Born in Austin, and given many names, I’m called “RED,” after my paternal grandfather, “Red” Herring. A Texas Daughter of design, advertising, and music, from an early age, I’ve closely coexisted with musicians, artists, historians, and educators, not to mention, Adobe.
Before my career in academia, I earned a BFA in Communication Design from Texas State University and worked as a designer in marketing and advertising as well as a professional broadcaster. Next, a colleague offered an adjunct position at a new "art & tech" career school in San Antonio—I accepted, and then pursued and earned an MFA in Graphic Design from Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD. Developing my creative classroom and teaching at the college level reset my love of visual communication and graphic design.
I was a full-time professor of instruction at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), College of Liberal and Fine Arts (COLFA), Department of Communication (COM) from September 2013 to June 2024. After separating from UTSA, and over 15+ years in the classroom, today I am transitioning my career into Instructional Design, Academic Technology Management, and Program Coordination. I have earned essential certifications from Quality Matters since 2020—Applying the QM Rubric Sixth Edition and the Peer Reviewer Course Certification in January 2025.
My design practice—whether instructional or graphic—continues to evolve media-making to new approaches in learning experience design and visual rhetoric, including media writing for visual and verbal engagement. I am a subject matter expert (SME) for courses in fine arts, design, digital literacy, strategic communications, public relations, and liberal arts. My pedagogy is rooted in rigorous project-based learning (PBL), the QM Seventh Edition Rubric for HE, DEI&A, and design-thinking methods.
Creativity, communication, learner engagement, and digital literacy were essential during the COVID-19 pandemic when higher education was all online, today, they are critical in instructional design. I continue striving to meet institutional learning outcomes to retain students and sustain the college experience. Students amaze me when they realize their creativity and knowledge. Today's universities must translate creativity and design thinking into critical hard skills essential for the future of work and education. I aim to continue rigorous inquiry to explore interdisciplinary course design to integrate new tools of AI and the metaverse. I aim to understand diverse learners and the world they are making around them, one click at a time.