M. Beth Tauke
An information designer, M. Beth Tauke's creative and scholarly work focuses on beginning design pedagogy, visual perception (particularly color perception), and the interface between language and form. She is a part of the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA) at UB which is "dedicated to improving the design of environments and products making them more usable, safer and appealing to people with a wide range of abilities and through their life spans."
She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology, studio art, and education from Clarke College as well as both a M.A. and M.F.A. in Design from the University of Iowa, where she taught before coming to UB.
Tauke also directs the Universal Design (UD) Education Online project.
"The major goals of the project are to develop and disseminate universal design education materials online, to provide a forum where educators and students can interact with one another; to increase the capacity of design educators to teach universal design; to increase awareness of universal design among students who are in design and design-related disciplines, and to increase the capacity of design practitioners to incorporate universal design principles into their projects."
-- Tauke quoted in: CONVERSATION WITH A PROJECT DIRECTOR: Beth Tauke by Alex Bitterman
Tauke received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1998. In 2003, she was awarded a Robert R. Taylor Grant for Faculty Development from the Associate of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. The Taylor grant supports faculty research and development focusing on under-represented groups or subjects. She has also received a number of other significant awards and grants including a U.S. Department of Education Curriculum Models Project Grant, a National Institute for Architectural Education Award, and a Lily Endowment Teaching Fellowship.
Tauke's work has been exhibited at the Hallwalls Center for Contemporary Art, Buffalo, the International Design Conference at Aspen, and the Margaret Morrison Construction Site in Pittsburgh.
Affiliation(s): Architecture and Planning, Design
Record Group(s): 44