Ashley Kolodziej

Ashley Kolodziej – better known as Professor K. among her students – is an Assistant Creative Director in Boston University’s Interactive Design department. By day, she is responsible for the frontend design and development of the Boston University’s WordPress framework, as well as many of Boston University’s websites, including the College of Communication, Fitness & Recreation, Dining Services, and Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences websites. By night, she infuses her passion for design, frontend development, user research, and equitable, accessible communication to design and web development classes.

Ashley’s professional work focuses on pushing the limits of WordPress, CSS, and JavaScript as art and communication mediums. She has spoken at several WordPress conferences, including LoopConf, WPCampus, and WordCamp Boston. Her work was featured in the 49th Publication Design Annual, and has been recognized by the Interactive Media Council and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) at both the district and national levels, A self-taught web designer and frontend developer, she brings a painterly approach to her work, often calling on her fine arts training to blend physical and digital mediums and experiment with new and innovative approaches to solving design problems in CSS. As an educator, she strives to create an environment where her students are empowered to take these risks as well, and encourages collaboration, experimentation, and above all, learning by doing.

Unlike most people in my field, I grew up in the middle of the woods in Michigan, without internet. I haven’t been coding Geocities sites since I was 10. In fact, I had no idea I’d end up where I am now. I learned everything I know about web design and development on the job. My journey has taken me from those woods, to seventh floor of the Condé Nast building in Times Square, to late nights proofing newspapers before printing, to designing websites for country clubs, and finally, here: my home at Boston University. I don’t believe in the tale of the born artist. I believe in education. I believe we have great responsibility and power as communicators. And I truly believe no matter where you come from or what you know, we can produce amazing work together.

I also have two very important pet bunnies, Alvin & Peppermint Patty, and love playing Animal Crossing.

Twitter: @ashleykolodziej

https://www.ashleykolodziej.com/