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Fresh Perspectives: Introducing New Faculty

March 18, 2021

We are pleased to introduce nine of our newest faculty members! Covering subject areas from Interior Design to Human-Centered Healthcare and Motion Design, our stellar instructors bring real-world experience and insider knowledge to Continuing and Professional Education at The New School. Read on to learn more about them and which aspects of teaching they are looking forward to the most.

 

Marney Boughan / Human-Centered Healthcare:

"I'm excited to share actionable, user-centered frameworks to help students improve healthcare...and to personally learn from the breadth of perspectives, experiences, and ideas generated in the class."

Marney Boughan

 

As an early adopter of the human-centered design process, Marney has strategized with the Mayo Clinic to improve the patient experience, traversed rural India with “D-Rev: Design for the Other 90%” to user-test low-cost medical devices, and shadowed laboring women with Cone Health to design a family-centered Women's Hospital. Marney enjoys teaching design thinking at organizations such as Stanford’s d.school, UCLA, Children's Hospital LA, Cedars-Sinai, ResMed, Microsoft, and Capital One. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (Product Design) from Stanford, an MBA from Kellogg, and a Masters in Design and Innovation from Northwestern. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, three young children, and a Bernedoodle named Roxy.

Website: https://www.dthinkconsulting.com/

 

Miranda Javid / Motion Design:

"My favorite thing about teaching continuing ed students is the way they bring all of their prior life experience into the classroom; the result is often works imbued with valuable life lessons, prior learning in a variety of fields, and an overall maturity that is so rewarding to nurture."

Miranda Javid

Miranda Javid is a writer, animator, and art-educator with an MFA from the University of California Irvine and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her animated films have shown nationally and internationally at festivals like the Ann Arbor Film Festival and Cutout Film Festival in Mexico City. She is a Kenan Fellow, a Sherman Fairchild grantee, and a recipient of the Nancy Harrigan Prize, given through the Baker Artist Fund. Currently, she lives in Los Angeles, where she takes long walks when she's trying to think of creative ideas. Also, she keeps bees.

Website: https://www.mirandajavid.com/

 

Lilia Levine / Interior Design:

"I'm looking forward to teaching a diverse range of professionals, and seeing the ways in which their unique backgrounds stimulate conversation about design."

Lilia Levine

Lilia Levine is a multidisciplinary creative with a background spanning Religious Art History, 3D Printing, and Interior Design. She holds a BA from Vassar College and an MFA from Pratt Institute. As an interior designer, her experience lies largely in the hospitality and high-end residential sectors. She specializes in providing clients with custom solutions that enhance connectivity with the built environment.

Website: https://www.lilialevine.com/

 

Clara Dykstra / Interior Design:

"I'm looking forward to supporting my passionate students in their pursuit of design by helping them cultivate the skills they need to excel as designers."

Clara Dykstra

Clara Dykstra is an architectural designer living and working in Los Angeles. She has worked at all scales of design—from small residential projects in Los Angeles to urban-scale master plans in the NYC area. She approaches each project with a sense of curiosity and systematic intent. She earned her M.Arch from Columbia University GSAPP and her BA from UCLA.

Website: claradykstra.com

 

Adrien Allred / Interior Design:

"I'm excited to see what CPE students care about and introduce how design thinking can help them make a positive impact in their careers and on the world."

Adrien Allred

Adrien was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and received a BS in Sustainable Community Development and Urban Studies at Portland State University in Oregon. He went on to achieve a M.Arch, graduating with honors from the Pratt Institute. Adrien founded Amalgam Design in 2009 and Amalgam Architecture in 2017 upon licensure. He has worked with some of New York’s most innovative Designers and Architects including Vito Acconci, David Hotson Architects, and Barker Freeman Design on a wide variety of projects including the Stavanger Amphitheater in Stavanger Norway (Arts Council of Norway 2010 competition winner), the Cafesjian art Museum in Yerevan Armenia, the Maple Street Preschool in Brooklyn NY (2017 AIA NY award winner), two houses in Ai Wei Wei’s Ordos 100 development in China, as well as a long list of private townhouses and vacation homes in New York City and the surrounding areas. Adrien also teaches architecture and interior design at The Pratt Institute and The New School in New York City.

Website: www.amalgam-a.com

 

Krista Atkins Nutter / Interior Design:

"I am looking forward to working with creative students and teaching design again!"

Krista Nutter

Krista Nutter holds an AA in Art, a BA in Interior Design, and an M.Arch. She has been practicing commercial interior design since 1996 and has been a professor of design since 2001. She has also been in online education as an administrator and eLearning specialist since 2003. Her research interests primarily include sustainable design and online design education. Krista lives in an award-winning sustainable solar home in the Cincinnati area, and is also a professional portrait photographer. Her hobbies include travel, camping, hiking, kayaking, landscape/astrophotography, and RV-ing. 

Website: https://kristanutterphotography.com

 

Rajiv Fernandez / Interior Design:

"I look forward to teaching at CPE to help those pivoting in their career—like I did with my career."

Rajiv Fernandez

Rajiv Fernandez is a professional drawer. He draws lines to construct buildings as a licensed architect, contributing to projects as large as the Barclays Center to as personalized as a bespoke bachelor pad. Through his illustration work under the moniker Lil' Icon, he brings attention to the issues that surround us today. Finally, he draws up ideas as an entrepreneur, with a brand new venture coming this summer.

 

Website: >www.lil-icon.com / www.the-rajiv.com

 

Ashley Gerst / Motion Design:

"I am looking forward to being a part of the Parsons community and meeting many amazing and talented students!"

Ashley Gerst

Ashley Gerst is a 2D and 3D animator living in the greater NYC area. She holds a BFA from Cleveland Institute of Art and an MFA from School of Visual Arts. Ashley is a professor, freelance animator, and independent film director. Some of her most recent work includes animated title sequences for the feature films The Con is On (2018) and Can You Keep A Secret? (2019). Other clients include Credit Suisse, Nissan, and Red Bull. Her most recent independent film, The Spirit Seam, was completed in 2019. It has been accepted into more than 100 festivals and has won more than 20 awards. In addition, Ashley is a co-lead for the Women in Animation NYC Chapter.

Websites: >www.ashleygerst.com / www.thespiritseam.com

 

Elizabeth Cohn-Martin / Interior Design:

"I'm looking forward to teaching the fundamentals of interior design visualization while supporting my students in understanding how we construct spaces and how our material choices impact the environment."

Elizabeth Cohn-Martin

Elizabeth (Liz) Cohn-Martin is an architect and urban planner who is passionate about advanced biomaterial research and development, the future of design, and the global impact of our material choices. She advocates for simple and elegant design work, high performing structures and spaces, and community integration in the design process. Her work includes mapping-based contextual analyses and material and systems design development that are climate and site-appropriate. Liz incorporates biophilia and bio-inspired elements into her work and believes in the ability of design and craft to enable greater levels of health and wellbeing for humans and the natural environment.

Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-cohn-martin/

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