Titles and contact information are displayed below. Click on a
section heading or use tabs at left to see all listings for that
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. 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
B.S. Interior Architecture, University of California, DavisB.A. Art Studio, University of California, Davis M.Arch University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design
B.S. with Honors, Design, University of California, DavisM.A. Museum Studies, with an emphasis in education and interpretation, John F. Kennedy University, Berkeley, CA
B.F.A. Parsons School of Design M.Ed. Leslie University
William Mead has been teaching in the Design Department and UC
Davis since 2016. He earned his BFA at Parsons School of Design
in 1989. He completed a lifetime certification in secondary art
education at Massachusetts College of Art in 1992. In 1999 he
completed a Master’s degree in Education (MEd) At Leslie
University.
B.A. Art History, Minor: Women’s Studies, University of California, Los AngelesM.A. Visual Studies, University of California, IrvinePh.D. Visual Studies, University of California, Irvine
Kayleigh Perkov is a design historian who studies the
intersection of craft and technology. She received her PhD from
the Department of Visual Studies at the University of California,
Irvine. Her dissertation, “Giving Form to Feedback: Craft and
Technology circa 1968–1974,” examined the impact of
information-age technology upon craft practice, arguing
that the projects that emerged serve as important precursors to
the personal technology we know today.
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.
In Person: Week 1 WR 9-5:30; Week 2 MTF 9-5:30Remote: Week 1 MTF2:30-5:30; Week 2 W2:30-5:30 R 1:30-5:30
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.
In Person: 8:00–5:00 T-FRemote: 8:00–5:00 MAdvising: 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.
B.A., English Literature, University of California, MercedM.A., Interdisciplinary Humanities (emphasis on 1930s Cinema and Fashion), University of California, Merced
Cristina (Cris) Gomez is an M.F.A. Design student at the
University of California, Davis. Her academic background includes
Literature, Cinema, and Fashion studies of 1930s America.
Cristina’s area of focus is on costume exhibitions and on the
analysis of clothing’s social role. Her planned thesis project is
an exhibition on the Central Valley of California’s field
worker’s clothing to discuss their working social
conditions.
B.A., Industrial Design, Pedagogical University of Krakow
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.
B.A., Fine Art, School of the Art Institute, Chicago
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.
M.S., Community Development, University of California, DavisB.A., Design, University of California, Davis, 2015A.A., Art Studio, Shasta College, 2013
Trace is a cross-disciplinary, genre-fluid, mixed-methods
researcher and educator. She has worked in acrylics, graphics,
writings, charcoal, print, sculpture, video, short stories,
soundscapes, radio shows, recording studios, yoga studios, and
bar bands.
B.S., Architectural Engineering, The German University in Cairo
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.
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.A., Fashion Design, Universidad Pontificia, Bolivariana
As a designer, Alejandra has been interested in exploring,
performing and reflecting on alternative practices that can
derive from her academic background. This has led her to
collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to propose and
experiment in projects related to sustainability and circular
economy, development of alternative materials, education and
learning, geosciences communication, craft-art-design
interaction, collaborative arts and creative activism.
During the MFA she will be exploring material design, its
lifecycles and possible applications.
B.S., Apparel Design, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
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.
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.
B.F.A., Painting and Drawing, School of the Art Institute, Chicago
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., Civil Engineering, Middle East Technical UniversityM.B.A., Sabanci University, IstanbulB.A., Fashion Design, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
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.
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
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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