Board of Trustees

Janet Blutter Shiff, ASIDM

Janet Blutter Shiff, president of Blutter/Shiff Design Associates, has provided residential and commercials interior design services throughout the United States for more than 30 years. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin and completed her interior design education at Harrington. To enhance her design skills and technique, she studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Janet is a recognized professional in the design community, frequently asked to participate on industry discussion panels nationwide. She has appeared on the House & Garden cable network and on the Discovery Channel. Her work has been published in trade magazines and consumer publications.

Blutter Shiff Design Associates was first established in 1958, by Janet’s mother and partner, Joan Blutter. Their firm has been located in the Merchandise Mart for more than 50 years.

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Carlos Martinez, AIA, LEED AP

Carlos Martinez is a firm-wide design director for Gensler and has over 20 years of diverse experience in architecture, design and business strategy consulting. Praised by peers and press alike both locally and nationally, Carlos is widely acknowledged as one of the industry's most innovative and influential designers. He is passionate about design and adept in the creation of memorable spaces that promote collaboration, enhance communication and elevate productivity.

In addition to his former leadership roles at other prominent design firms, Carlos' expertise and perspective was also shaped by his years of experience with Doblin, a Chicago management consulting firm specializing in innovation strategy. Doblin's think-tank model of multi-disciplinary collaboration has deeply influenced Carlos' work as a designer, showing him new approaches to furthering his clients' business goals.

Carlos devotes himself to community service. He is a past chairman of the Board of Directors for DIFFA Chicago. In addition, he serves on Board of Trustees of the Chicago Architecture Foundation and as president of the Condominium Board of a historic Holabird & Roche 19th Century building, located in a landmark district of Chicago’s Gold Coast.

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Mitchell Obstfeld

Mitchell (Mitch) Obstfeld has been actively involved in all aspects of the publishing and marketing industry in both the consumer and business-to-business categories for more than 30 years. As founder and president of i4design Media, Inc. he has successfully launched an award-winning magazine and website focused on the business-to-business side of architecture and design in the Midwest as well as producing numerous private-label magazines for clients in the design business.

Prior to founding i4design Media, Mitch was a senior manager for several media companies publishing regionally focused, business-to-business trade and/or consumer magazines in niche markets worldwide and has been responsible for developing and procuring contract publishing projects for special events, show programs and consumer and B2B publications nationwide for clients such as The W Hotel Group and the Hilton Corporation.

Besides serving on the Board of Trustees for Harrington College of Design, Mitch has served on the board of directors for Designs For Dignity, a program of Heartland Alliance; The National Concierge Association (NCA); and the Business Publishers Association (BPA).

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Thomas H. Segal

Thomas (Tom) H. Segal received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and a Master’s of Architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He worked in the architectural field prior to making the transition to interior design in 1992. Tom was senior designer at Paul Granata Interiors from 1993 to 1995 and began his own firm in 1995. After collaborating on a few projects with designer David Kaufman, Tom and David realized that their backgrounds and styles complemented one another very well, bringing the perfect mix of traditional and contemporary, conservative and expressive. In 1996 they merged firms, and Kaufman Segal Design was formed.

Kaufman Segal Design, located in Chicago’s River North, specializes in high-end residential and commercial interiors with innovative design solutions that enhance architecture, landscape and client lifestyle.

Kaufman Segal Design was selected as one of Chicago’s hottest designers in 2006 by the Chicago Merchandise Mart Design Center for their luxury kitchen design featured in the 2006 Dream Home in the Chicago Merchandise Mart. Previous awards include the Vox/Out Magazine Voices of Style and Design Award in 2004 and the Fashion Group International Style Makers and Rule Breakers Award in 2000. Projects have been featured in Shelter, New York Times Chicago Life Magazine, Chicago Social, Robb Report, Midwest Home, Traditional Home, North Shore Magazine and HGTV.

Tom is actively involved in the Chicago community. He previously served as Vice President on the Howard Brown Health Center Board of Directors and currently is Chairman for the Harrington College of Design Board of Trustees.

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Karma Israelsen

Karma Israelsen is currently the Vice President of Regulatory Operations & Compliance for Career Education Corporation. She currently oversees the regulatory operations for the University (American Intercontinental University and Art & Design campuses) and Culinary Strategic Business Units. In her role, she is a trusted partner that provides sound guidance, expert solutions and operational support to achieve results.

Prior to coming to Career Education Corporation, Karma spent several years in the hotel industry where she worked as Director of Revenue Management; Director of Front Office Operations; Manager on Duty; and Director of Reservations. She managed the room operations for groups like the International Olympic Committee and NBC during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and coordinated and hosted several events and stays for the President of the United States, the Sundance Film Festival and many of the NBA teams.

Karma is active in local organizations and is passionate about social responsibility. She serves on the Corporate Advisory Board for the Chicago Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and is a member of the Leadership Council for Howard Brown Health Center in Chicago, IL. Karma recently received the Rising Star Award from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for her work during the 13th Annual Grand Chefs Gala.

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Erik Parks

Erik Parks is the president of Harrington College of Design, a proprietary college founded in 1931 offering master’s, bachelor’s and associate’s degrees in interior design, commercial photography and communication design. Erik joined Harrington in 2000 and functioned as the institution’s Controller and Vice President of Operations and Finance prior to being named as president in 2006.

Before joining Harrington, Erik worked at NovaMed Eyecare , a healthcare services company, in a variety of senior financial management roles from start-up to initial public offering. Erik started his career with Grant Thornton, a public accounting firm.

Erik received his MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and his BS in business administration from Indiana University. He served on the Board of Directors of DIFFA/Chicago from 2006-2008. Erik lives in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago with his wife, Melissa and son, Jack.

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Rick Valicenti

Rick Valicenti is the founder and design director of Thirst/Chicago, a firm devoted to art, function and real human presence that has been influencing the design discourse internationally since 1988.

In 2011, Rick was awarded the 2011 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Communication Design. The National Design Award honors the best in American design that demonstrates the importance of design and its impact on the quality of daily life.

He was awarded the prestigious AIGA Medal in 2006 for his sustained contribution to design excellence and the development of the profession. The medal is the highest honor of the graphic design profession. In 2004, he was awarded the 2004 AIGA Chicago Chapter Fellow, and he has been a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) since he was invited in 1996.

Rick has juried the President’s Design Awards for the National Endowment for the Arts during the George H.W. Bush and William Clinton administrations. He was recognized as the top designer across all design disciplines to represent Illinois in the first ID50 of ID Magazine. He has been nominated twice for the prestigious Chrysler Design Awards, as well as numerous awards from the AR 100, Graphis, Communication Arts, Print, Step, NY Art Directors, Tokyo Art Directors, ID Magazine and the AIGA Year in Review.

Rick’s work has been published in multiple major graphic design publications. Cover stores include Eye.06 (London), Émigré (twice) and Idea (in Tokyo). His book publications include Phaidon’s 10x10 (published late 2003), Graphic Radicals by Katherine McCoy and Typography One by Rick Poyner. In April 2005, a 356-page monograph on the Thirst’s work was published by The Monacelli Press titled "Emotion as Promotion."

In 2009, Rick gave a presentation at Design Indaba, the world’s largest multi-disciplinary annual conference in Cape Town, South Africa. Throughout his career, Rick has lectured across six continents including Beijing, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, London, Porto, Oslo, Berlin, Florence, Toronto and throughout the United States.

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