Julie Peterson is a professor for the B.F.A. Interior Design undergraduate and M.F.A. in Design graduate programs. She teaches courses such as lighting design for the built environment, interior design building codes and professional business practices, interior design capstone, graduate research methods in design and graduate design ethics. She also advises theses for the M.F.A. in Design program and in 2019, was awarded the honor of Outstanding Graduate Faculty.
Julie received her B.S. in Interior Design from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and worked as a commercial interior designer for over a decade on projects including education, corporate workplace, library, medical clinic, and liturgical design in West-Central Wisconsin. Realizing the thrill of talking to middle and high school students at career day presentations and filling in as an adjunct faculty member at UW-Stout, she decided to pursue higher education and focus her career on educating future interior designers. She completed both her M.S. in Interior Design and Ph.D. in Interior Design degrees at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and started as faculty at UW-Stout in 2008.
Julie has presented at regional and national conferences and her current research interests include exploring third places and social space design usage on college campuses and if it affects sense of place, community, academic motivation, and emotional well-being of students. She values sharing her research into the classroom, promotes life-long learning, and actively maintains various professional certifications and credentials within the field of design.