Margaret Urban

Margaret M Urban

PhD in Transition Design

murban@andrew.cmu.edu

Margaret, or Megan, Urban is a communication designer that has led design workshops in Utah, Western New York, and Reykjavik and Egillstaðir, Iceland and consulted on cultural development and programming in Iceland and the United States. She has also presented her work at the Icelandic National Design Festival and as a guest lecturer at institutions around the United States. Megan is a co-founder of the interdisciplinary, international project Designers&Forests, which links together designers, scientists, activists, artisans, and community members. The project has won multiple awards and been featured in international design publications.

Megan's dissertation research focuses on how the interaction between trees and people may provide a pathway to transition to more sustainable ways of living. Trees may offer industrialized societies ways to expand their concept of the "present," they can foster longterm thinking in individuals and governments, and provide a means to build awareness of the natural world.

Megan received her BA from Wellesley College and an MFA in Visual Communication from Virginia Commonwealth University and is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at the State University of New York at Fredonia. She is a believer in the beauty of simple objects made well, and a lover of the perfect imperfection of trees and dogs.