AIGA Design Educators Community
The AIGA Design Educators Community (DEC) seeks to enhance the abilities of design educators and educational institutions to prepare future designers for excellence in design practice, design theory and design writing at the undergraduate and graduate levels while supporting the fundamental mission of AIGA.
AIGA DEC Throughlines 2026
Throughlines explores the connections that shape a designer’s journey—from early education to professional practice. DEC invites proposals for panels, papers, workshops, and posters examining curriculum, research, student work, community partnerships, and pathways across PreK–12, higher ed, and lifelong learning. Deadline: February 27, 2026
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Design Educator Spotlight: Ashley L. Anderson
In this DEC Community spotlight, we feature design educator Ashley L. Anderson, whose work sits at the intersection of intervention design, AI, and sensemaking. From researching stereotype threat interventions for Black STEM students to exploring how AI shapes how we think, Ashley brings deep curiosity to both her scholarship and the classroom.
Beyond the Bauhaus: The Gee’s Bend Quilters
Since the early part of the 1900s, the women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama have narrated and re-written their lives through the creation of quilts. Gee’s Bend (also known as Boykin) is a small, rural, predominantly African-American community in Wilcox County, Alabama. The town, which sits enclosed on three sides by the Alabama River, takes its name from a plantation owner named Joseph Gee, who settled the town and built his cotton plantation on the land in the early 1800s. With him, he brought a group of eighteen enslaved African Americans. Today, almost all of Gee’s Bend residents are descendants of formerly enslaved people from Gee’s plantation.
Design Teaching Resource
The AIGA Design Teaching Resource is a peer-populated platform for educators to share assignments, teaching materials, outcomes, and project reflections.
Browse for InspirationMore from the DEC
Dialogue
The ongoing series of fully open-access proceedings of the conferences and national symposia of the AIGA Design Educators Community.
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Value Design Education Pledge
A set of working principles that serve as a foundation for enacting long-term, systemic change in design education and pedagogy.
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Graduate Student Posters
Seven posters that address the topic of Bridging Digital and Physical Experiences, which is one of the trends defined in AIGA’s Design Futures.
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Dialectic Journal
A scholarly journal of thought leadership, education, and practice in the discipline of visual communication design.
DEC Steering Committee
Tasheka Arceneaux-Sutton
Isabel Bo-Linn
Co-Chair
Patricia Childers
Jarrett Fuller
Victoria Gerson
Ashley Hairston Doughty
Lee-Sean Huang
Katie Krcmarik
Kristina Lamour Sansone
Vinicius Lima
Lisa Maione
Devon Nassif
Yvette Shen
RJ Thompson
Zack Tucker
Shannon Zenner
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