Denielle Emans

Dr. Denielle Emans is a designer, educator, and author who believes in the transformative power of design to change how people see each other and the world around them. She has been teaching in higher education since 2004, encouraging her students to use their "design powers" toward creative action. As an international educator, she has traveled to more than 40 countries and spent 10 years teaching in the Gulf Arab Region of the Middle East. Dr. Emans holds a Ph.D. in Communication for Social Change from the University of Queensland, Australia; a Master’s degree in Graphic Design from NC State University’s College of Design; and a Bachelor in Communications (with an emphasis on media) from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Together with her research partner, Kelly M. Murdoch-Kitt (University of Michigan), Dr. Emans co-authored "Intercultural Collaboration by Design: Drawing from Differences, Distances, and Disciplines through Visual Thinking," published on Routledge’s sustainability list in 2020. She has presented at numerous international conferences and co-authored chapters in The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Design (by Rachel Beth Egenhoefer), Collaboration in Design Education (by Marty Maxwell Lane and Rebecca Tegtmeyer), and Let’s Talk About Critique: Reimagining Art and Design Education (by Elissa Armstrong and Mariah Doren). In 2016, the Design Incubation Organization recognized Emans & Murdoch-Kitt's excellence in teaching during their inaugural Communication Design Educators Award.