September 15, 2015

Diana (Dee) Nicholas has been promoted to Assistant Professor and appointed the Associate Director of our graduate Interior Architecture & Design program. Professor Nicholas will continue to serve as advisor to students in the Sustainability and the Built Environment minor, as well as co-director of the Studio for Immersive Design and Engagement (SIDE). SIDE is a community based learning laboratory that Professor Nicholas founded with Interiors Program Director Debra Ruben, where new work in the urban environment is showcased and where collaborative experimentation around urban health and design takes place. Professor Nicholas previously served as co-director of a second minor in the Department, Interdisciplinary Smart Initiatives, which Architecture professor Dr. Ulrike Altenmueller-Lewis will now direct. 

Professor Nicholas is a member of the Drexel AIA Health and Design Research Consortium, and a founding member of the Corelab group of partner faculty at the Dornsife Center Community Extension Center in the Mantua Community. She completed a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University and received her MFA from the University of the Arts. For nearly ten years she ran a solo practice in Philadelphia, executing residential interiors, storefront revitalizations, space planning and adaptive interior nonprofit reuse. Professor Nicholas has exhibited widely and taught architecture and interior design for 16 years at various schools including at Temple University and Philadelphia University.