Welcome from the Director
Welcome to the Doctor of Design program at the College of Design, North Carolina State University! This fall (2023), the Doctor of Design program (DDes) begins its sixth year of unique transdisciplinary online education. We are excited to welcome Cohort Six–our newest diverse cohort of student-practitioners–and to reconnect with those of you who are returning to continue your studies. The goal of our program is to advance the life-changing power of design, at every level, and enable diverse practitioners to transcend the limits and boundaries of traditional professional training. We are proud of the many assets of the College of Design—especially our DDes faculty, staff, and student-practitioners, working together on innovation and discovery in, for, and through design. We have therefore designed the DDes program to provide you with relevant research frameworks, concepts, mentors, and exemplars for contemporary design practices.
To help guide, support, and challenge your individual investigations, DDes students may choose to marshal resources from the College of Design, as well as other colleges at NC State University, and/or other universities in the North Carolina University System. However, in teaching and learning from exemplars drawn from many disciplines, other sectors, or emerging types of practices, please note: peer members of your class may be among your greatest teachers.
This is all to say, our greatest resource is you—you student-practitioners and risk-takers—and your transformative leadership potential for design and for society at large. We are looking forward to getting to know each of you while you are on- and off-campus and maintaining a productive and responsive relationship over the semesters to come.
As we move forward together, remember that the DDes program will continue to evolve and take shape. Please do not hesitate to provide feedback and do let us know if there is something we might adapt, or attempt, to make your studies more productive and rewarding.
All best wishes for your studies,
M. Elen Deming
Director, Doctor of Design Program