Marsha Cuddeback, director of the School of Interior Design and the Ruth Z.McCoy Professor in Interior Design, was elected the president ofThe Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC), the leading association and authority on interior design education.

"This honor reflects Marsha's longstanding commitment to interior design education," said Alkis Tsolakis, Dean of the College of Art & Design.

Cuddebackis an NCIDQ certificate holder, licensed architect, LEED Accredited Professional in Building Design and Construction, and Living Future Accredited by the International Living Future Institute.She has served as the teaching collaborative coordinator and chair of the Academic Integrity Task Force for the Interior Design Educators Council, as a member of the National Council for Interior Design Qualification Champions Task Force.She serves as the director of teaching on the Interior Design Educators Council Board of Directors.She is a practicing interior designer and architect in the firm Desmond Cuddeback Architects, which was awarded an AIA Gulf States Regional Honor Design Excellence Citation for the Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center exhibition building in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Cuddeback's research interests include sustainable design theory and practice!ethics and the natural and built environment!a narrative approach to understanding the creation, selection, and application of materials!and the scholarship of teaching and student-centered learning.  Her research has been supported through multiple grants, including funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Louisiana's Department of Social Services, Department of Transportation and Development, and Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.Her creative scholarship explores the relationship of natural and interior terrains.She has conducted research and published extensively on the subject of advancing teaching and learning pedagogy.

The mission of IDEC is the advancement of interior design education, scholarship, and service.

Cuddeback served as IDEC president elect in 2020, and is acting president 2021.The most recent LSU faculty member to serve as IDEC president was Shirlee Singer in 1989.