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Over the years I have found that the most influential instructors had the same key characteristics. Good teachers are passionate, enthusiastic, and excited about their work, but also the work their students are doing. Good teachers spend time with their students, listening to what they are saying. Good teachers are a combination of many things, but I feel most importantly they respect their students, their time and ideas. I hope to always learn from the observations and questions that my students have for me, never forgetting that I am a student as well.

Gretchen Caldwell Rinnert is an Associate Professor in the School of Visual Communication Design at Kent State University. She is an expert in design pedagogy related to interactive media and motion design. She graduated in 2008 from North Carolina State University’s College of Design, with a Master’s in Graphic Design and from The Ohio State University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in Visual Communication Design. In the past, her work focused on the intersection of design and education as a way to improve engagement, participation, understanding and comprehension. She teaches classes for graduate and undergraduate students that focus on participatory culture, learning spaces, digital tools, iPad applications, motion graphics, and time-based media. She has presented at various national and international conferences, exhibiting her research and scholarly activities at conferences such as DRS, UCDA and AIGA Educators Conference. Her student work will be featured in Motion Graphic Design: Applied History and Aesthetics (Elsevier Science Publishers) by Jon Krasner, scheduled for publication in spring 2013.

Gretchen’s most recent research projects have included designing patient centric tools that communicate personalized medical protocol, billing and process. Since 2006 she has worked as a design consultant, alongside her business partner and husband, Bryan Rinnert, as they run 3 Sight Photography & Design. Her professional clients include Nonnie Wallers, McGraw Hill, Humana, Adobe, Cardinal Health and BNY Mellon. Gretchen co-leads the Inspire Creative Camp with fellow faculty member Jillian Coorey, a summer camp for high school co-founded in 2012. She and Coorey also developed Design Abroad, a two-week design adventure for upperclassmen and graduate students in VCD, which traveled to Berlin and Prague in March 2013.