Meredith Davis

Davis graduated from The Pennsylvania State University in 1970, receiving her BS in art education and her MEd in 1974. She began her career teaching middle-school art. In 1975, she received her MFA in design from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. While at Cranbrook, she received a grant to develop the Michigan curriculum to introduce students to communication, objects and environments through design thinking. The curriculum research culminated in authoring Problem Solving in the Man-made Environment in 1974. After graduating, Davis became the curator of education at the Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee from 1975 to 1976. In 1976 she began teaching full-time at Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2005, she became the director of the Ph.D program in Design at NCSU, the second such program in the United States. In 2005, Davis was awarded the AIGA Medal. == Design research ==

Davis' interest in graduate education and graphic design research were the foundation for her belief that research was what marked graphic design as a "profession" rather than a "trade." For graphic design to succeed as a profession, she is concerned with school accreditation and assessment and began collaborating with AIGA and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) to design national standards that set minimum thresholds for program performance while allowing innovation at institutions. == References ==