A long term collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School, and Bloomberg CityLab, resulted in outreach to Howard University and a collaboration with the showrooms of the Washington Design Center to create: America at 250: The New Look of American Design.

This showcase of the finest American home furnishings, in vignettes created by next generation of American interior designers, was two years in the making. Through an iterative process, which began in the classroom and expanded into the vast world of commercial interior design, has served a launching pad for an exceptional group of young designers.
These students participated in an intensive that was designed to serve as an incubator for launching their careers. Over the course of just two academic semesters, the students acquired design expertise, developed a professional network, and were provided with their first professional design commissions, a process that would normally require a decade of arduous work to even hope to achieve.

Howard University Chadwick A. Bozeman College of Art, interior Design Professor, Jacqueline Carmichael, masterfully integrated a program of academic study and a hands-on practicum to provide her students with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As had her counterpart at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School and Bloomberg CityLab, Dr. Lindsay Thompson, who guided multiple MBA consulting teams to assist in the projects development.

Serving as the students Partners-in-Design, participating showrooms at the Washington Design Center, provided the stage setting and products enabling the students to make their debut as professional designers. The epicenter for high end design in the Nation’s Capital, the center and it’s visionary showroom owners and managers have long nurtured the emerging designers and makers. And with its base in Washington, the center has played a key role in advancing the American design aesthetic globally.
The students will be prominently featured throughout the run of the “Show,” opening Monday, June 22ns and concluding on Friday July 17, 2026.

Following is a list of the Partners-in-Design at the Design Center who have helped guide and shape the project:

• WASHINGTON DESIGN CENTER: Partners-in-Design
• American Eye: Ken Berry, Owner / Liz Allner, Associate
• Baker Furniture; Michelle Kellogg, Manager
• Century Furniture: Lauren Davis, Manager and WDC project Liaison
• Hines & Company: Myra Hines Yang, Owner, Kitty DeZwart, Manager, Brian Croft, Design Coordinator
• Holly Hunt: Howard Barshow, Manager
• John Rosselli: Madeleine Mitchell, Manager and MIA Liaison
• Michael Cleary: Todd English, Manager, Kimbereley Nicklin
• Quadrille: Megan Dominish, Manager
• Rue IV: Janine Guerin/Jay Guerin, Owners, Callie Bullock, Associate

The MADE: In America National Advisory Council:

Following is a list of subject matter experts who generously volunteer their invaluable time and expertise, who without their support and guidance, the students would not have this once-in-a-lifetime educational and career enhancing opportunity.

• August Atencio, Public Policy Consultant
• Iantha Carley, Iantha Carely Interiors
• Love Chery, LIC Holdings
• Tony Cohn, Basel Project
• Catie Edmondson, New York Times Reporter
• Theresia Erb, Ph.D (ret. Library of Congress)
• Adam Golinski, Blue Point Hospitality
• Susan Hellman, Historic Preservation/Urban Planning Consultant
• Madeleine Mitchell, Manager, John Rosselli and Assoc. DC
• Shirley-Victory Nwajei, Health Care Executive
• Laurie Ossman, Ph.D, Historic & Conservation Assoc.
• Rayner Wharton, Professor, and Interior Architect