“Leveraging Design Education to Empower Communities”
Milagros Zingoni - Assistant Professor, Arizona State University
Tina Patel - Assistant Professor, Kent State University
MILAGROS ZINGONI
Milagros Zingoni is an Associate Professor at The Design School, at Arizona State University. Originally from Argentina, Milagros believes that innovation comes from communication between disciplines and collaboration between the community and professionals with perhaps different backgrounds but similar goals. Her experience as both, designer and educator, provides a fresh lens to understand student centered approaches, physically and pedagogically. Her research includes explorations of environmental and experiential settings that address new ways of learning and how these settings emphasize problem solving skills and collaboration that creates communities of learning. Her studios focus on community and commitment to public engagement through participatory design-build collaboration.
Zingoni was recognized in 2019 by the Interior Design Educator’s Council (IDEC) with the National Teaching Excellence Award, by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Arizona Chapter with the honor of 2019 Educators of the Year Award, by the annual Design Intelligence rankings as one of the top twelve most admired educators in the country and by Arizona State University 2020 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Awards. Zingoni is a strong advocate for community causes, serving on multiple non-profit and civic boards and is also the faculty advisor for Interiors Students Alliance (ISA), the ASU interior design student organization.
TINA PATEL
Tina Patel is Assistant Professor in the Interior Design program of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, at Kent State University. She received her Bachelor of Architecture from India and her MA and MFA in Interior Design from Iowa State University. She has held academic positions of Professor at Algonquin College, Ottawa; Teaching Specialist in Interior Design at University of Minnesota, Instructor and Coordinator of Interior Design Program at South Dakota State University. Prior to teaching, Tina worked at Callison RTKL, Washington DC and Baltimore offices, SVPA Architects, West Des Moines and Solomon Codwell Buenz, Chicago.
Her work examines the intersection of people, processes and the built environment. She has presented at national and international conferences and has published her research on learning environments for neurodiversity and underrepresented groups, impact of evolving workplaces on behavior and design pedagogy. Tina has established partnership with community leaders, non-profits and design practices dedicated to empowering communities in an attempt to expand on teaching methodologies centered on community engagement. Her community engaged pedagogy aims to sharpen students understanding of others with different realities and unfamiliar experiences by utilizing current and on-going social and economic issues affecting our communities.
