Meredith Davis is Professor and Director of Graduate Programs in the Department of Graphic Design, and Director of the interdisciplinary PhD in Design program in the College of Design at NC State University. Meredith holds master’s degrees in design and education from Cranbrook Academy of Art and Penn State University respectively. She taught for 13 years at Virginia Commonwealth University and has been at NC State University for 18 years, where she served 10 years as department chair. Meredith currently teaches graduate courses in design and cognition and undergraduate courses in typography and design theory.
Meredith is a fellow and the 2005 national medalist of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. She currently serves on the AIGA Visionary Design Council to define the designer of 2015. She has received numerous teaching awards for graduate education, including four university awards as Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor and nominee for the Board of Governors Award for Teaching Excellence. She is also listed in Who’s Who Among American Teachers and Who’s Who in American Art. Meredith was principal in the graphic design firm Communication Design from 1979-1989. She is the recipient of more than 50 national and international design awards and her work has appeared in Graphis, ID Magazine, Print, Graphic Design USA, ACD 100, Creativity, Typography, and other professional publications.
Meredith is a former president of the American Center for Design and the founding president of the Graphic Design Education Association. She served on the national board of directors of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and as a frequent member of its various committees. She is currently the AIGA representative to the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and a member of the NASAD accreditation commission. In this position, Meredith has led the authoring of six briefing papers on graphic design education and negotiated new standards for the accreditation of graphic design programs. She has delivered more than 130 lectures nationally, conducted more than 30 academic program reviews and 40 external tenure reviews, and is among the speakers on the AIGA national speaker’s bureau list. Meredith also consults with colleges and universities on curriculum development and assessment.
Meredith’s research explores the use of design in achieving the goals of educational reform in K-12 schools and the relationship between design and cognition. She has served as a member of the development team for the National Assessment of Educational Progress in the Arts and participated in the Goals 2000 Arts Education Partnership for the US Department of Education. She has taught for Performance Assessment Collaboratives with Education, a research unit of the Harvard Graduate School of Education; the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum; and served as a consultant to the departments of education in Wisconsin and Michigan. Meredith co-authored the K-12 design education programs for the National Building Museum in Washington, DC and conducts teacher training workshops for organizations around the country. In 1992 she chaired the Worldesign Foundation Summit on Design in K-12 Education.
In 1974, Meredith co-authored Problem Solving in the Man-made Environment, a design-based curriculum for Michigan public schools funded by the Michigan Council for the Arts. She also authored the study of design in K-12 education for the National Endowment for the Arts. Titled Design as a Catalyst for Learning; the book received the 1999 CHOICE award from the Association of College and Research Libraries. She has also served as consultant to the Smithsonian Office of Education and Museum Studies and has reviewed grant proposals for the Institute of Museum Services, the US Department of Education, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Her work has been funded by the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology, and Science; Kenan Institute for the Arts; Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise; National Endowment for the Arts; and several state arts and humanities commissions.
Meredith is currently under contract to Thames and Hudson/UK for a series of five college-level textbooks on graphic design, including an undergraduate introduction to design theory. She is a member of the editorial boards of Design Issues and reads manuscripts for MIT Press, Visible Language, and Design Studies Journal. She is a frequent contributor to journals on design and design education, including a series of four articles for Arts Education Policy Review and is the author of the graphic design description in the College Board Book of Undergraduate Majors. Meredith has also served as a consultant to the Educational Testing Service.
