How do you explain your profession to people outside of the industry? What do you find most exciting and/or rewarding about this work?
I explain that I am a commercial interior designer and I work on a wide variety of projects, from retail to healthcare to workplace. I find the opportunity to learn something new through the research and investigation done early in a project to understand how a client’s business works and what their needs are. I enjoy when I get the opportunity to watch people interact in a space, to understand how they use it, and then coming up with design solutions to make the space more functional for them.
What milestone or accomplishment have you made in your career that you are most proud of?
I am currently in the construction phase of a project that I acted as lead designer on from concept. This the first time I will be involved in every step of a project from start to finish. I led a design team through the process that to me felt like a smooth, low stress process. I have really worked on learning time management and boundaries at work so that I can actually enjoy the creative process. I feel very proud of myself for that. I also had an amazing team that communicated really well, and that makes ALL the difference!
What is one notable achievement (personal or professional) that you've made over the past year?
What is a piece of media that has inspired you professionally?
Winona LaDuke is an internationally renowned political and climate activist, writer, and economist working on issues of sustainable development, renewable energy and food systems. A member of the Ojibwe Nation, she lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota as an industrial hemp grower. Her keynote speech at Parson’s New School Healthy Material Lab about the future of hemp in the built environment was incredibly inspiring to me. Everything Winona puts her energy into is incredibly important for the future of our planet. You can find it on Youtube: Parson’s recently completed a project of a single family home built with hemp insulation that was featured on America by Design TV. Hemp is an incredibly renewable resouce that can be turned into many different building materials. It is one of the first truly creative and healthly solutions I have seen to solve the problem of waste and toxic materials within the built environment.
https://healthymaterialslab.org/blog/parsons-healthy-materials-lab-honored-by-america-by-design
Please share one fun or surprising fact about yourself:
Once a week I spend time on a farm milking goats and I am learning to make goat cheese!
