Sheila Schumacher is the Director of Digital Design Department at Grand Canyon University and has been an AIGA member since November 2000. We are honored to spotlight Sheila’s dedication to her students at GCU and the Phoenix Design Community! A few words from Sheila:

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The most enjoyable thing to me is watching the light bulb turn on over someone’s head. As a designer, those ah-ha moments are great, and as a teacher, I’m thrilled when they happen for my students. At Grand Canyon University I oversee the Digital Design programs and focus my teaching on typography, design fundamentals, illustration, and design history. My career has been split between teaching design and working at agencies and in-house design departments. Teaching at GCU for 8 years, at GateWay CC for 10 years, and at a charter high school for 3 years.

I developed training programs for The Arizona Republic then moved to be the Creative Director in their marketing department, overseeing a great staff of designers and writers. Earlier in my life I spent some time at a couple small agencies in Los Angeles, worked for the New Times newspaper, and for Dillard’s and Robinson’s department stores in their advertising departments designing ads and catalogs. Type and vectors are my favorite design tools. I have more Xacto knife scars than I can count; have inhaled too many darkroom chemicals and spray mount; have a proportion wheel tacked to my office wall; and still know how to spec type by the pica and point.

I love my family. I’m married to photographer Rob Schumacher and we have two wonderful teenage daughters. Luck gave us a home next to the mountain preserve so you can find me hiking there often, and the future holds a beach house for me somewhere!