Rebekah Matheny, IIDA

OSU TEDx speaker and performer portraits photographed on Dec. 10th, 2015. (Joshua Orack / Office of Student Life, Ohio State University)

Rebekah Matheny is an Assistant Professor of Interior Design in the Department of Design at The Ohio State University. She holds a Masters of Architecture from the University of Oregon where she also received a Technical Teaching Certificate with a concentration in Sustainable Design Strategies for Interior Architecture, Interior Finish Materials, and Lighting Design.  Additionally, she has undergraduate degrees in Interior Design and Architecture from the University of Cincinnati.

With over a decade of industry experience, Matheny bridges academia and design practice, integrating a retail brand strategy process into her design studios. She previously taught at the University of Colorado Boulder, Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, and the University of Oregon.

Prior to her appointment at Ohio State, she practiced in a multi-disciplinary retail and brand strategy firm in Columbus, Ohio where she created retail brand environments for nationally and internationally recognized brands.

 Matheny’s research investigates the sensory perception of interior finish materials and their application in retail environments to create emotional connections between people and place to forge meaningful memories of place. Applying this research, through collaborating with her students and professionals, she is redefining retail to create a more environmentally and socially sustainable retail culture.

 Matheny is a contributing author to the VMSD Magazine’s Blogs and Perspectives, has published in academic journals, presented at academic and professional conferences around the world, including her lighting research at NeoCon in 2017, and in 2016 she gave a TEDx talk “Creating Meaningful Memories Through Sensory Experiences”.