Georgia Southern interior design professor wins grant from international education foundation
Christine Wacta, Ph.D., assistant professor of interior design in Georgia Southern University’s College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, recently earned a $2,000 Irma Dobkin Universal Design Grant from the International Furnishings and Design Association (IFDA).
Wacta is one of five recipients from across the United States to receive a grant from this program. She said the grant comes as a great opportunity and will support her innovative approach in design education. She plans to involve first-year students in community engagement and research, which involves collecting data.
“My goal is to integrate geoscience into interior design education to develop a geo-info lab where data from the community will be collected and used in ways we have never done before,” said Wacta. “This will allow us to develop a wealth of users’ feedback of real daily experiences that then create a new layer of information that will augment the designer’s knowledge.”
In the announcement, Helen Wagner, chairman of the board of the Educational Foundation of IFDA, congratulated the winners.
“Their skills and initiative in undertaking new challenges are impressive,” she said. “Each winner exemplified the goals of the award they were granted, whether research, universal design, professional development or the advancement of interior design programs.”
IFDA’s mission is to inspire collaboration within the furnishings and design industry to support its people, their products and services.
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