Professor Helen Maria Nugent is currently the Dean of the Design Division at California College of the Arts in San Francisco where she oversees 9 programs including 3 graduate programs: MBA in Design Strategy, MFA in Design and MDes in Interactions Design; and 6 undergraduate BFA programs in Fashion Design, Furniture Design, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Illustration and Interaction Design.

She founded the influential ‘Designed Objects’ programs (MFA, MDes and BFA) at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) where she lead the design of innovative curricula for twenty years. She began her career at SAIC as the Director of the First Year Program (now Contemporary Practices) where she lead the creation of the groundbreaking Research Studio model.

Previously, she was co-director of the Workshop for Art Research and Practice at the University of Florida under the leadership of Wallace Wilcon and John Catterall.