PARTICIPANTS

Mariana co-founded Designmatters in 2001.  As the head of the Department, she is responsible for the strategic leadership of a dynamic portfolio of global and national educational projects, research collaborations and publications at the intersection of art and design education and social innovation. Through her leadership, Art Center is the first design institution to be affiliated as a non-governmental organization with the United Nations.  Amatullo lectures internationally; she is an active essayist and serves on a variety of advisory and executive boards of organizations engaged in the arts, design education and social impact, including Cumulus (the International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media), ideo.org and the USC International Museum Institute. In 2012, Amatullo was the recipient of inaugural 2012 DELL Social Innovation Education award for outstanding leadership in teaching and supporting student social innovators and was named to Fast Company’s Co.Design 50 Designers Shaping the Future, and the  Public Interest Design 100.  She is a Non-Profit Fellow with the Doctor of Management, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University.  She holds an M.A. in Art History and Museum Studies from the University of Southern California and a Licence en Lettres Degree from the Sorbonne University, Paris.