William has worked on a variety of visual communication projects for both public and private organizations. He has worked in all capacities of the graphic design industry from typesetting at the local newspaper to being the creative director for national campaigns.
William is currently the Online Director in the School of Graphic Design at the Academy of Art University. As the Online Director, William is responsible for maintaining the quality of online student experiences, leading a team of over 20 part-time faculty and managing the day-to-day operations of an online program. William teaches, advises and mentors online undergraduate and graduate design students. He also provides support and guidance for: workshops, independent studies and is the chair for thesis midpoint and final reviews.
William has developed new online courses and created new instructional tools, videos and standardizations policies throughout the department’s online curriculum. He has coordinated part-time faculty in the online course building process in variety of print and interaction design classes. He also manages the department’s curriculum integration to ensure close consistency between online and onsite versions of each class.
William functions as a primary contact for the curriculum development and improvement of classes, including course revisions and rebuilds, curriculum reviews and new course development.
Prior to arriving at Academy of Art University in 2012, William has taught at Virginia Commonwealth University, Northern Arizona University and Ferris State University.
William has taught at all levels in undergraduate and graduate graphic design curriculum. His teaching experience ranges from typography to digital design to capstone portfolio. As an educator, he is competent, comfortable and experienced in the traditional classroom and the online environment. From these experiences, he has developed a research topic focusing on the balance of a hybrid digital learning environment and has presented his research at several design and educational conferences across the country. William believes in design-based community outreach and he encourages his students (along with himself) to always build community through projects that create positive social impact in local communities. William truly believes you can use design as a vehicle of engagement, process and discovery.
William received a BFA in studio art from Montana State University. He completed his MFA at the Academy of Art University where he graduated magna cum laude. William's thesis project titled “Grafik Intervention: Sparking Urban Revitalization Efforts through Graphic Design” has become an active point of reference for the design community and efforts to promote “Design for Good.” His project has been featured in several online and printed design publications including Communication Arts, Design Observer and AIGA's Design for Good. William has presented Grafik Intervention at Pivot the AIGA National Design Conference, in Phoenix, AZ and as part of the Alternative Practices for the Harrison Lecture Series at Mississippi State University. Currently Grafik Intervention has sparked activity in Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Texas and Virginia. You can learn more about his project at
His artistic work encompasses a variety of mixed media and visual messaging through typography. His work is interactive and customized to reflect locations, situations, conversations and observations from his environment and has been exhibited locally and nationally. William has traveled extensively throughout the United States and several countries in Europe in an effort to enrich his teaching and artistic appetite.
He currently lives in Bozeman, Montana looking for perfect vistas in the morning light with his wife and 2 active daughters.