A designer/maker and academic leader, Rosanne Somerson has been advancing art and design for decades. After establishing a successful studio design practice, she returned to Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) to teach. and eventually co-founded the Furniture Design Department before serving as Department Head, Graduate Program Director, Provost, interim President, RISD’s 17th President, and now President Emerita.

An author and subject of many podcasts, she frequently speaks and writes about the power of art and design as core elements of critical thinking, making, and humanity. In her studio workshop she designs and creates furniture for exhibitions and commissions and also explores speculative research and idea development. Her works have been prominently featured in numerous publications and exhibited in major museums and galleries throughout the globe, including the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre in Paris, and she is also represented in many private, corporate and museum collections. In addition to her studio practice she maintains an active consulting business, advising on strategic cultural development, creative practices, educational advancement, and design innovation.

Somerson is included in the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art Oral History Project and has been awarded many honors including two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Renwick Alliance Distinguished Crafts Educator Award, a 2019 Pell Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Arts., a Lifetime Distinction Award from the Furniture Society, and is a named Fellow of the American Craft Council and a Life Trustee of Haystack Mountain School.