WS Chronicle

Pamela L. Jennings will be tenured professor of innovation and entrepreneurship

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

Pamela L. Jennings, Director of the Center for Design Innovation (CDI), will step down from her post on July 15 to transition to her role as a full-time, tenured professor at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) while officials review future opportunities and direction for the research center.

“Pamela has brought us to a critical juncture in the future of CDI, and we are grateful for her leadership and service,” said David English, Interim Provost at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA).

“Now is the time to move forward to more fully integrate the center with the curricula of its partner institutions and to explore strategic partnerships for the center in the design and technology industries,” English added.

Jennings who has been director of CDI since Oct. 1, 2014, will become Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Faculty of Business in the College of Arts, Sciences, Business and Education at WSSU on July 16. She also will retain an appointment as an affiliated faculty member of CDI.

“We look forward to Pamela joining WSSU, where she will be another nationally recognized member of our faculty,” said Corey Walker, Dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, Business and Education at WSSU. “A distinguished scholar and innovator, she brings an impressive body of work from academe and industry to our university.”

Walker and English will jointly head a task force that is being established to examine the future direction of CDI. The task force will include representatives from UNCSA, WSSU, Forsyth Technical Community College (FTCC), Wake Forest Innovation Quarter, and other educational and community organizations.

The Center for Design Innovation was established in 2005 as a multi-campus research center of the University of North Carolina system, the result of a partnership between UNCSA and WSSU, campuses of the UNC system, and FTCC, a campus of the N.C. Community College system. CDI’s primary goal is to be a catalyst in the economic transformation of the Piedmont Triad through design-focused activity based on advanced digital technologies.