Doctor of Design Program Celebrates its First Graduate: Dr. Juhann Waller

We are proud to salute Dr. Juhann Waller as the first graduate from the DDes program at NC State University!

As CEO of J.C. Waller Associates, PC., in Greensboro, NC, Juhann Waller is the very first student-practitioner to reach this important milestone in the five-year history of the DDES program.  Dr. Waller (DDes Cohort 1) unconditionally passed his doctoral dissertation defense on Monday, April 10th, and has recently completed his final electronic submission. He plans to graduate with his D.Des. degree in August 2023. 

Juhann’s doctoral dissertation is entitled: Resilient Infrastructure: An Integrated Design Approach for the Equitable Distribution of Stormwater Capital Improvements Projects for Pluvial Flood Mitigation. It models a type of applied design research that can be effected in real time, for real change. 

From the abstract: “The study describes the development and application of a novel Environmental Justice-based algorithm (UDRiS) using the City of Greensboro, North Carolina as a demonstration site for the identification and ranking of Stormwater Capital Improvement Projects (CIP)… The findings of this study show the spatial distribution of pluvial flooding events is disproportionately higher for census tracts with lower incomes, higher poverty rates, and/or significant populations of color within the City of Greensboro, North Carolina…. [which] results in the most vulnerable populations and places with the greatest need getting overlooked for urban drainage infrastructure investment.”

Many thanks and congratulations are offered to Juhann’s doctoral advising committee:  Kofi Boone (Chair), Art Rice (co-chair), Andy Fox, Gavin Smith, and Grad School representative Michelle Russell.  We are all incredibly proud of Dr. Waller and his important work for North Carolina, and for the world. 

This post was originally published in College of Design Blog.