2025 SEGD Educator Award

November 25, 2025

The SEGD Educator Award recognizes academic members who have demonstrated the cultivation and practice of design across the core practice areas of SEGD—experiential and environmental graphic design, interaction design, exhibition design, creative technology, installation, and public good projects. Past recipients include Neeta Verma, Dr. Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall, and Yeohyun Ahn.

Timothy McNeil, Professor of Design, University of California, Davis

In 2025, SEGD is proud to honor Timothy McNeil for his influential contributions as an educator, researcher, designer, and advocate for exhibition and experience design. Through decades of leadership at the University of California, Davis—where he serves as Professor of Design and Director of the UC Davis Design Museum—Timothy has shaped generations of practitioners and significantly expanded the academic study of exhibition and experiential design.

A leading voice in the field, Timothy’s award-winning book, The Exhibition and Experience Design Handbook, synthesizes years of practical, scholarly, and pedagogical expertise, offering a foundational text for both students and professionals. His research explores exhibition design history, museum methodologies, and the evolving role of design in shaping public understanding—while his teaching emphasizes curiosity, craft, and the critical relationship between narrative, space, and audience.

Beyond UC Davis, Timothy extends his impact globally. He has taught and lectured internationally in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Iceland, bringing cross-cultural perspectives into the classroom. His own education—culminating in an MFA from the University of the Arts, London—reflects his deep roots in interdisciplinary design practice, which continue to inform his work today.

Timothy’s long-standing involvement with SEGD has further strengthened the organization’s educational mission. A key member of the SEGD Academic Task Force, he co-chaired the 2024 SEGD Exhibition and Experience Symposium in Washington, D.C., helping unite educators, practitioners, and students around the future of design education. His commitment to building bridges between academia and professional practice embodies the values at the heart of the Educator Award.

With a career grounded in research, teaching, and real-world experience, Timothy McNeil has helped define the intellectual foundations of exhibition and experience design. His influence can be seen not only in his publications and museum work, but in the students whose thinking—and careers—he has shaped. SEGD is honored to recognize his lasting contributions to the field and to the next generation of experiential designers.