Lin Hightower

Professor | Foundations | Fiber Arts
EdD, University of Georgia
MFA, Georgia State University
BA, Columbus College
Website: www.LinHightower.com

Biographical Information
Kennesaw State University professor Dr. Lin Hightower, holds a Master of Fine Arts in Textiles Arts and a Doctorate in Art Education and has served as an artist art product designer for low-income artisans in Turkey, Nepal, India, Thailand, Egypt, Morocco and Peru. Her product designs expand artisans' sales markets while preserving the indigenous art techniques and cultural heritage of the artisans. She also leads art and business workshops and trainings for the collectives' artisans and art communities, as well consulting on sustainable ecological practices. In 2013 she received a Fulbright Specialist Award with Mahasarakham University, Thailand to work on three initiatives: creative product design for low-income artisans, teach textile software to preserve historical patterns and design a textile museum space. Dr. Hightower was recently in a BBC documentary with Anarouz collective in Marrakech, Morocco. She has a long history of "Art for Positive Social Change" work that is interwoven into her teaching and research presentations and has published papers on this topic of engaging the arts to positively change lives economically, educationally and socially. Her KSU art students have designed 22 websites for nonprofits around the globe, which have gleaned the organizations' donations and supporters, such as two wells for Saboreswell.org in Kenya. She has received numerous awards to support her work in employing the arts to create a more equitable world community. Her CV, in-depth information about her accomplishments, work with art collectives, images of her art and design work and her students' website work can be found at www.LinHightower.com.