About

Marie Anna Lee is an associate professor of Art and Graphic Design at the University of the Pacific in California. Her work and teaching focus on communication design with an emphasis on community-based design, cultural sustainability and interdisciplinary collaboration. 

She has worked on cultural preservation of Kam indigenous heritage since 2007 and received the 2013 and 2014 SEED (Social Environmental Economic Design) Award honorable mentions for excellence in public interest design for her work in Dimen. As part of the Kam delegation from Dimen, Lee presented at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC, in 2014. She taught at Public Interest Design Institute in Denver in 2013 and presented her research at numerous national and international conferences. She also co-authored multiple articles in global monetary history.

Lee’s commercial design ranges from posters and print materials to interactive pieces and websites for clients from USA, China and the Czech Republic. She has experience in applied arts, textile making, dyeing, printmaking and papermaking.

Lee was born in the Czech Republic and came to USA in 1996 to study at Michigan State University. She taught communication design at Metropolitan State College of Denver (2005–07) and applied art at School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong (2007–09). Lee holds a BFA and an MFA in Graphic Design from Colorado State University and a BA in Advertising from Michigan State University.