Announcing New Vice Provost for Research
A Message from Dr. Renée T. White, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dear colleagues,
I am pleased to announce that Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo has been appointed as the new Vice Provost for Research in the Provost’s Office, succeeding Adam Brown. In this role, Cynthia will support and guide the university’s research mission and strategy, enhance its internal and external visibility, and ensure that the values and human protections that inform the university’s research enterprise are embodied throughout the university. Working in close partnership with the Associate Provost for Research, Cheryl Green, she will co-lead the University Research Council, provide strategic grant application support, and protect the safety and welfare of employees and research participants, among other responsibilities. Through the formulation and implementation of policies, procedures, systems, and educational programs that aim to strengthen research and related activities, Cynthia will support high quality research initiatives and help to ensure the excellence and integrity of all aspects of the research process.
Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo (she/her/ella) is Professor of Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design, a practitioner and scholar of social design and design education, and an internationally exhibited artist. Since joining The New School in 2003, she has held several leadership roles including as Dean of the School of Design Strategies (2020-24) and Associate Provost for Distributed and Global Education (2012-17). Cynthia serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Design Strategies, and is an active member of the design education networks of AIGA, Future of Design in Higher Education, and DEL Conference, for which she serves on the committee. As a consultant Cynthia has worked internationally with organizations such as CARE and the World Bank.
A Fulbright scholar, her work on interdisciplinary design education, design and social impact, and the ethics of community engagement has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals, including Visible Language and Dialectic; and as book chapters, including in publications by MIT Press and Routledge. The DEED Lab, which Cynthia co-founded in 2007 and currently directs, is known globally for its research on the artisan sector – especially critiquing the role designers and entrepreneurs play in contributing to extracting money and value from craft communities. Her artwork centered around themes of time and transience and award-winning digital poetry (with S. Strickland) have been exhibited and performed across the Americas and Europe, including at The Kitchen and HERE Arts Center in New York City, UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Point Éphémère in Paris, and the Museums of Modern Art in Bogotá and Medellín, Colombia.
Please join me in congratulating Cynthia and welcoming her to her new role in the Provost’s Office.