President's Office

Paula Wallace is the president and co-founder of the Savannah College of Art and Design, which was established in 1978. Over the last three decades, she has served as the university's academic dean and provost and was appointed president in 2000. Since that time, Wallace has led the university in unprecedented growth, transforming SCAD into the most comprehensive art and design university in the world - a nonprofit, accredited institution with more than 9,500 students and 1,500 faculty and staff. Beyond SCAD Savannah, President Wallace has established three new campuses during her administration:

• SCAD Atlanta, the university's Midtown campus that in less than four years has grown from 77 students to nearly 1,600 students, making it one of the fastest-growing branch campuses in the United States;
• SCAD eLearning, the university's award-winning distance-learning program, offering fully online graduate and undergraduate degrees in ten disciplines;
• SCAD Lacoste, the university's idyllic campus in the South of France, where students from all campuses travel every quarter.

Additionally, President Wallace has begun efforts to establish SCAD Hong Kong, which would be the university's Asian campus, housed in the historic former North Kowloon Magistracy in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

President Wallace's accolades, honors and memberships include:

• Recipient of the inaugural Elle Décor Vision Award from Elle Décor magazine
• Appointed Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the Conseiller Culturel and Consul Général of the French Embassy in the United States of America
• Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA, Great Britain)
• Member of the National Advisory Board of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, D.C.)
• Member of ArtTable (New York)
• Named "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Ernst & Young (Southeastern United States)
• Named one of the "100 Most Influential Georgians"—Georgia Trend magazine
• Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Georgia State University College of Education
• Appointed by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue to serve on the Georgia Film, Video and Music Advisory Commission
• Named an "Outstanding Georgia Citizen" by Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox
• Awarded the James T. Deason Human Relations Award and the W.W. Law Legacy Award - recognizing extraordinary philanthropic service in urban communities
• Awarded the Impact on Design Education Award at the Style Atlanta Awards

Thanks to the growth of SCAD under President Wallace, the university has received numerous accolades and recognitions:

• The "Hottest for Studying Art" among "America's 25 Hottest Colleges"—Kaplan/Newsweek
• One of "America's Best Colleges"—U.S. News and World Report
• One of "America's Best Graduate Schools"—U.S. News and World Report
• One of "America's Most Interesting Schools"—Kaplan/Newsweek
• One of "25 cutting-edge schools with an eye toward the future"—Kaplan
• One of "America's Best Colleges for Entrepreneurs"—Forbes Small Business magazine

President Wallace has also led SCAD's academic departments to be ranked nationally and internationally for academic excellence:

• Applied Arts magazine has named SCAD's illustration department as one of the top five most innovative programs.
• 3D World magazine has named SCAD's animation department as one of the top three programs in North America.
• Creativity/Advertising Age magazine has named SCAD one of the "20 Best Art and Design Universities in the United States."
• The Los Angeles Times has named SCAD's interactive design and game development department one of the "Top 10 Game Development Programs Favored by Industry Recruiters."
• DesignIntelligence magazine has named SCAD's industrial design department among the top four undergraduate and graduate programs in the United States.
• DesignIntelligence magazine has named SCAD's interior design department the No. 1 interior design graduate program in the United States.

President Wallace created or invigorated many of the university's most innovative academic and outreach programs, including Art Educators' Forum, Rising Star, Summer Seminars and SCAD's Advanced Placement Institutes. She oversees the university's permanent art collection and the SCAD Museum of Art. President Wallace also created many of the university's most popular annual events, including the Sidewalk Arts Festival, one of Savannah's premier outdoor festivals, and SCAD Style, a full spring calendar of style and design events, including lectures, exhibitions, trunk shows and book signings. SCAD Style begins with the annual Étoile Awards in New York, where the university honors important figures in style and design; past Étoile Award recipients include Pierre Cardin, Jonathan Adler, Margaret Russell, Dakota Jackson, David Yurman, Pamela Fiori and others. President Wallace also founded the Savannah Film Festival, an event that attracts an audience of more than 40,000 people and features an independent film competition, lectures and presentations by some of the world's most well-known filmmakers, and screenings of landmark new films.

President Wallace created shopSCAD and Working Class Studio, two creative concepts that teach SCAD students about the marketplace. ShopSCAD is a boutique with locations in Savannah, Atlanta and Lacoste where SCAD faculty, students, and alumni sell their original work, including clothes, books, jewelry, tableware, paintings, prints, stationery and more. ShopSCAD is regularly reviewed and mentioned in style and design publications from Veranda to The New York Times 'T' Magazine. Working Class Studio is an innovative product development venture for the university, marrying function to art through product lines sold domestically in retail stores and around the world. Through the studio, tableware, picture frames, decorative pillows and more are designed and created by SCAD students, faculty and alumni artists. Working Class Studio has partnered with Williams Sonoma/west elm and Barnes & Noble Booksellers to sell SCAD products in their stores around the world and to collaborate on new product lines.

President Wallace has advanced the SCAD legacy of historic preservation and the university's commitment to renewing urban landscapes through an impressive series of restoration projects in the medieval village of Lacoste, in Midtown Atlanta and in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia. Most recently, SCAD has restored a 19th-century synagogue, an abandoned turn-of-the-century hospital, several historic public school buildings and Ivy Hall, one of the finest examples of Victorian/Queen Anne architecture in the South - transforming each of them into thriving homes for SCAD academic programs. SCAD is currently planning the renewal of the North Kowloon Magistracy in Hong Kong - a building that was awarded to SCAD by the Hong Kong government and that the university plans to use as the new SCAD-Hong Kong campus. This commitment to the building arts has earned awards for SCAD from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Art Deco Societies of America, the American Society of Interior Designers and the American Institute of Architects. SCAD properties have also been featured in recent catalogs for J.Crew and Anthropologie.

President Wallace has authored children's and interior design books, and she is an award-winning interior designer and classical pianist. Her latest book, co-authored with Frances Schultz, is "A House in the South" (Clarkson Potter Press); the title has received praise from national publications including Town & Country and Veranda. Her next book is titled "The Comforts of a Porch" and will focus on the allure and style of porches.

President Wallace earned a B.A. degree from Furman University, and M.Ed. and Ed.S. degrees from Georgia State University; she also was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from Gonzaga University. When not leading SCAD, President Wallace spends time with her husband, Glenn, and her four children: Marisa, John Paul, Madison and Trace.