Marshall-Baker Named Interior Design Fellow

By Dan Nonte, University Relations

Contact: (336) 334-4314

Posted 5-15-09

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Dr. Anna Marshall-Baker, an associate professor in the Department of Interior Architecture, has been named a fellow by the Interior Design Educators Council.

IDEC has more than 700 members, but fewer than 40 have been named fellows, the organization’s highest honor.

Marshall-Baker, who coordinates UNCG’s undergraduate program in interior architecture, focuses her research on the reciprocal effects of people and their environments with particular emphasis on sustainability and healthcare.

As President of IDEC in 2004, Marshall-Baker introduced what was to become the inaugural resolution of the organization: to make green design, particularly cradle-to-cradle (C2C) design, fundamental to interior design education.

Her recent work includes delivering two invited presentations about the effects of interior design on wellness at the Gravens Conference on the Physical and Developmental Environment of the High-Risk Infant in Clearwater Beach, Fla.

Among her more than 100 publications and presentations are two recently published chapters, “Nature as a Model for Design” and “The Design of Neonatal Intensive Care,” which articulate the important positive relationships of nature and healthcare environments. She is co-author of an upcoming book, “Designing for C2C Home: Examining a Design Process for the Built Environment through Education and Experience” and an invited essay, “Knowledge of Interior Design in the 21st Century,” is currently in press.

Marshall-Baker is actively involved in the sustainability initiative at UNCG. While chair of the Faculty Senate, she and former Provost A.E. Uprichard and Vice Chancellor Reade Taylor founded the University Committee on Sustainability. In 2008, that committee presented her with its Founder’s Award.

Her honors from IDEC include the Presidential, Service, Best Paper, Best Poster and Creative Scholarship Special Merit awards. She has also won teaching awards from Virginia Tech; and her students have placed or taken top honors in regional, national and international design competitions.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in art from Longwood University, and a master’s in interior design and a PhD in developmental psychology, both from Virginia Tech, where she became a tenured associate professor before joining the UNCG faculty in 2001.