an academic advisor and program manager for the Arts Group Advising Center. She holds a B.A. degree in History from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota and a M.S. in Counseling with a specialization in Career Development from Sacramento State University. She has worked as an undergraduate advisor at UC Davis for over 10 years. Her passion is helping students create a rewarding undergraduate experience.
Julie McGilvray, academic advisor for the Arts
Group Advising Center, received a M.S. degree in Career
Counseling from California State University, Sacramento. Julie
was an intern during the 2014-2015 year at the UC Davis
Internship and Career Center, facilitating workshops and
providing career advising to graduate students and postdoctoral
scholars seeking careers beyond academia. Her previous work
experience includes over 12 years of experience in the career
transition services, and providing career advising to diverse
population of adults in career transition from many different
career paths. Previously, she has worked for outplacement
organizations in the SF Bay Area and Sacramento, and a Sacramento
non-profit supporting homeless women and children become
self-sustainable. Julie has a passion for assisting individuals
to achieve educational and career goals.
Office Hours: 8:00-5:00 M-FAdvising: 9:00-12:00 and 1:00-4:00
Barbara Olivier is one of the undergraduate program coordinators
and academic advisor in the Arts Group Advising Center. Her
previous work experience has been extensive in the public and
private sector with a vast range of administrative and clerical
duties and responsibilities, which has led her to UC Davis. She
has held various positions within the University, beginning as a
senior secretary in the temp pool and had led her to begin her
career in advising in 2002. Barbara has held positions in
Political Science/International Relations, as well as Languages
and Literatures, before accepting a position with the Music
Department. Her main focus is assisting undergraduates with their
academic and future career goals.
Kathryn Shickman received her Bachelor of Arts degree in
Psychology from University of California, Berkeley and a Master
of Arts degree in Human Development from California State
University, Los Angeles. She has worked as an undergraduate
advisor and program coordinator at The Arts Group Advising Center
here at UC Davis since August, 2014. She has previously worked as
a study coordinator at UC Davis MIND Institute, and as an
advising assistant on campus in Mechanical & Aerospace
Engineering and at Services for International Students and
Scholars. In her career prior to coming to UC Davis, she has held
many roles in the fields of education and developmental
psychology.
M.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UC Davis B.S. Mechanical Engineering, UC Davis, 2015
Erik is an interdisciplinary designer and maker with a background
in mechanical engineering and rapid prototyping. His research
interest involves prolonging the lifespan of consumer electronics
and IoT products. This includes: 1) promoting the Right to
Repair, 2) repurposing electronic waste, and 3) designing
user-interfaces that are intuitive and facilitate repair,
modification, and disassembly of the products.
Pedagogical University of Krakow, B.A. Industrial Design
Valentyna is an international designer with a background in
graphic and sustainable design. Her area of interest is focused
on smell and taste research as well as on sustainable design and
wearable technologies.
School of the Art Institute, Chicago, B.A. Fine Art
Elyse is an interdisciplinary designer whose work reimagines the
land use of decommissioned golf courses in the Western United
States. Joining experiences in sustainable fabrication,
environmental and social justice and ecology, Elyse creates a
speculative tool kit for converting the former courses into
public spaces. Through this work she inserts methods for
restorative landscapes, reintroduction of native plants and
wildlife habitats and facilitating community stewardship to
improve recreational access to underserved populations.
UC Davis, M.S. Community Development, expected 2021B.A. Design, University of California, Davis, 2015A.A. Art Studio, Shasta College, 2013
Tracy is a cross-disciplinary, genre-fluid, mixed-methods
designer and researcher. She has worked in acrylics, charcoal,
print, sculpture, video, short stories, folk songs, radio shows,
recording studios, yoga studios, and bar bands. Her health
communication work with the UC
Davis Center for Design in the Public Interest (DiPi) has
received international recognition, and she continues to work on
health-related community projects in rural far Northern
California.
Kaylani J. McCard (also known as Kaylani Juanita) is a freelance
picture book illustrator and writer. She’s known for winning a
Coretta Scott King Honors for her Illustrations in
Magnificent Homespun Brown, as well as a Stonewall book
award for When Aidan Became a Brother. Some of her
clients include Chronicle Books, Tilbury House, Lee and Low, and
many more. Her focus is counter storytelling based on her
experience as a biracial Black woman. Kaylani strives to create
new ways for people to imagine themselves.
Jude Mooney is a photographer, curator and exhibition designer
with an interest in experiential and immersive design. Her MFA
thesis work focuses on museum wall colors and how color can
support the artwork and engage the viewer. Jude believes that
artists, museums and curators have the power to enlighten,
transport, educate, and unite communities.
B.S., The German University in Cairo --Architectural Engineering
Fatema Mostafa is an architect, interior designer, and graphic
designer with a huge interest in the use of color in
architecture. Her Bachelor Project was a design proposal for The
Cairo Central Library in Egypt. The main concept was to encourage
the culture of reading and education among Egyptians. Fatema
believes that colors have the capability to transform buildings;
internally and externally, to the better, which contradicts what
her German professors have been teaching her, which is that
colors are gauche.
Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, B.F.A. Interior Design
Nicolle is a native New Yorker with a background in architecture
and interior design. Her previous work includes the technical
design, material selection, and project management in a diverse
range of project types from healthcare facilities, educational
settings, corporate offices, and residential spaces. She aims to
provide design solutions that integrate the goals of the clients
and unconventional materials to produce imaginative and enriching
spaces for the occupants.
Before starting the MFA in Design and just after graduating from
a BA in Industrial Design, I became specifically interested in
the field of Jewelry Design, and I have been exploring different
approaches in ideation and design for mass production. I am also
designing and making jewelry as an independent designer, with
several jewelry collections, mostly inspired by the history,
culture, and art of my ancient country, Iran.
B.S., University of Minnesota, Twin Cities -- Apparel Design
Quinessa Stibbins is an apparel designer and dancer from St. Paul
Minnesota. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a
BS in Apparel Design and a minor in social justice. She then
worked for a dance costume company called Kelle Company for
two years. Quinessa is passionate about designing through a
social justice lens and using both apparel and dance for
storytelling.
G.A.C. in Industrial Ecology, University of California Davis, 2020 A.S. in Mechatronics, Sierra College, 2020 Certificate in Ecological Horticulture, University of California Santa Cruz, 2012B.Arch in Architecture, University of Southern California, 2005
Dan’s interwoven art, design and research practices investigate
material ecologies + applications that bridge unbuilt & built
environments. Having worked in the adaptive reuse of plastics and
other energy intensive materials, Dan’s current research shifts
focus to biogenic cement composites which present new resilient
means of production and artmaking. Different biogenic and mineral
particulate matter are reclaimed from local construction and
agriculture waste streams.
I believe Design is a way of changing the world to be a better
place. A better world may have a different definition for
different people: perhaps an ergonomic chair or an Interface for
a pioneer application, each can make one’s world a better place
to live in. Over a decade of professional and academic experience
has equipped me with extensive collaborative skills and creative
methods in visual communication design.
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, BFA, Painting and Drawing
Edward Whelan comes to Davis from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he
worked as an exhibition designer for the Philbrook Museum of Art.
While working on a number of exhibitions at Philbrook, Whelan
became interested in co-design and how those methods could be
brought into museums. With close to 10 years experience in the
museum field, Whelan plans to continue his relationships with
museums and will be the lead designer for the upcoming Wiley/
Slant Step exhibition at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem
Museum of Art (2022). Whelan received his B.F.A.
B.S., Middle East Technical University -- Civil EngineeringM.B.A., Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey B.A., Fashion Institute of Technology, New York -- Fashion Design
Rova Yilmaz is a designer interested in smart clothing and
functional clothing design. She studied fashion design and
civil engineering as an undergraduate. She prospects to
combine design, engineering, and art. Her research is biased
toward actuated clothes with functionality and purpose for being
smart.
Artist’s Statement: After a conventional education reading
history at the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford
University, I switched course, educated myself as a book designer
and calligrapher, taking the last letterpress class offered at
Oakland’s Laney Trade School and studying with the calligrapher
Arne Wolf.
Dolph Gotelli, Professor Emeritus of Design, initiated the visual
presentation program when he began his teaching career in 1970.
He is also the Founder and Director emeritus of the Design
Museum, where he was the curator. During his tenure he designed
scores of innovative exhibitions for the Northern California
community including shopping bags, American souvenirs, Halloween
collectibles, international folk toys, masks, Santa Claus and
edible art. Under Gotelli’s direction, the museum has received an
international reputation for cutting edge installations featuring
theme exhibitions.
Professor and architect Patricia Harrison focuses her research on
the design of housing and other service facilities for low-income
families in non-urban communities. To accomplish her research she
collaborates with nonprofit housing and community groups to
develop affordable housing projects. In this process she works
with low-income families to design projects that address their
cultural and lifestyle needs, while incorporating issues of
energy efficiency and creative use of building materials within
very restrictive budget and site constraints.
Gyöngy Laky, San Francisco sculptor, is a past recipient of a
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, she was also one of
the first textile artists to be commissioned by the Federal
Art-in-Architecture Program. Laky’s work is in many permanent
collections including the San Francisco MOMA, The Smithsonian’s
Renwick Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
the Oakland Museum, the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu and
others. She exhibits her work nationally and internationally.
Chair Designate and Department Chair – Dept. of Environmental
Design. Principal investigator, CAES – Agricultural Experiment
Station Projects. Adviser, master adviser, and adviser re:
Education Abroad (Scandinavia).
Victoria Z. Rivers is engaged in textiles research ranging from
the producing and exhibiting of dyed and embellished textile
artworks to researching and publishing subjects on South and
Southeast Asian textiles, to curating exhibitions.
M.F.A. Textiles, Wayne State UniversityA.B. Anthropology, Stanford University
Ann Savageau has exhibited widely, both nationally and
internationally. She has had 12 solo exhibitions and over 60
group exhibitions. National exhibition venues include The Detroit
Institute of Arts; Long Beach Arts; The University of Wisconsin,
Madison; The Textile Workshop, Santa Fe, New Mexico; and the
Craftsmen’s Guild of Mississippi.International exhibitions
include “K-18 Stoffwechsel”, Kassel, Germany; Editions Gallery,
Perth, Australia; Third International Exhibition of Miniature
Textiles, London, England.
Ph.D. Architecture and Human Factors Engineering, University of MichiganM.F.A. Industrial Design University of Illinois, Champaign UrbanaM. Arch. University of Illinois, Champaign UrbanaB.S. Faculty of Engineering, Carleton University
Jo Ann Stabb is a designer, author and lecturer focusing on the
field of fashion and wearable art. She served on the Design
faculty of the University of California, Davis, for 34 years
(1968 – 2002) teaching clothing, fashion, historic costume,
ethnographic costume and contemporary wearable design. Her
creative work has been exhibited throughout the United States and
internationally in Austria, France, England, South Korea and
Australia.
Kathryn Sylva is an associate professor of Design She earned her
B.A. in Art Studio from UC Davis and an M.F.A. in Photography
from the San Francisco Art Institute.
Professor Sylva’s research includes two large visual
communication projects, one on eating disorders and the other on
the American eugenics movement. She also collaborates with
researchers in nutrition in using visual presentation strategies
to enhance the effectiveness of health and nutrition educational
and research materials.
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