Ashley Deal and Raelynn O’Leary have been appointed as Special Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design for the academic year 2021-2022. Deal and O’Leary who are longstanding adjuncts, collaborators, and friends of the School, are also both alumni of our Master of Design (MDes) program.
Together, Deal and O’Leary are partners at Dezudio, an interaction and information design consultancy in Pittsburgh, PA. Dezudio clients range from small startups and local nonprofit agencies to Fortune 500 companies.
Deal’s fifteen-year career as an information and interaction designer includes considerable experience in education, healthcare, and design research for new product development. She has extensive background designing reports and interactive experiences that communicate information effectively, inspire action, and drive positive behaviors. Prior to joining Dezudio in 2013, Deal was a contract designer for clients like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, College Board, and Intel Corporation. Before receiving her Master’s Degree from the School of Design, she received a Bachelor of Arts in French from Vanderbilt University.
Prior to co-founding Dezudio in 2011, O’Leary worked as an Information Designer at Addison in NYC, and at the Pittsburgh software company, Viz. She brings a practitioner’s experience to her teaching of interaction design theory and principles, and uses teaching to continually examine and refine her design practice. O’Leary also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art and Technology from Allegheny College.
In addition to teaching core graduate classes and electives, Deal and O’Leary will hold regular office hours, provide periodic workshops, and advise thesis projects, as well as contribute to curriculum development through participation in workgroups, committees, and faculty meetings.
“These appointments represent a change of status for Ashley and Raelynn from current adjuncts, to more appropriately recognize their substantial and significant contributions and their ongoing ambition to engage in the life of the School even more,” said Bruce Hanington, Head of the School of Design.
Deal and O’Leary will join Gideon Kossoff in the School of Design’s ranks of Special Faculty appointments. Kossoff is currently the Associate Director of the Transition Design Institute (TDI) at Carnegie Mellon University.
We want to congratulate our newest Special Faculty and we can’t wait to see what they bring to our school in the coming year.