Design faculty and staff awarded 2025-26 Sustainability Challenge Grants

University of Kentucky College of Design faculty and staff are part of several interdisciplinary teams to have been awarded UK’s 2025-26 Sustainability Challenge Grants.  

Totaling more than $150,000 across a total of five projects, these competitive grants fund transdisciplinary projects that advance the university’s environmental, social and economic sustainability goals while engaging students in hands-on learning and research.

This year’s projects involving design faculty and staff are:
 

Healthy Futures Through Heritage: Adaptive Reuse for Rural Kentucky Clinics

• Emily Bergeron, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Historic Preservation
• Joe Brewer, director of technology and facilities
• Lindsey Fay, associate professor, School of Interiors
• Travis Rose, senior lecturer, Department of Historic Preservation

This project explores how historic preservation and adaptive reuse can help address healthcare access gaps in rural Kentucky. Using mapping, AI-assisted analysis and field research, the team will identify underutilized historic buildings that could be repurposed as rural health clinics, reducing construction waste while improving community access to care.

Students will participate through studio coursework and research to develop adaptive reuse proposals and a Best Practices Toolkit for transforming rural heritage structures into sustainable healthcare facilities. The initiative merges the college’s strengths in preservation, interiors and design innovation to promote both sustainability and healthcare access across the Commonwealth.
 

Living Materials, Moving Spaces

• Hannah Dewhirst, assistant professor, School of Interiors
• Ingrid Schmidt, assistant professor, School of Interiors
• Jordan Hines, senior lecturer, School of Architecture

This project integrates sustainable fabrication, performance and design-build pedagogy through a partnership between the College of Design and the College of Fine Arts Department of Theatre and Dance. The project introduces a sublimation dye fabric printer and LED lighting systems to reduce material waste and energy use, supporting a series of cross-listed courses focused on circular material processes and experimental design.

The initiative will culminate in Materialized: Dance Concert, a public-facing performance in the Gray Design Building that showcases student-designed, deployable environments activated through movement. Together, the project’s design and performance elements model how sustainable practices can transform both creative and academic collaboration on campus.

Project team members also include faculty members in the College of Fine Arts’ Department of Theatre and Dance: Assistant Professor Jeremiah Kearns, Lecturer Laura Neese and Associate Professor and Department Chair Susie Thiel.
 

SOS: Save Our Seeds – An Appalachian Heritage Seed Project

• Rebekah Radtke, associate professor, School of Interiors

The SOS: Save Our Seeds project documents and preserves Kentucky’s heritage of Appalachian seed saving, connecting cultural heritage with environmental and food system resilience. This interdisciplinary team will engage student interns in documenting traditional seed-saving practices and producing creative outputs such as oral histories, exhibits and educational materials to be shared through workshops and community events across Eastern Kentucky.  

By linking design, storytelling, and agricultural research, this project honors Kentucky’s cultural legacy while promoting sustainable and resilient regional food systems.

Project team members also include Assistant Professor Cindy Finneseth and Senior Extension Associate Shawn Wright in members in Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment’s Department of Horticulture, Senior Lecturer Kenton Sena in the Lewis Honors College and Matt Strandmark, education archivist and Appalachian studies academic liaison with UK Libraries.  
 

Ugly Produce Project: A Living Lab to Reduce Food Waste and Advance Sustainability Education

• Helen Turner, associate professor and director, School of Interiors

The Ugly Produce Project establishes a student-run sustainability operation model that diverts cosmetically imperfect but edible produce into three connected initiatives: a recurring Ugly Produce Market, the Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition’s student-ran Lemon Tree restaurant and the student-driven, food waste repurposing Campus Kitchen program. Students across disciplines will design market spaces, signage and customer experiences that educate the campus community about food waste and sustainability.

Launching in Fall 2026, the project brings together multiple colleges to create a “living laboratory” that connects sustainable food systems, design innovation and community well-being.

Project team members also include faculty members in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment: Assistant Professor Yeonjung Kang and Assistant Professor Muzhen Li in the Department of Retailing and Tourism Management as well as Assistant Professor David Johnson and Assistant Professor Sara Maksi in the Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition.  
 

The Sustainability Challenge Grant program, now in its eleventh year, is a collaboration among the UK Office of Sustainability, the President’s Sustainability Advisory Committee, the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment and the Student Sustainability Council.