In the fall of 2014, I relocated my research and teaching practice to Marion, Indiana, to join the faculty at Indiana Wesleyan University. My immediate goal was to identify critical challenges within the design curriculum and spearhead research toward innovative curricular transformation. Simultaneously, Meridith Davis at North Carolina State University, College of Design, and AIGA published the influential Designer 2025 white papers, sparking the landmark research initiative "Design Futures" in partnership with NASAD and AIGA. These pivotal resources, along with comprehensive secondary research and two years of applied methods, were instrumental in revitalizing a struggling design program. The former Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design was transformed into a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication, accompanied by the launch of new programs in Design for Social Impact and User Experience Design, as well as Certificates in Design Thinking. This bold overhaul established Design at IWU as one of the premier liberal arts design programs in the Midwest. During my tenure, enrollment increased by 82%, and we achieved a 100% job placement rate for four consecutive years.

Curriculum Development, Research Design, Program implementation | 2014 – 2021
For: Division of Art and Design, Indiana Wesleyan University

Team
Herb Vincent Peterson
Luke Anspach
Wendy Puffer