David Raizman (PhD, Art History, Pittsburgh, 1980) will serve as director of the program. Dr. Raizman is an art and design historian at Drexel University and author of History of Modern Design (2004, 2nd edition 2010, Laurence King/Pearson), based upon his own extensive and ongoing experience teaching the design history survey, as well as his more than thirty years of active teaching and scholarship in art and design history. History of Modern Design is currently used as a text at over 100 colleges and universities worldwide. He serves on the editorial board of Design and Culture and is the recipient of a fellowship at the Wolfsonsian/FIU Museum and Library in Miami Beach. He has been invited to present two lectures on design history at Tsinghua University in Beijing in May 2014, stemming from the translation of History of Modern Design (Renmin University Press, 2013).

Raizman PhD, was recipient of the Harold Myers Distinguished Service Award at Drexel University in 2011 and was named Distinguished University Professor at Drexel in 2013; he also has had a long career in administration, serving as Interim Design and Associate Dean of the College of Media Arts & Design, and as Institutional Representative to the National Association of Schools of Art & Design, for which he coordinated the comprehensive Self-Study and successful Site Visit leading to accreditation in 2009.