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News Release

Last modified: Tuesday, August 21, 2007

AMID expands faculty ranks with new appointments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21, 2007

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design has announced an expansion of its full-time faculty for the 2007-08 academic year to support growing student enrollment levels in its courses.

"With a 93 percent increase in the number of students majoring in AMID degree disciplines between 2000 and 2006, our department has quickly become one of the largest in the College of Arts and Sciences," said C. Thomas Mitchell, associate professor and department chair. "This faculty expansion allows us to broaden our course offerings and fulfill growing student demand for AMID academic programs that help prepare them to succeed in retail and design fields."

The department's six new faculty positions will be filled by:

• Deborah Christiansen, lecturer, will teach fashion design, textiles and apparel courses. Christiansen received her doctoral degree in clothing and textiles from Florida State University, a bachelor's degree in fashion design from the Individualized Major Program at IU, and an associate's degree in costuming from IU's School of Music.
• Michael Loalbo, visiting lecturer, will teach design studios, computer-aided drafting, and business procedures and practices courses. He previously was an associate faculty member in the Department of Construction Technology and Interior Design at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, and is an Indianapolis-based designer with corporate and healthcare specialties. Loalbo is an IU alumnus with a bachelor's degree in interior design.

• Claire Mitchell, visiting lecturer, will teach freshman- and sophomore-level information design courses, and a new course in Digital Portfolio Design in the spring 2008 semester. Mitchell received her undergraduate degree in typography and graphic communication from England's University of Reading. She has spent the last 19 years working in the United States as a freelance designer, primarily in book and publication design.
• Charity Rausch, visiting lecturer, will teach product development and computerized merchandise planning courses. Rausch received her bachelor's degree in apparel merchandising from IU. She joins the AMID faculty from the Finish Line, where she served as a buyer in women's branded, licensed and private label apparel.

• John S. Talbott Jr., visiting lecturer, will teach merchandising, product development and emerging retail channels courses. Talbott received his undergraduate degree from IU and his master's in business administration from the University of Tennessee. Most recently, he served as the Dallas-based president and chief executive officer of BTWW Retail LP, the nation's largest western lifestyle retailer.
• Jiangmei Wu, visiting lecturer, will teach fundamental design studios, with an emphasis on digital presentation techniques. Wu received a master's degree in interior design from IU and a bachelor's degree in architecture from Tongji University in Shanghai, China. She brings more than 10 years of professional experience in multimedia, interactive, instructional and Web site design to the classroom. Wu is the co-author with AMID Chair C. Thomas Mitchell of Living Design: The Daoist Way of Building, published by McGraw-Hill in 1998.

"We are very pleased to welcome these talented individuals to our department's retail and design faculty. Students in our academic disciplines will certainly benefit from their years of professional and scholarly experience," said Mitchell.

Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design

Indiana University's Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design (www.indiana.edu/~amid) is a multidisciplinary academic environment within the university's College of Arts and Sciences that helps motivated students shape their futures in retail and design fields. The department's educational programs offer a blend of academic theory combined with practical knowledge and skill-building techniques to encourage critical, independent thinking by students and prepare graduates to be leaders in their chosen fields. Located in Memorial Hall on the IUB campus, AMID enrolled more than 450 undergraduate majors in the fall 2006 semester.

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