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. 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
Her current research focuses on themes of place and space, with
particular interest in neglected sites of fashion interest such
as small cities and towns and rural areas and their interplay
with intersecting identities regarding gender, sexuality,
ethnicity, age, social class, and national identity.
M.F.A. Design, Stanford UniversityB.A. American Culture, Vassar College
Background
Tom Maiorana is an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Design at UC Davis where he focuses on product design, design
thinking, and prototyping. He is also a Fellow at the John Muir
Institute and regularly teaches at Stanford University’s
d.school. Tom has an MFA in Design from Stanford University
and a Bachelor of the Arts from Vassar College.
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
Katia Vega is an assistant professor in the Department of
Design at the University of California, Davis. She was a
postdoc associate at MIT Media Lab (USA). She earned her PhD and
master’s degree in Computer Science at PUC-Rio (Brazil). Her
research interests include physical computing, wearable
technologies, interactive tattoos, beauty technology, and skin
interfaces. Her work has been featured by New Scientist,
Wired, Discovery, CNN, among others. In 2016 MIT
Technology Review named her as one of the
five Innovators under 35 in Peru. Recently, CNET recognized
her as one of the top 20 most influential Latinos in Tech in
2017. She was part of the team awarded SXSW 2018 Dermal
Abyss project in the Science Fiction No Longer category. In
2019 she was honored as a leading woman in STEM by Johnson &
Johnson http://katiavega.com/
M.F.A. Multi-media and Painting, Washington State UniversityM.S. Experimental Atomic Physics, Kansas State UniversityB.A. Fine Arts and Physics, Lawrence University
Research Interests: Public-engaged data-driven
large-scale installations and social interventions
Towson University, B.F.A. Digital Art and Design, 2017
Alexa Ann Bonomo studied Digital Arts and Film at Towson
University and moved to the Bay Area in 2017. While
continuing her practice at Kala Art Institute, she joined a
cohort of artists at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts to work in
the medium of code and algorithmic design and has shown at
various places in the Bay Area including Kala Art Institute, The
Grand Theater, and the Exploratorium. Currently, she is working
toward an MFA in Design, at the University of California,
Davis to research data visualization and the use of data in the
rise of empathetic media.
B.A. Fine Art, University of California, Los Angeles, 2001
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.
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.
Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, BA Digital Media Arts 2018
First Wenjie prefers being called Austin:) He studied
at Nanjing University of Post and
Telecommunication, majoring digital media, from 2014 to
2018. His current research areas are UI/UX and front-end
development, especially Web design and App Design. Austin
enjoys life and believes that design comes from life and serves
life, so he hopes to draw inspiration from life. He also
wants to try different forms of interaction design and
collaborate with different people in UC Davis.
California State University, Long Beach, BFA Interior Design, 2015
Tracy is a designer who is interested in re-imagining
exhibitions to encourage a greater connection with nature. She is
focusing on addressing environmental and ecological issues
through education to implement necessary changes and increase
interest. By exploring the possibilities of exhibitions, she
hopes to lessen the gap between urban living and the natural
world to encourage more sustainable living practices, greater
care and sense of urgency for pressing environmental
concerns.
Tara Halsted is interested in swimwear and clothing designed for
swimmers’ bodies. Tara has been swimming since the age of five,
and loves to incorporate her passion for the sport into her
artistic and academic work. As an undergraduate, she majored in
Art Practice at Stanford University, and now she hopes to use
skills developed through her art practice in her designs. Tara
enjoys many methods of creating, including drawing, painting,
photography, ceramics, crocheting, sewing, and cooking.
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.
Syracuse University, BA Religious Studies, 2004College of the Redwoods Fine Furniture Program (The Krenov School) 2011
The last 8 years I have been designing and making
furniture. I studied at the renowned Krenov School
(formerly, the College of the Redwoods Fine Furniture program)
for two years and moved to Santa Cruz to start working
professionally and independently. It was great fun and I
was able to explore my creativity and make a lot of fantastic
pieces. That said, I felt like my impact was negligible on
communities greater than the few consumers of my goods.
Inspired to make a bigger impact with my skills and passions, I
have come to UC Davis looking to expand on my background
“I became specifically interested in the field of Jewelry Design
after studying Industrial Design, and I have explored different
approaches in Ideation and design for mass production. I am also
designing and making jewelry as an independent designer. In my
jewelry collections I have been inspired by history, culture, and
art of my ancient country Iran. These days, I hope to use my
skills to design attractive and practical products based on the
contemporary human’s need, and to leave a more impactful
footprint on the Design world.”
San Francisco State University, BS Apparel Design and Merchandising, 2018
Aurie is dedicated to sustainable fashion design, both in study
and in practice. She is concerned about the environmental
impacts, socioeconomic exploitation and structural corruption
caused by fast-fashion production. She started sewing in
kindergarten and has been inspired by historical costume and
cultural influences from around the world all her life.
Designing is a way of changing the world to be a better place
for human beings. A better world might have a different
definition for different walks of lives: maybe a beautiful modern
bridge or a UI for a pioneer application, each can make one’s
world a better place to live in.
Architect and Professor Emeritus Richard Berteaux’s interest in
vernacular and environmentally responsive architecture is
underscored by his professional work and his research on color in
vernacular architecture.
Born and educated in Los Angeles, California, he studied Romance
Languages at UCLA, and received a BA in Spanish. He attended the
Sorbonne in Paris for a year in an intensive French Language and
Culture program, received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from
U.C. Berkeley and an M.S. degree from Stanford University in
Urban Design.
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.
We list here the names of recent Design M.F.A. students
(2011–present). The Undergraduates section
at left includes Design alumni from earlier years, before the
Design M.F.A. program began.
