Tasoulla Hadjiyanni

Tasoulla Hadjiyanni, Ph.D. is Northrop Professor of Interior Design at the University of Minnesota. A refugee from Cyprus, she holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree and a Master of Science in Urban Development and Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Her doctoral work in Housing Studies at the University of Minnesota, presented in her book “The Making of a Refugee – Children Adopting Refugee Identity in Cyprus” (Praeger, 2002),  began her interdisciplinary and community engaged scholarship on exploring how culture and identity intersect with place-making. Hadjiyanni’s driver is the belief that design can be leveraged for innovation and change to create Culturally Enriched Communities, healthy and connected communities in which everyone can thrive. Hadjiyanni's latest book "The right to home - Exploring how space, culture, and identity intersect with disparities" features stories from Hmong, Somali, Mexicans, Ojibwe, and African Americans in Minnesota to argue that efforts to eliminate health, income, and educational disparities must also encompass the home. See www.cec-design.com/covid-19/ for more ideas on how environmental interventions can be used in recovery from the pandemic.