Business & Technology of Fashion Program Offering Bachelor of Science and Associate of Science degrees in fashion, the Business & Technology of Fashion program (founded 2017) offers the only baccalaureate degree in the Business department. Adapted from a former A.S. degree in Fashion Merchandising, my contributions to the program have been critical to bringing the technology and design of fashion to a program formerly focused on marketing and business, elements of the industry that I also incorporate into my lessons. Our student enrollment of over 500 majors continues to grow each semester. I teach students from their second to fourth year, which provides an excellent opportunity to gauge their development and professional preparedness as they progress through the program. 

Teaching Responsibilities As the Director of Textiles, I am responsible for both hands-on lab courses in material science, and lecture courses examining historical and contemporary fashion. I have created four new courses for the program, as well as developing existing courses, which are now fully approved and in circulation in our program. These new courses are critical for the Textiles area of specialization. Lastly, I have designed and coordinated software, hardware and equipment for an extensive Textile Lab used to instruct students in both manual textile fabrication and digital media used in mass production.

I teach two types of courses: lab courses which meet each week for 3 hrs. 20 min., and lecture courses which meet once per week for 2 hrs. 30 min. For hands-on courses, the class sessions are generally divided into lecture/lab in alternating sessions. In lecture courses, I break up the long class meeting by planning for one half lecture, and one half in-class individual or group work followed by discussion (the order of these will change depending on the lecture). Labs sections are 18 students and take place in the Textile Lab, set up for students to print, weave, dye, sew and analyze textiles. Some labs are designed to be completed at home with non-toxic substances, and students create reports with images and research components arranged into a step-by-step tutorial. Advanced students create blogs or vlogs to document process