CHICAGO — The IIDA Foundation is pleased to announce that Jack Travis, FAIA, NOMAC, interior design professor at Pratt Institute, has received this year’s IIDA Educator Diversity Award. This award recognizes and celebrates an educator who is contributing to the advancement of racial and ethnic diversity in the interior design industry.

“Jack is both a prolific designer with a wide scope of projects in his portfolio and an inspiring educator committed to investigating Black culture and heritage in tandem with architectural history,” said IIDA Executive Vice President and CEO Cheryl S. Durst, Hon. FIIDA. “We are pleased to be presenting him with this award and are looking forward to seeing what he creates in 2020 and beyond.”

Travis is a notable South Bronx-based educator, author, architect, and interior designer. Since establishing his namesake design studio in 1985, he has been involved in over 100 projects of varying magnitudes for clients such as Giorgio Armani, the Sbarro family, Spike Lee, and Wesley Snipes.

As an educator and researcher, Travis encourages the exploration of Black history and works within forms, motifs, materials, and colors that reflect this heritage. His teaching methodologies explore the key relationships between justice, representation, culture, and design. Travis’ interests have broadened in recent years to include design issues concerning sustainability as well as alternative educational practices that seek to ensure the entrance of more students of color into the profession.

Travis will be honored with the award, which includes $5,000 from the IIDA Foundation, at the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) Annual Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday, March 7.

IIDA Educator Diversity Award submissions were reviewed by IIDA Foundation Chair Alissa Wehmueller, principal at helix, Edwin Beltran, principal/designer at NBBJ, and Tara Headley, Associate IIDA, interior designer at Hendrick.

For more information about the IIDA Foundation Diversity Award, please contact foundation@iida.org.

ABOUT IIDA

IIDA is the commercial interior design association with global reach. We support design professionals, industry affiliates, educators, students, firms, and their clients through our network of 15,000+ members across 58 countries. We advocate for advancement in education, design excellence, legislation, leadership, accreditation, and community outreach to increase the value and understanding of interior design as a profession that enhances business value and positively impacts the health and well-being of people’s lives every day. www.iida.org