2025 UCDA Design Conference: Resilience

Amina Cruz was born and lives in Los Angeles. She hitchhiked around the country before deciding to move to New York City, where she earned her BFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design. She also holds a MFA from UCLA.

Her interests are based in queer culture, film/analog photography, and exploring the space between transformation and identity. Her current work explores the outsider cultures of brown queer punks throughout the Americas.

Learn more: www.aminacruz.com

Michael DeTerra is the Senior Video Producer for California Lutheran University's Marketing and Communications Office. Michael brings a unique skillset to the creative team, using his experience in the entertainment industry and contracting work to create digital media that appeals to multiple audiences in higher education. He is a self-proclaimed jetsetter with time to spare for camping in the backcountry or asking Alexa to Wikipedia new destinations.

Sheharazad Fleming is an Iranian-American creative director whose work bridges strategic communications and visual storytelling to drive cultural and civic impact. As former Director of Digital Communications for the Mayor of Los Angeles and Creative Director for institutions like University of Southern California and Otis College of Art and Design, she has mobilized design in service of the people and narratives that shape Los Angeles. Sheharazad is the President and Board Chair of Corita Art Center, where she champions the legacy of artist, social justice advocate, and educator Corita Kent—an ethos she extends into her role as a professor at ArtCenter College of Design. She heads the community design studio WE MUST BE BOLD and serves as Editor-in-Chief of The Great Discontent, a platform dedicated to sharing the journeys of artists committed to using creativity as a catalyst for social change.

Learn more: sheharazad-fleming.com

Gerardo Herrera is a core faculty member at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. He serves as both a professor for undergraduate and graduate studios and as the Associate Chair of the first Master of Design in Brand Design & Strategy online program, which he co-authored with Sean Adams, Dean of Visual Art & Communication. This tailored degree program is designed for working professionals seeking to elevate their careers by gaining advanced strategic expertise. He also served as the Director of Packaging Design at ArtCenter, where he grew and led his award-winning department's faculty in the ongoing development of its curriculum. Gerardo also brings his innovative industry expertise to teaching and collaborating with ArtCenter’s Educational Partnerships on Corporate Sponsored Projects and DesignStorms®. These initiatives are designed to explore industry challenges and envision the future through multidisciplinary teams of design students, professionals, and faculty.

Gerardo honed his distinctive insight, passion and global experience over two decades while leading the Global Brand Experience team at Nokia and other studios, agencies and brands. He is also Head of Brand & AI Experience and Associate at Design Studio Nuovo, with founder Frank Nuovo, former chief of design for Nokia and founder/creator of Vertu. Design Studio Nuovo is an incubator for developing compelling ideas, design solutions and innovative technology systems for commercially viable products and services with global brands and new ventures.

Matthew Manos is the founder of verynice, a design strategy practice that gives half of its work away for free to nonprofit organizations. verynice’s clientele includes Apple, Google, UNICEF, NASA and the American Heart Association. Manos also served as inaugural chair of the Los Angeles Creative Advisory Board established by former Mayor Eric Garcetti. At the Academy, Matthew serves as Associate Dean; leads a robust portfolio of industry-facing initiatives that challenge students to develop projects in response to complex problems faced by individuals, communities, organizations, and society at-large.

Matthew has served as a guest lecturer at business accelerator programs, colleges, high schools, and universities around the world. With Apple Education, he created content and training on strategic foresight and creativity for 690 K-12 schools spanning 36 countries. Matthew has also served as a Founding Curriculum Designer for the Iovine and Young Center (IYC). Part of a nationwide effort to re-imagine high school, IYC is a public high school curriculum that integrates design, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Called “crazy or genius” by Forbes, and named one of seven millennials changing the world by the Huffington Post, Manos’ pioneering work in the fields of design and social enterprise has inspired thousands of practitioners to engage in socially and environmentally responsible business. An author and editor of numerous books and toolkits on design strategy, social innovation and creativity, Manos regularly speaks at institutions and events across the globe. His work and ideas have also been featured in numerous print, online and broadcast venues including Fast Company, MTV, Wired, Inc., and Business Insider.

Manos holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Media Design Practices from ArtCenter College of Design, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Design Media Arts from UCLA. Prior to his current teaching appointment at the Academy, Manos was a teacher at the Strelka Institute in Moscow, an adjunct professor in the Master of Business Administration in Design Strategy at CCA, and an adjunct faculty member at the ArtCenter College of Design.

Learn more: mattmanos.com

James Meraz is a distinguished artist/designer and educator with a career spanning over two decades, marked by his contributions to product design, architecture, spatial and experiential design. Following his graduation from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and his experiences in studying abroad at the Architectural Association London, England, Meraz has cultivated a diverse portfolio including high-profile projects including showroom design, architectural and interior design for residential and commercial spaces, and large-scale public art installations including sculptures for Horton Plaza in San Diego and Universal City Walk, Las Vegas, Nevada and Miami, Florida, Barcelona, Spain. He is known for his private eco retreats he has created in Costa Rica and the Mojave Desert. 

In addition to his professional achievements, Meraz has played a significant role in design education. He is Associate Chair of Graduate Spatial Experience Design and Furniture, Lighting and Fixtures as well as a professor at the ArtCenter College of Design in the Spatial Experience Design, Product Design, and Industrial Design Foundation departments. Over the years, Meraz has led numerous academic initiatives and workshops, both locally and internationally, including collaborations with institutions such as Tama Art University in Tokyo and the British Columbia Creative Center. His commitment to sustainability is evident in his leadership of the ArtCenter Eco Research Lab, focusing on sustainable design solutions, which has garnered recognition and awards for his students.

Meraz’s influence extends beyond the classroom through his involvement in significant exhibitions, conferences and workshops, including the Dwell on Design Conference and Wanted Design during New York Design Week. His work and his students’ projects have been featured in prominent publications and have received numerous awards, reflecting his dedication to fostering innovation and ecological responsibility in design.

Stephanie Player is a graphic design student at ArtCenter College of Design specializing in branding and AI strategy. Her award-winning work bridges print and packaging with emerging technologies, applying AI in ways that center emotional intelligence and authentic expression. She has collaborated with musicians, museums, fashion labels, and other creative visionaries. Her favorite color is leopard.

Christine Prado has been around long enough to have the titles of paste up artist, desktop publisher, prepress technician, designer, art director, freelancer, conference chair and UCDA president. After 22 years of designing admissions pieces for Clemson University and with an MBA under her belt, she finally got the title she always wanted: DAM manager.

David Rager is an accomplished Creative Director with over two decades of experience in design leadership, brand building, and environmental experiences. As NASA's current Creative Director, he oversees the agency's visual brand and iconic Graphics Standards Manual and is responsible for reintroducing the NASA Logotype (Worm). Previously, Rager led teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Disney, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and the New Museum, and co-founded Weekends, a design studio operating between Paris and Los Angeles.

Learn more: davidrager.co

Louise Sandhaus is a graphic designer and educator, and the founder of The People’s Graphic Design Archive, a pioneering crowd-sourced platform dedicated to diversifying and preserving graphic design history. Until recently, she served on the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and is the author of the widely acclaimed Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires, and Riots: California and Graphic Design, 1936–1986 (2014). She also co-authored A Colorful Life: Gere Kavanaugh, Designer (2019) with Kat Catmur, published by Princeton Architectural Press.

Her contributions to the field include serving as a board member of Letterform Archive and as a former board member of AIGA. In 2022, she received the prestigious AIGA Medal in recognition of her exceptional impact on the design community.

Tracey Shiffman is Professor and Assistant Chair of Print + Packaging in the Graphic Design Department at ArtCenter College of Design. Having amassed 40 years of involvement in diverse projects ranging from corporate identity/branding to book design, Tracey’s current and concentrated area of expertise lies in the realm of publication design, crafting visually compelling designs for museums, publishers of art, architecture, and design literature, as well as projects dedicated to fostering intelligent design pedagogy within culturally resonant frameworks. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Tracey is renowned for infusing her choreography of artistic elements into the pages of publications. Noteworthy among her accomplishments are the thoughtfully curated monographs on acclaimed figures such as Julie Mehretu, Keith Haring, Amoako Boafo, Frank Gehry and Joan Mitchell. With an international footprint, her work has garnered numerous accolades, recognizing her significant contributions to the field. In 2009, Tracey joined creative forces with designer Alex Kohnke, culminating in the inception of Shiffman & Kohnke. Tracey has been teaching at ArtCenter for 20 years. 

Babette Strousse is Dean of the Industrial Design Division at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. The ID division includes undergraduate and graduate programs in Product/Industrial Design, Spatial Design (Environmental Design) and Transportation Design. Strousse has an extensive background as a multi-discipline design practitioner, as well as a design operations specialist, in addition to many years as an international educator. Her passion lies in the intersection of Design and Business, where she believes the practice of design can have a positive impact and effect meaningful change in the world. Educating the next generation of design practitioners and design thinkers is paramount in these times. Taking on sustainability and sustainable solutions while navigating the impact of AI are all challenges facing the design profession and areas she is currently exploring in her work.

Layla Thompson-Koch is a multimedia designer for Anne Arundel Community College. She is a community college graduate who went on to earn her bachelors degree in Visual Communication Design from Stevenson University and Master of Fine Arts in Integrated Design from the University of Baltimore where her thesis explored the use of synesthesia and quasi-synesthesia for universal design practice.