Faculty

Kelly Walters is a tenured Associate Professor of Communication Design, and former Director of the BFA Communication Design program (2023–2026). As an interdisciplinary designer and research scholar, her work engages with histories of Black American print publishing, material culture and archival practice. She explores these themes in her studio practice Bright Polka Dot, and looks closely at the impact of colonization on the formation of the Black image in design. In 2021, Kelly was selected as a Graham Foundation award recipient for her curated exhibition With a Cast of Colored Stars, which highlighted the evolution of racialized iconography in early 20th century Black American popular entertainment, and informs her doctoral research in the Media, Culture and Communication program at New York University. Her publications include Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design and Race and the award-winning The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression & Reflection. Kelly has taught at RISD, University of Bridgeport, University of Connecticut, and University Arts London: Central Saint Martins. From 2015–2016, she was an inaugural AICAD Postgraduate Teaching Fellow at California College of the Arts. Kelly holds an MFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a dual BFA Communication Design and BA Communication Sciences from the University of Connecticut.

MFA Graphic Design, Rhode Island School of Design BFA Communication Design, University of Connecticut BA Communication Sciences, University of Connecticut

“Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. & the Legacy of Black Printing in America,” Kelly Walters in Citizen Printer, ed. Amos Kennedy, Jr. & Letterform Archive Books (2024)

The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Reflection & Expression, Creative Director + Co-editor with Anne H. Berry, Kareem Collie, Penina Laker, Lesley-Ann Noel, Jennifer Rittner (2022)

Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design and Race (2021)