Faculty in the Department of Design and Merchandising are moving into vital leadership roles. These brief profiles acquaint you with the many areas of academic inquiry in which our department is engaged.
Karen Hyllegard, department head
Karen H. Hyllegard, professor of design and merchandising, has been selected to be the next department head in the Department of Design and Merchandising. She will begin transitioning into this role on March 1, 2018, working with Dr. Nancy Miller in a shared leadership model through July 2018.
Hyllegard has been an outstanding and valued faculty member within Design and Merchandising for the past 19 years. She initially joined the faculty in 1998 and was promoted to the rank of professor in 2016. Holding a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, Hyllegard’s teaching and research emphases include merchandising promotion, textile and apparel industries, advertising and promotion, and social responsibility.
Hyllegard is a highly engaged mentor, teacher and scholar. Her professional contributions are nationally recognized for global and social responsible production, marketing, and retailing of goods and services that add value to the lives of consumers. Recently, she has been co-leading the innovative program called Fashion FUNdamentals, integrating the STEM disciplines with fashion and apparel design areas. She has served the department in various leadership roles, currently as the program coordinator for the Apparel and Merchandising Program and in service to the university as faculty council committee on Intercollegiate Athletics since 2007.
Laura Malinin, director, Richardson Design Center
Laura Malinin, assistant professor of interior design in the Department of Design and Merchandising, has been named the new director of the Richardson Design Center at Colorado State University.
CSU broke ground on the $16.5 million Richardson Design Center last September. Nancy (1982, Interior Design) and Curt Richardson, co-founders of OtterBox and Blue Ocean Enterprises, donated $8.1 million toward the state-of-the-art building that will house design studios; fabrication, prototype, and ideation labs; presentation spaces; classrooms; and computer labs for students and faculty from design disciplines across campus. The building is expected to open in early 2019.
Malinin is a registered architect (Texas) and cognitive scientist at CSU where she has received awards for teaching and research excellence. She holds an undergraduate degree in architecture and art and art history from Rice University, an M.Ed. in educational technology from the University of Texas, and a joint Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in design and planning through the College of Architecture and Planning and cognitive science through the Institute of Cognitive Science.
In the director role of the Richardson Design Center, Malinin will lead the development of new curriculum in design thinking, including a certificate program. She will also identify and coordinate opportunities for interdisciplinary cooperation across CSU, as well as organize programming such as a guest lecturer or designer-in-residence program.
The Department of Design and Merchandising is part of CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.
