Today, Tes talks with Yvonne Watson. Yvonne is an educator, designer and academic who has held a number of positions in art & design higher education. She currently serves as Dean Curriculum + Learning & Special Advisor to the Provost Office on Curriculum Parsons School of Design and is an Associate Professor in the School of Fashion at. Since 2010 she has served in key leadership roles in the School of Fashion, first as Director of Academic Affairs and then as School Associate Dean.
Yvonne’s expertise and experience have been integral to our curricular planning for many years, at the school, Parsons, and university levels. Her role as Advisor to the Provost’s Office on Curriculum will allow Yvonne to expand upon this work and ensure that the curricular needs and priorities of Parsons are well represented at the university level, while formalizing the role she already plays in supporting cross-college and university-wide initiatives. The transition to online delivery as a result of the pandemic, and the imminent return to onsite teaching and learning, has altered many of our long-held views of how pedagogy and curriculum can be shaped. Yvonne will use her time in this role to bring leadership to the broader enquiry of how we can approach inclusive and innovative pedagogy within this changing landscape.
Since 2018, Yvonne has served as Parsons’ Associate Dean of Curriculum and Learning. She previously served as the Associate Dean in the School of Fashion, where she was instrumental in the development and implementation of the BFA Fashion Design curriculum and articulation of pathways. She is also Associate Professor within the School of Fashion, where she has taught for over ten years. Yvonne’s career has spanned roles that have encompassed both undergraduate and graduate studies as Program Director for BA Fashion Knitwear Design, MA Textile Design and Innovation, and MA Decorative Arts at Nottingham Trent University. She holds a Master’s in Globalization, Identity and Technology from The School of Humanities, Nottingham Trent University.
Her interests are in transforming the current context for the global supply chain in order to raise awareness as to the inhuman practices that currently exist in the fashion industry, gender pay gap, below minimum or living wages for workers. The intention is to bridge the fashion industry and education so that we can collectively develop an alternative fashion supply chain with a vision to creating an industry where human rights and sustainable living goals are central. She has worked for developing and emerging communities and has travelled to areas such as Ethiopia and Mongolia, to work with communities of women to enhance their product development process.
Her career has spanned roles that have encompassed both undergraduate and postgraduate program director for BA Fashion Knitwear Design, MA Textile Design and Innovation, and MA Decorative Arts at Nottingham Trent University.
She holds a BA in Fashion Knitwear Design from Nottingham Trent University in the UK, and a Masters in Globalization, Identity and Technology from The School of Humanities, Nottingham Trent University. Early in her career, she worked for a mid-range knitwear design company in New York before returning to the United Kingdom, where she designed and manufactured her own fashion knitwear line, Alpha-Omega, which sold in the UK, US and Hong Kong, before becoming a full-time academic.
To learn more about Yvonne Watson: https://www.aarp.org/disrupt-aging/stories/ideas/info-2016/yvonne-watson-fashion-disruptor.html
Twitter: @yvonne_watson
IG: @yvonneny10