Two new staff members have joined the Nancy Richardson Design Center at Colorado State University as the new facility opens to students for the Spring 2019 semester. Sarah Badding, a three-time alumna of CSU, serves as the new operations and academic administrator. Paul Callahan, the new fabrication labs coordinator, joins the RDC from Louisiana State University where he was instructor and coordinator of digital fabrication. The two join Laura Malinin, director of the RDC, who also holds a joint appointment as assistant professor in interior architecture and design in the Department of Design and Merchandising.
“I am thrilled that Sarah and Paul will be joining me to help forge the vision and future direction for the design center programming,” said Malinin. “They bring unique expertise in design practices, and both are passionate about supporting interdisciplinary creativity and fostering an inclusive culture of making at the center.”
Sarah Badding
Badding earned her B.S. in apparel and merchandising in 2009 and her M.S. in design and merchandising in 2011 from CSU’s Department of Design and Merchandising, and her Ph.D. in organizational learning, performance and change in 2017 from CSU’s School of Education. She comes to the RDC from the Colorado State Forest Service where she worked as the Human Resources Manager since 2012. For her Ph.D, Badding focused on measuring creative synthesis processes, where thinking transforms to doing. Her views of design and the creative process allow her to focus on problem identification and problem solution utilizing design thinking processes.
As the operations and academic administrator, Badding will be responsible for managing daily operations, spaces, and finances for the RDC. The primary focus of her position is to manage the planning and organizing of financial, human, and inventory resources for the design center. In addition, Badding will oversee academics related to delivery, oversight, and evaluation of the new interdisciplinary undergraduate design thinking certificate program, design center workshops, and future programming.
Paul Callahan
In 2013, Callahan earned an M.F.A. in ceramics at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He stayed at LSU for the next five years as an instructor, teaching in art, architecture, and interior design. Additionally, Callahan was part of the leadership team for the Design Shop, Fabrication Factory, and Ceramics Factory, several of the art and design facilities at LSU. His personal research focuses on object making and hybrid use of analog and digital tools. As an instructor, his coursework has spanned, ceramics, metal, wood, and digital fabrication tools, including software and hardware.
As the fabrication labs coordinator, Callahan will provide training and supervision of students, and functional support for faculty, as well as oversight of daily operations in the Wood, Metal, Prototyping and Ideation Labs. Additionally, he will facilitate inter-departmental collaboration as the facilities expand to include a wide range of resources and tools available to faculty and students across CSU and to the community.
The Nancy Richardson Design Center is a hub for interdisciplinary collaboration and design thinking across Colorado State University. The new facility also houses the Department of Design and Merchandising in the College of Health and Human Sciences.
