Director of Design
Joellen Kerr, Professor Emeritae of the University
of Charleston, served as Chair and Associate Professor for 28 years of the
School of Art and Design at the University of Charleston in which Carleton
Varney serves as Honorary Dean. Her formal design education was received
at West Virginia University and Florida State University with a summer study at
Harvard's Architecture program and lighting study at University of New
Hampshire, Cleveland's Nela Park, and Chicago and Atlanta's Cooper Lighting
Institute.
She was a corporate member of Interior
Design Educators Council, IDEC, and an education member of American Society of
Interior Designers, ASID. She taught courses in History of Art, Architecture,
and Furnishings, Historic Preservation, Interior Textiles, Materials, and
Finishes, Architectural Lighting, Building and Safety Codes, and Business
Policies and Practices for the Interior Designer. She also directed
student Senior Design capstone projects, internship and travel programs, and
career placement for students who are working in many facets of design and
interiors nationally and internationally today. Her design career began in
Charlotte, NC working for the Ervin Development Company before entering
academia.
Joellen received the first Faculty Service
Learning award for the University of Charleston in 2001 and her integrated
teaching techniques were recognized nationally in 2004 by the Council for
Independent Colleges for Historic Preservation and National Register work with
the interior design students. She was named a University Fellow in 2008
and named the Ray M. Evans Chair in Humanities in 2009, the same year she was
honored as Faculty Student Organization Advisor of the year for the ASID student
chapter. Joellen manages our design office at
The Greenbrier Hotel, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.