LSU Interior Design Alumni Selected for Interior Design 30/30

LSU School of Interior Design continues to be a launching pad for talented professionals, as evidenced by the recent selection of three LSU alumni for Interior Design magazine’s prestigious 30 Under 30 (30/30) list. Kim Nguyen (LSU BID Class of 2020), Brannon Hardy (Class of 2021), and Marguerite Eppling (Class of 2023) are among the up-and-coming designers who have been recognized for their outstanding work and potential to shape the future of the design industry.

Kim NguyenKim Nguyen: Innovating with Impact

Kim Nguyen, RID, NCIDQ, IIDA, LEED Green Associate, is a 2020 graduate of the LSU School of Interior Design and an interior designer at FLAD Architects in Tampa, Florida. Recognized for her blend of modern sensibilities and cultural influences, Nguyen brings an innovative approach to different spaces. Her passion for creating sustainable and thoughtful designs is reflected in her work, which emphasizes functionality, aesthetic harmony, and eco-conscious choices.

Nguyen’s selection for the 30 Under 30 interior designers is a testament to her dedication to the craft and her determination to elevate design through sustainability, environmental responsibility, and inclusivity.

“I am so grateful for Flad’s nomination and honored to be seen as a young, upcoming designer through this program!” Nguyen said.

Brannon HardyBrannon Hardy: Impacting the Industry

Brannon Hardy, who graduated from LSU in 2021, is an associate designer at Gensler, a global architecture, design and planning firm, at the Nashville, Tennessee office. His approach to interior design goes beyond aesthetics—he designs spaces that tell a story. Hardy’s goal is “to impact the industry through a client-centered approach, allowing the client to live through our designs and achieve a sense of self through their space.”

“I feel so lucky I had the opportunity to be a part of Interior Design Magazine‘s Nashville 30 under 30 class. Wrapping up 2024, I was incredibly humbled to be accepted as part of the inaugural, national class of 30 under 30 designers and receive the Interior Design NEXT Emerging Design Talent Award,” Hardy said.

“Visiting Chicago and sharing the room with so many passionate designers across the country was an incredible experience I will not forget. There was a buzz in all the connections we made and a shared positivity about what the future could hold. I look forward to seeing where everyone goes from here,” he said.

“Being a part of this group is an honor and I could not be more thankful for it. It is a testament to those I’ve considered a mentor, my family, my friends, and my partner. All have supported my growth in this industry. I hold this as a reminder to continue trusting the process and reaching for more.”

Marguerite EpplingMarguerite Eppling: Emerging Visionary

Marguerite Eppling, IIDA, (BID Class of 2023), has wasted no time making her mark in the interior design world. Eppling is an interior design coordinator at Stantec in Chicago, Illinois with a versatile background encompassing projects across hospitality, federal, multi-family, residential, and workplace sectors. She excels in integrating functionally innovative solutions into her designs while consistently striving for aesthetically pleasing outcomes, and is an advocate for environmental responsibility.

“It was truly an honor to be among some of the most talented and emerging design leaders right here in Chicago,” she said. “A special thank you to design futurist AJ Paron for her inspiring words and visionary outlook on the future of young designers. I also want to express my gratitude to Caroline G. Murphy for her leadership and dedication to the program. It was an incredible night filled with insightful conversations and valuable connections. My thanks go out to all the representatives who shared their time and knowledge about the latest innovations in the industry.”

“I’m eager to see where the Class of 2024 will go from here. I’m confident that each one of us will make a remarkable impact!”

Her selection for 30 Under 30 is an exciting recognition of her early career success, and her future in the industry looks incredibly bright. She is already contributing to a new wave of interior designers who value inclusivity, sustainability, and social impact in their projects.

A Bright Future for LSU Interior Design

The recognition of Kim Nguyen, Brannon Hardy, and Marguerite Eppling underscores LSU’s strong position as a leader in interior design education. These talented alumni have set the bar for future generations of designers, demonstrating that LSU Interior Design graduates are equipped to push the boundaries of creativity and innovation in the design industry.

“With their exceptional talents, vision, and commitment to improving the built environment, these three young designers are poised to help shape the future of interior design,” said Marsha Cuddeback, LSU School of Interior Design director. “As they continue to grow and succeed in their careers, they are sure to inspire future LSU graduates to follow in their footsteps, proving that a degree from LSU is not just an academic achievement but a springboard to making a real-world impact.”

Learn more about the LSU School of Interior Design.

Huili Wang Leads Research Team Making Libraries More Accessible

Huili WangHuili Wang, assistant professor of interior design, was awarded an LSU Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research grant for her project “From Barriers to Bridges: Creating Neurodivergent-Friendly Physical Spaces in Public Libraries,” which aims to assess the accessibility of Baton Rouge libraries for neurodivergent children.

The interdisciplinary team—Huili Wang from the School of Interior Design, Nicholas Fears from the School of Kinesiology, Helena Fietz from the Department of Geography and Anthropology, and Michael Holt from LSU Library Services—brings expertise in environmental design, neurodiversity, and library sciences. By developing best practices based on universal and evidence-based design, the researchers aim to create adaptable, flexible sensory-friendly library spaces that serve as a model for libraries statewide and beyond.

“Public libraries are crucial to early childhood development, providing spaces and programs that foster educational and cultural engagement across diverse communities. With their inclusive mission, libraries are uniquely positioned to promote social justice, creating welcoming environments for individuals of all backgrounds and abilities,” the researchers wrote.

However, despite recent efforts to improve accessibility, many libraries still present barriers to neurodivergent children and their families, resulting in significant gaps in service and support (Paynter et al., 2020). For example, neurodivergent children may experience distress due to sensory overwhelming, often limiting their ability to fully engage in library space (Milly, 2023). 

Neurodivergence, which affects 15-20% of the global population, is shaped by genetic and environmental factors (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022). In Louisiana alone, approximately 685,000 of the state’s 4.57 million residents are neurodivergent. While extensive research on systemic social barriers limiting library access has addressed support for neurodivergent individuals through inclusive programs and staff training, there has been limited investigation into the impact of physical environments.

“Design factors such as complex layout, confusing wayfinding signage, fluorescent lighting, uncontrollable noise, and sensory overstimulation can make it difficult for neurodivergent children to visit libraries comfortably, often causing them feeling exclusion and avoid access or leave early,” Wang said, citing (Walton & McMullin, 2021). 

In contrast, sensory-friendly spaces have shown to provide neurodivergent children with an environment that reduces stress, fosters inclusion, and encourages. With Louisiana’s network of 67 library systems and over 476 librarians, this research seeks to address physical barriers and establishing universal design guidelines for more inclusive, accessible and welcoming library spaces. 

2025 Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research Awards

The LSU Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research has invested $1.8 million in seed funding for interdisciplinary research and creative works to solve problems and improve lives. 

“Since the launch of LSU’s Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research (PFIR) in 2022, the initiative has provided more than $5 million to support interdisciplinary research aligned with President Tate’s Scholarship First Agenda,” said Roy Haggerty, LSU Executive Vice President & Provost. “Through this investment, faculty have advanced research in five priority areas—agriculture, biomedicine and biotechnology, coast and environment, defense and cybersecurity, and energy—addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing Louisiana and beyond.”

See other College of Art & Design faculty who received Provost Fund for Innovation in Research awards:

Jason Jamerson Joins Groundbreaking Biomedical Research Project

Malcolm McClay Leads Interdisciplinary Team to Address ADHD Through Art

Malcolm McClay Leads Interdisciplinary Team to Address ADHD Through Art

Malcolm McClayMalcolm McClay, Pliner professor of art/sculpture, was awarded an LSU Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research “Big Ideas in Arts and Humanities” grant for $25,000 investing in the project Unwinding the Universe. The project team includes Stephen David Beck, professor of music; Elia Soto, assistant professor of psychology; Travis Brisini, assistant professor of communication studies; and Jeff Becker, a director, designer and sculptor.

Unwinding the Universe will address Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and other neurodivergent characteristics as both a lived experience and a prevalent neurodevelopmental condition through a series of live performances, panel discussions, and participatory research that leads to peer-reviewed articles and conference presentations. The performance will be presented to the audience from the point of view of four disciplines: visual/performance art, behavioral science and psychology, music, and theater.

“The four involved PIs bring different skills and experiences to the project, and that diversity of knowledge and approach from their respective field of study will naturally contribute to a set of performances and other deliverables that effectively express the challenges and conditions that impact those on the neurodivergent spectrum,” McClay said.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental condition characterized by inattention and hyperactive-impulsive behaviors (APA, 2023). Most recent estimates suggest that approximately 1 in 9 children meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD. While primarily considered a childhood disorder, salient and closely associated functional impairments of ADHD persist throughout the lifespan, including academic, social, emotional, and occupational outcomes. Only 30% of children with ADHD will go on attend higher education and those that do are three times more likely to drop out of college than their neurotypically developing peers.

“Drawing inspiration from those with ADHD that have managed to overcome and embrace the many cognitive and sensory/perceptual differences they experience is crucial and an impactful first step towards broadening our understanding of ADHD, reducing stigma, and, ultimately, improving life outcomes,” the researchers wrote.

The central deliverable of the project is a performance artwork written and performed by McClay, with sound design and performance by Dr. Beck, and directed by Becker. Work-in-progress performances will be held May/June 2025 at Coates Hall Black Box, with the final production at Catapult Theater, New Orleans, in December 2025. The performances will be followed by a panel session led by Dr. Soto, with experts on ADHD. Additional participatory research will lead to a scholarly article publication of findings regarding audience members understanding of ADHD knowledge and stigma. Dr. Brisini, as a performance theorist and academic journal editor, will produce an article that places the performance in a contemporary and historical context as part of the multidisciplinary arts-based research movement. 

About the Research Team

Malcolm McClay (PI), professor in the LSU School of Art, was born in Northern Ireland, and his creative practice is informed by the strong performance art scene that emerged there during the political upheaval known as “the troubles.” Recent projects revisit mythological, monastic, and domestic sites in Ireland. These sites are mined for their potential to act as arenas for durational performance rituals that explore notions of connection and disconnection, both with the natural world and with aspects of the self. The Celtic notion of the ‘thin place’, a space where the veil between the temporal and celestial worlds has grown thin, provides a way of thinking through these ideas, anchoring the invisible and the elusive in actual sites and in the body itself. Through documented performances and multi-media installations, McClay consistently exposes the tension between two conflicting mental states, that of stressed distraction, and a more focused state of contemplation. This has led him to explore the roots of this dichotomy through the lens of his own ADHD. 

“My role in this project is to present the lived experience of someone with ADHD through live performance in terms of the difficulties but also the strength-based approaches to ADHD. All of the objects, movements, sounds, and text created for this performance are designed to present the most direct and powerful means of communicating this experience to the audience on a visceral level by taking the metaphorical and making it a physical, tangible experience,” he said.

Dr. Stephen David Beck (Co-PI) is a composer of electroacoustic and acoustic music and is the Derryl & Helen Haymon Professor of Music at the LSU School of Music. He also holds a joint appointment with the Center for Computation & Technology. His recent compositional interests have focused on immersive audio works using granular synthesis to break down spoken text into small 50ms chunks and reorder, reintegrate, and rebuild them to create new sounds and sonic landscapes across large speaker arrays. Beck will produce the various soundscapes central to the sound design of the project and will coordinate the sound during all performances. He will record McClay speaking the narratives that will be part of the overall performance and using that material to create multiple sections using the granular decomposition-recomposition techniques he has focused on over the past few years. The goal will be to make the vocal sounds both intelligible and unintelligible, creating a sense of confusion, distraction, and periodic clarity. The work will be produced for a 5.1 surround sound system, with five speakers placed around the audience and one subwoofer for low-frequency sounds. This will move the audience closer to the sound design and to the language of the performer. The result will be an original sound composition created and recorded for the performance. 

Dr. Elia F Soto (Co-PI) is a McNair Scholar and assistant professor in the department of psychology at LSU. Her programmatic line of research focuses on understanding, assessing, and targeting underlying neurocognitive mechanisms associated with neurodevelopmental disorders and related functional outcomes. She has specific clinical expertise in ADHD cognitive and perceptual differences across the lifespan and research proficiency in data collection and analysis of survey data. Evidenced by her strong records of collaboration across over 25 publications, her expertise on this grant will serve two goals: 1) facilitating the dissemination of ADHD and neurodiversity topics to the general public readily and accurately and 2) evaluating the utility of an ADHD- inspired live performance to both increase knowledge of and reduce stigma of ADHD to the general public. To these ends, Dr. Soto will play a moderating role in assisting with recruiting mental health specialists as panelist speakers and collaborating with project members to ensure an accurate representation of ADHD and associated topics on all project materials. Additionally, Dr. Soto will be instrumental in research data collection of audience members’ knowledge and beliefs of ADHD symptomatology before and after each live performance using a brief 5–10-minute digital survey. Data collected from the proposed grant will serve to produce scholarly forums, including manuscript and poster publications, to examine the impact of a live performance illustrating the unique visual and auditory sensory and perceptual experiences to bring awareness to the lived experiences of people with neurodevelopmental conditions, such as ADHD. After each performance, a panel of experts led by Dr. Soto will engage in discussion with the audience on the significance and impact of the work to both answer their questions and glean how they responded and understood what they had just experienced. 

Dr. Travis Brisini (Co-PI) is a performance studies scholar and Assistant Professor in the department of communication studies whose arts-based research focuses on the exploration of scientific topics through live performance and performative writing. Brisini’s research in performance theory and methodology is underpinned by posthumanist and new materialist onto-epistemological commitments and uses the adaptation of scientific fact and story for the stage to expand and aestheticize these topics.

He serves a variety of roles on this project team. Given the nature of his research—at the intersections of science and live performance—and his recent lengthy tenure as an academic journal editor, his primary contribution will be writing and aiding others in writing, peer-reviewed academic publications, catalog entries, and other forms of public scholarship concerning the project. In particular, Brisini will be key in framing this performance and its associated publications, lectures, and outreach efforts as part of a multidisciplinary arts-based research movement that currently enjoys significant prestige in international qualitative research circles. Moreover, neurodiversity—understood both from a psychobiological as well as ethical and normative philosophical framework—is a topic of increasing prominence in the arts, in no small part due to increasing diagnostic testing and decreasing social stigma. The rise of a “neuro mixed academia,” therefore, represents a chance not only for public outreach and personal affirmation but also the exploration of embodied, sculptural, aesthetic artworks inextricably informed and rooted in neurodiversity. Brisini’s own performance work—both as a solo performer and as the director of large-cast original devised performances—complements his role as a dramaturgical and theoretical wordsmith and will allow him to aid in the rehearsal and staging of the performance. 

Jeff Becker is a director, designer, and sculptor based in New Orleans. In 1990 along with Malcolm McClay, he co-founded CRISUS, a site-specific performance group that utilized innovative kinetic sets, sculpture, film and machines. He is a founding member of “Catapult”, a collective performance laboratory dedicated to nurturing original design-driven performance and socially active art, serving the New Orleans theater community and colleagues nationally and abroad. Jeff Becker has not only directed McClay’s performances for the past 30 years, he has served as an advisor and collaborator through all aspects of the development process. He has been an advisor on this project since its inception and will serve as the artistic director of the live performance Unwinding the Universe.

2025 Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research Awards

The LSU Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research has invested $1.8 million in seed funding for interdisciplinary research and creative works to solve problems and improve lives. 

“Since the launch of LSU’s Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research (PFIR) in 2022, the initiative has provided more than $5 million to support interdisciplinary research aligned with President Tate’s Scholarship First Agenda,” said Roy Haggerty, LSU Executive Vice President & Provost. “Through this investment, faculty have advanced research in five priority areas—agriculture, biomedicine and biotechnology, coast and environment, defense and cybersecurity, and energy—addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing Louisiana and beyond.”

See other College of Art & Design faculty who received Provost Fund for Innovation in Research awards:

Jason Jamerson Joins Groundbreaking Biomedical Research Project | COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN

Huili Wang Leads Research Team Making Libraries More Accessible | COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN

 

Jason Jamerson Joins Groundbreaking Biomedical Research Project

People by treadmill

In an exciting new interdisciplinary collaboration, Jason Jamerson, assistant professor of virtual production and immersive media at LSU College of Art & Design and College of Music & Dramatic Arts, is part of a team led by Dr. Wan-Chun Su, assistant professor of motor behavior in the School of Kinesiology in the College of Human Sciences & Education. Together, they are working on a pioneering project to better understand how humans move through social environments and how brain activity and gait patterns adapt when navigating around people and obstacles.

The project, funded by the LSU Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research (PFIR), will involve the creation of a virtual reality (VR) classroom. This innovative environment will be used to simulate real-world social settings, allowing researchers to study how individuals with social motor difficulties interact and move in spaces filled with obstacles and other people. The research could hold potential for the development of new training programs aimed at helping individuals with difficulties in social movement and motor coordination. As our understanding of these processes expands, the hope is to create effective strategies and interventions that can significantly improve the lives of those with social motor challenges.

Dr. Nicholas Fears and Dr. Hyun Kim, also assistant professors in kinesiology, round out the research team, contributing their specialized knowledge in kinesiology and biomedicine to the study. Together, they are combining their expertise to examine the effects of social interactions on movement, the cognitive processes behind these behaviors, and the physiological responses that accompany them. The project is funded by a PFIR “Big Ideas in Stem and Social & Behavioral Sciences” grant.

“The project will use simulated environments in a game engine, combined with a cutting-edge treadmill, motion capture system, brain scanning technology, and an immersive video volume to safely test differences in how people navigate obstacles when moving through a complex environment,” Jamerson said.

people in studio

One of the key innovations of the project is the VR classroom, which offers a unique opportunity to observe movement in highly controlled yet realistic environments. By immersing participants in simulated spaces where they must navigate around other people, the team can observe how individuals adapt their movements, which can help them understand the underlying mechanisms of social interactions and motor coordination.

Jamerson’s involvement brings a wealth of expertise in immersive technologies, virtual production, and the integration of media into experimental environments. His role in the project will focus on developing the virtual reality components, ensuring the creation of an accurate and engaging digital space for study participants. With his extensive background in virtual production and immersive media, Jamerson is helping push the boundaries of how technology can be used to further understand human behavior and movement.

For Jamerson, this research presents a unique opportunity to merge the fields of virtual production and kinesiology in ways that can directly impact individuals facing motor challenges. He is passionate about the potential of immersive media to provide both solutions and insights into the world of health and human sciences.

By combining the expertise of professionals in kinesiology, biomedicine, and virtual production, the team hopes to advance our understanding of human movement in complex social environments and provide solutions for those struggling with motor difficulties.

“This project is a prime example of the power of collaboration between diverse academic fields,” said Rod Parker, interim dean of the College of Art & Design. “With the combination of cutting-edge virtual reality technology and a team of experts in the field, this groundbreaking research could lead to new interventions and therapies that improve the quality of life for people. This innovative project stands as a testament to how interdisciplinary research and creative technological solutions can open new doors to understanding the intricacies of human behavior.”

As biomedical research advances, interdisciplinary researchers—who bridge the gap between art, technology, and health—are sure to play a pivotal role.

 

2025 Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research Awards

The LSU Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research has invested $1.8 million in seed funding for interdisciplinary research and creative works to solve problems and improve lives. 

“Since the launch of LSU’s Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research (PFIR) in 2022, the initiative has provided more than $5 million to support interdisciplinary research aligned with President Tate’s Scholarship First Agenda,” said Roy Haggerty, LSU Executive Vice President & Provost. “Through this investment, faculty have advanced research in five priority areas—agriculture, biomedicine and biotechnology, coast and environment, defense and cybersecurity, and energy—addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing Louisiana and beyond.”

See other College of Art & Design faculty who received Provost Fund for Innovation in Research awards:

Malcolm McClay Leads Interdisciplinary Team to Address ADHD Through Art

Huili Wang Leads Research Team Making Libraries More Accessible

Where the Wild Things Say ‘Bonjour’: Meet Artist Michel Haillard

Red alligator skin thrones

Michel Haillard’s twin set of Caroll thrones featuring red Louisiana alligator skin, cow hide, horns, bronze accents, and pheasant feathers.

French sculptor and collector Michel Haillard will be in residence at LSU in Baton Rouge this February 22-27, hosted by the College of Art & Design. He will work in an open studio in the Barnes Ogden Art & Design Complex, with a reception on February 26 at 5:30 p.m. in the main gallery. He will also give a lecture about his work on February 24 at 5 p.m. in the Cox Auditorium next to the Huey P. Long Field House, where a documentary about his life and work will be shown.

Read Where the Wild Things Say ‘Bonjour’: Meet Artist Michel Haillard

Darius Spieth Awarded LSU Distinguished Research Master; Named Sternberg Professor

Darius Spieth

Image Credit: Jean-Claude Figenwald

Art history professor Darius Spieth has been selected to receive the 2025 LSU Distinguished Research Master Award in the area of Arts, Humanities, Social & Behavioral Sciences. This award recognizes excellence and outstanding achievement in research and creative activity by LSU faculty. He is the first College of Art & Design faculty member to receive the prestigious honor.

Spieth has been named the Ogden Honors College 2024–25 Sternberg Professor by the Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College. Established by Lea Sternberg in 1996, the Erich and Lea Sternberg Honors Professorship is the highest award conferred to faculty by the Ogden Honors College.

A specialist in modernism, Dr. Spieth focuses his scholarship on the interrelationships between art, intellectual history, and economics. He has published over 50 publications including books, book chapters, articles, prefaces, postfaces, exhibition catalogue entries, and other forms of writing. Every semester, he teaches upwards of 2,000 students, mostly in introductory art history classes. He is the LSU School of Art’s art history area coordinator and is a three-time winner of LSU Reveille/The Mag’s “Best Professor on LSU Campus,” based on a popular vote by students.

Spieth’s major publications include detailed analyses of the market for Netherlandish art during the French Revolution, and the rituals of pseudo-Egyptian secret societies in France during the reign of Napoleon and his aftermath. He is set to unveil “a new, trailblazing study, spanning classical antiquity to the present day, of the synergies between art, art history, money, and rankings.”

“This book project will do nothing less than decipher the macroeconomic and cultural DNA of art markets past and present. I will look at the history of assessing value and beauty by numbers across time. It also will be the first to look at the relationship between macroeconomic shocks and art markets,” Spieth said. “As you know, economic shocks affect all aspects of the economy.”

The LSU Distinguished Research Master awards ceremony will be held on Tuesday, April 15, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the School of Mass Communication Holliday Forum. 

Spieth is also the San Diego Alumni Association Chapter Alumni Professor.

Soo Jeong Jo Receives AIAS/ACSA New Faculty Teaching Award

Soo Jeong JoSoo Jeong Jo, assistant professor of architecture, has received the AIAS/ACSA New Faculty Teaching Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA).

The 2025 Architectural Education Awards honor architectural educators for exemplary work in areas such as building design, community collaborations, scholarship, and service. The award-winning professors inspire and challenge students, contribute to the profession’s knowledge base, and extend their work beyond the borders of academia into practice and the public sector.

Award recipients of the new faculty teaching award “demonstrated excellence and innovation in teaching performance during the formative years of an architectural teaching career,” according to ACSA.

Press Release | Winners Announced for 2025 Architectural Education Awards – Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture

Jo teaches in the LSU School of Architecture and is a licensed architect in France and South Korea. She is also a member of the Society of Building Science Educators (SBSE). Her research focuses on high-performance design based on building performance simulations (BPS) specifically for the early stages of architectural design. Her studies were presented in international architecture conferences and journals, including the Passive and Low Energy Architecture (PLEA) and the Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC) which awarded her the ARCC King Student Medal in 2019.

Along with her research, Jo has been trained as an educator through the Future Professoriate Certificate program at Virginia Tech. Prior to her research and teaching, Jo was a practicing architect in Paris, New York City, and Seoul. During this time, she participated in various award-winning projects, both in architecture and urban planning, that include Hanwha Life Insurance Training Institute in Yongin, Korea, ORDOS 100 #39 Housing in Inner Mongolia, China, and Bedford Downtown Revitalization in Virginia, USA. Her professional experience sparked her research interest in sustainability and building performance, which finally led her to academia. Combining her background in research, teaching, and design, Jo explores the interactions between science and architectural design.

 

About the LSU School of Architecture

The LSU School of Architecture, a member of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, is accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. The school offers a five-year undergraduate program leading to a Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) and a three-year graduate program leading to a Master of Architecture (MArch). The architecture programs at LSU are developed in accordance with the four goals outlined in the school’s strategic plan: reinforce a culture of diversity and innovation, discover and learn holistically, advance applied research, and enrich the world.

About the ACSA
Founded in 1912 by 10 charter members, ACSA has grown to represent over 200 schools in several membership categories, including full membership for all accredited programs in the United States and government-sanctioned schools in Canada, candidate membership for schools seeking accreditation, and affiliate membership for schools with two-year and international programs. Through these schools, over 6,000 architecture faculty are represented. The association maintains a variety of activities that influence, communicate, and record important issues, including journals, scholarly meetings, awards and competition programs, support for architectural research, policy development, and liaison with allied organizations. www.acsa-arch.org.

About the AIA
Founded in 1857, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) consistently works to create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings, neighborhoods, and communities. Through nearly 300 state and local chapters, the AIA advocates for public policies that promote economic vitality and public wellbeing. Members adhere to a code of ethics and conduct to ensure the highest professional standards. The AIA provides members with tools and resources to assist them in their careers and businesses. The AIA engages with civic and government leaders, as well as with the public, to find solutions to pressing issues facing our communities, institutions, nation, and world. Visit www.aia.org.

About the AIAS
The American Institute of Architecture Students is a non-profit, student-run organization dedicated to programs, information, and resources on issues critical to architecture and the experience of architectural education. For more information, visit www.aias.org.

 

 

Arne Flaten Named Next Dean of the College of Art & Design

Arne FlatenOn Friday, January 17, Roy Haggerty, LSU Executive Vice President & Provost, announced:

“I am pleased to share that Dr. Arne Flaten has been named the next dean of the LSU College of Art & Design. He will officially assume the role on July 1, 2025, pending approval from the Board of Supervisors.”

Prior to his appointment at Purdue in 2019, Flaten served as the Director of the School of Art at Ball State University, Chair of the Department of Visual Arts at Coastal Carolina University, and Associate Dean of the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts at Coastal Carolina University.

Flaten received his undergraduate degrees in Studio Art and English Literature from St. Olaf College in Minnesota and his master’s and doctoral degrees in Italian Renaissance Art History from Indiana University-Bloomington. Flaten has received numerous external grants and fellowships from organizations such as the William J. Fulbright Commission, the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the J. Paul Getty Research Institute, and the Renaissance Society of America, among others.

In 2013, Flaten was named the HTC Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at Coastal Carolina University, the university’s highest honor, and in 2014, he was elected to the European Academy of Science and Arts—Salzburg. In addition to other regional, national, and international affiliations, Flaten is a program site reviewer for the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), serves on the Advisory Board of a2ru, and was recently elected to the Board of Directors for the International Council for Fine Arts Deans (ICfAD).

Dr. Flaten brings a distinguished record of leadership, scholarship, and creativity to a pivotal role on our campus. His fresh perspective and new ideas will open new avenues of opportunity and collaboration, enrich the student and faculty experience, and further solidify the College’s reputation as a leader in art and design education.

In addition to the role of dean, Dr. Flaten will hold the President’s Distinguished Professorship in Art History.

“I also want to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to Interim Dean Rod Parker for his excellent leadership. He will remain interim dean through June 30, at which point the position will transfer to Dr. Flaten,” Haggerty said.

The LSU College of Art & Design welcomes Dr. Flaten warmly!