Rate My Professor Leah Scolere

Leah Scolere, Ph.D., NCIDQ, serves as Associate Professor and Interior Architecture & Design Program Coordinator in the Department of Design and Merchandising within Colorado State University’s College of Health and Human Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in Communication from Cornell University, with a minor in the history of architecture and urban development. Before academia, Scolere practiced as a designer at Gensler, the leading architecture and design firm, where she developed human-centered workplace environments, design strategies, and brand experiences. She joined Colorado State University in 2017, drawn by the interdisciplinary design research opportunities at the Nancy Richardson Design Center and the land-grant mission emphasizing public engagement through design.

Dr. Scolere directs the Connected and Mediated Environments Laboratory, investigating connective technologies' roles in interior design across workplaces, retail, museums, hospitality, and healthcare settings. Her research employs augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), eye-tracking, 3D scanning, sensors, and social media to evaluate design impacts and enhance user experiences. Notable projects include the ASID-funded "Building that Teaches" AR app for the Nancy Richardson Design Center, which earned high honors at the 2021 Celebrate Undergraduate Research and Creativity Showcase; the Digital Museum Model for the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery; and the ASID Foundation research grant for "Co-Designing for Neurodiversity in a Discovery Museum" (2021-2022). Her scholarship addresses socially-mediated design, including designers' self-branding, portfolio-building, and inspiration practices on platforms like Pinterest. Key publications include "Constructing the platform-specific self-brand: The labor of social media promotion" (Social Media + Society, 2018, 286 citations), "Brand yourself, design your future: Portfolio-building in the social media age" (New Media & Society, 2019, 97 citations), "Pinning design: The curatorial labor of creative professionals" (Social Media + Society, 2016, 69 citations), "Digital inspirational economy: the dialectics of design" (Information, Communication & Society, 2021, 11 citations), and "Aspiring Designers, Pinterest, and Social Media Literacy" (2023). Scolere has received the 2024 CSU Career Center Career Impact Award, 2023 Provost Teaching Scholar Award Honorable Mention, 2020-21 College of Health and Human Sciences Tenure-Track Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, and 2021 Interior Design Educators Council Award of Excellence for design research presentation. She teaches Interior Materials and Products, Introduction to Designed Environments, Co-Design Processes, Emerging Technologies for Design, and Methods for Human-Centered Design Thinking, promoting critical reasoning, innovative human-centered work, and student mentoring for professional and entrepreneurial futures.