This past year was an exciting and productive one for the AIGA Design Educators Community (DEC).

2024 was another successful year for the Design Educators Community. From programming, events, and initiatives, to formal and informal conversations, we all gathered together (online and in person) with the goal of improving our space and community. As we begin our journey into 2025, we’d like to reflect on the DEC’s highlights of 2024. 

The DEC reached a big milestone, celebrating 20 years since its inception. Our steering committee continued to serve a wide-range of interest areas with members spread throughout the U.S. In May, Katie Krcmarik (Illinois State University) was promoted to Co-Chair and we welcomed two new members: Shannon Zenner, PhD (Elon University) and Devon Nassif (Dallas Independent School District). Shannon and Devon will support our mission of expanding our K-12 reach and efforts. With every iteration of the DEC, this group continues to extend its reach with the aim of diversifying areas of focus through the pursuit of new initiatives, while continuing to strengthen ongoing programming and efforts.

In 2024 we hosted six Virtual Events ranging from casual conversations and mixers to deep-diving topics of interest. Conversations around A.I. continued to be popular, with one of our highest attended virtual events, “Practical Uses of A.I. in the Classroom”. Heather Snyder Quinn (Depaul University) and Jimmy Henderson (Susquehanna University) lead a conversation on applying for academic jobs entitled “So You Want to be a Professor?”. In October, the DEC hosted an educator track during the 2024 AIGA “Margins” Conference. This 3-Day programming embraced the theme, “Margins,” and explored the uncharted
territories of design. Margins DEC track featured sessions packed with conversations about AI in
the classroom, assessment design practices, design’s ability to bring people together, interaction and experiences, and design education and mental health. A special hats off to Lisa Mercer and Tasheka Arceneaux Sutton for co-charing the Educator Track.

The year also saw the publications of “Collective Inquiry into the Visual Essay”, a special issue of Dialogue featuring works from the 2022 Design + Writing Fellowship and Dialogue’s “2021 ShiftED Virtual Summit Proceedings”. A special thanks to past and present members of the steering committee who were instrumental in bringing those to completion.

We wrapped up 2024 with our 3rd annual “10 Days of DECember”, a fun social media event. Members contributed fun “gifts” to our community including festive recipes, design resources, and activities. If you didn’t catch it in December, you should take a look now! 

This year, our wish is that design educators continue to collaborate and join with the wider design education community, both in the U.S. and around the world, to continue the work of examining what design is and ought to be, how we might continue to inspire young people to use design thoughtfully and ethically, and ways we can continue to work together to keep our community a vibrant and supportive place.

Natalie Tyree and Katie Krcmarik, DEC Steering Committee Co-Chairs, 2024-2025