Sheila Danko
Prof Assoc
2008
DEAWeb Bio Page
Current Activities
Current Professional Activities
- J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise 2003-08
- Member, International Leadership Association
- Member, Interior Design Educators Council
- Ad Hoc Reviewer, Journal of Interior Design
- Editorial Board, Research Design Connections
- Refereed Instructor, Interior Design Educators Council Academy
Current Research Activities
Professor Danko speaks and writes internationally on design as a tool for leadership and social change to both design and business programs alike. She is currently working on several interrelated research projects all aimed at exploring the intersection of design and leadership:
“Values-Led Leadership by Design: Strategic Stories of Growing a Responsible Business”
As part of her J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship award, this project explores various ways values-led entrepreneurs use design (product design, marketing design and workplace design) to communicate their vision, values, and social mission. The overarching goal of the project is to encourage socially responsible entrepreneurship by empowering students with specific strategies, stories, and examples of successful, values-led entrepreneurs and to develop a heightened level of personal values consciousness in the next generation of leaders.
“Strategic Stories Shaping Interior Design for the 21st Century”
A project to identify and document personal stories of life-changing impacts of interior design in the workplace. Stories being developed thus far focus on issues of recruitment, communicating mission and values, leading organizational change, corporate and brand identity, creativity and culture.
Values-Led Entrepreneurship by Design
"Leadership by Design"
Sponsored by the Robert and Edna Shelley Gates Fund for Leadership through Design, this project documents the strategic power of design to enhance corporate competitiveness and impact social change across a range of disciplines.
Biography
Biographical Statement
Professor Danko has a multi-disciplinary design background with formal training in architecture, industrial, graphic, and interior design. Her scholarlship focuses on the intersection of design and leadership. Her work seeks to expand the concept of design beyond material artifact to include an understanding of how design - both process and product - can be a tool for leadership and social change across a wide range of disciplines. Questions include: How can design support strategic business planning and sustainable business practice? How do leaders in socially responsible business define and operationalize design? How can we educate a new generation of leaders to embrace a whole systems view of design?
Professor Danko has been named a J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship for her research entitled “Values-led Entrepreneurship by Design." She has received significant industry, academic and fellowship awards including best paper at INTENT/International Entrepreneurship and Training conference in the UK for her work expanding entpreneurship education; a Bronze Award in the IFI/Nagoya International Design Competition, Japan, for her submission entitled "Restorative Composites" which proposed a new line of architectural finishes using recycled textile waste; a Polsky/FIDER Endowment for her study in creative design process and its linkages to design education; and an ASID/Wool Bureau Natural Fibers Fellowship for her design work exploring nontraditional applications of fiber to interior architecture.
Professor Danko's work on narrative inquiry for design is a referreed CEU course in the online IDEC Academy. She has been a member of the Foundation for Interior Design Education and Research Council and an Associate Editor for The Journal of Interior Design, helping to redesign the journal into its present day form. Before coming to Cornell she was a Prinicple in her own design practice and worked for such major corporations as Herman Miller, Inc., Herman Miller Research Corporation, Dansk International Design and Corning Medical and Scientific.
Education
1983 M.I.D. Industrial Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
1980-82 Graphic Design, Commercial and Fine Arts, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI
1978 B.S. Architecture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Courses, Websites, Pubs
Courses Taught
DEA 1110- Making a Difference by Design
DEA 4402 - Design Studio VIII: Towards a Philosophy of Design Leadership
DEA 6450 - Dancing Mind/Thinking Heart: Creative Problem-Solving Theory and Practice.
Selected Publications
- Meneely, J., and Danko, S., (2007). Motive, mind and media: Digital sketching in the creative culture of design, Journal of Interior Design, 32(3), pp 69-90.
- Danko, S., Meneely, J., and Portillo, M. (2006). Humanizing design through narrative inquiry. Journal of Interior Design, 31(2), 10-28.
- Danko, S. (2005). Crossing boundaries: Reframing entrepreneurship as a social change agent. Proceedings of the Internationalizing Entrepreneurship Education Conference, Guildford, UK.
- Danko, S. (2003). Nurturing whole person development and leadership through narrative. Journal of Interior Design, 29(1&2), 82-96.
- Vithayathawornwong, S., Danko, S., and Tolbert, P. (2003). The role of the physical environment in promoting creativity in organizational settings. Journal of Interior Design, 29(1&2), 1-16.
- Danko, S. and Portillo, M. (2001). Reaching out: The common language of strategic stories. Interiors & Sources, J/A, 94-99.
- Danko, S. (2000). "Beneath the Surface: A Story of Leadership, Recruitment and Retention and the Hidden Dimensions of Interior Design” Journal of Interior Design, 26/2, 1-24.
- Portillo, M. and Danko, S. et al. (1999). "FIDER’s Latest Research Directive: Strategic Stories," Interiors and Sources, J/A 98: 90-91.
- Danko, S. (1992). Chapter III: The Project: Project Control Book, In J. Thompson (Ed.), American Society of Interior Designers Professional Practice Manual (pp. 109-166). New York: Whitney Library of Design
- Danko, S. (1989). Inside the creative design process: Five firms/Five profiles, In J. Dohr (Ed.), The Polsky papers, pp. 1-9. Grand Rapids, MI: FIDER