Design & Education
Rebecca has a background in graphic design and has worked with Rutgers University–Newark for over a decade, in the same department from which she graduated. Her teaching bridges professional practice and community engagement, bringing her public-facing work directly into the classroom. She focuses her courses on portfolio development, capstone projects, and community collaborations, often through the Rutgers Design Consortium and other special initiatives.
Her curriculum emphasizes public practice and design philosophy, challenging students to imagine and create solutions for the world they want to see. For years, she has led a seminar in which students design their own curriculum, exploring aspects of design that are underrepresented or critical to the field’s future.
Rebecca’s teaching bridges professional practice and community engagement, bringing her public-facing work directly into the classroom.
Students have contributed to projects including the #MuralsforJustice program, rebranding and design solutions for the City of Newark Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs, the Office of Homeless Services, and the Newark City Parks Foundation. These opportunities allow students to engage directly with communities and develop skills beyond the traditional studio.
Occasionally, Rebecca leads design initiatives herself, creating public-facing projects and interventions. A few notable examples of her work highlight her commitment to socially engaged and community-centered design.
Selected Projects
Student Exhibitions
Pictured here: I Stood At the Border | Co-Led by Chantal Fischzang | 2018
Rebecca, in collaboration with her design colleagues, has played an integral role in the Rutgers University–Newark ACM graphic design capstone exhibitions. This work includes a semester-long intensive focused on the development of a transmedia project driven by a timely topic, as well as the design of the exhibition’s visual identity and overall exhibition experience.
Partner: The City of Newark’s Office of Homeless Services | 2023
Through a faculty-led studio within the Design Consortium, students partnered with the City of Newark’s Office of Homeless Services to create empowerment-focused visual design for the Miller Street Pathways to Housing Center. Grounded in trauma-informed and human-centered design principles, the project resulted in a multifaceted mural featuring lush color and bold typography with messages of encouragement, developed through direct engagement with staff and individuals with lived experience of homelessness.
Community Collaborations
Community Collaborations
Partner: Newark City Parks Foundation | 2025
In Spring 2025, the Design Consortium partnered with the Newark City Parks Foundation to reimagine its brand identity, aligning it more closely with the organization’s civic impact across Downtown Newark. Inspired by the five downtown parks and their role as shared community spaces, students developed a welcoming visual system based on simplified park footprints, now applied across digital and print platforms including banners, calendars, environmental graphics, and a redesigned website—demonstrating how collaborative, curriculum-driven design can serve the public with clarity and care.
Experiments in Impact: Socially Engaged Public Design Practice
Pictured here: Students visit a Newark Artist Collaboration project in progress | 2025
In Fall 2025, this course explored the history, methods, and ethics of socially engaged public art through readings, case studies, guided tours, and collaborative workshops with Newark-based organizations including Four Corners Public Arts, Project for Empty Space, the Newark Artist Collaboration, and Fairmount Art Wall. Students developed site-specific, community-rooted proposals across five Newark locations, gaining hands-on experience in ethical participation, representation, and sustainable public design that reflects local narratives and strengthens civic identity.
Rebecca leads design initiatives herself, creating public-facing projects and interventions.
News, Events, Creative Opportunities,
and Honest Motherhood Moments
