Rosanne Somerson is a furniture designer/maker, educator, and is RISD’s interim President after serving in the role of Provost and chief academic officer. She simultaneously maintains a robust creative practice, designing and creating furniture for exhibitions and commissions. Additionally, she consults on innovative educational and creative practice for institutions and industry. Her work has been exhibited widely throughout the world and is represented in many prestigious private, corporate, and museum collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Renwick Collection of the National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Huntsville Museum of Art and the RISD Museum of Art. She has served on the boards of the Haystack Mountain School, in Maine, the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, is a named Fellow of the American Craft Council, and is the subject of an interview that forms part of the Smithsonian Institute Archives of American Art Oral History Program. As a sought-after international lecturer, juror, exhibitor, and evaluator, she applies both local and global perspectives to her work. She has received numerous awards and citations for her work as a designer, artist, and teacher, most recently the Award of Distinction for lifetime achievement in the field of studio furniture by the Furniture Society.