Her Story
About Rebekah
Rebekah Matheny, NCIDQ, IIDA, IDEC, serves as a tenured Senior Track Professor in Interior Design at The Ohio State University, where she has been educating and mentoring future designers since 2014. She began her career in higher education in 2004 after completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Cincinnati, where she simultaneously pursued a four-year architecture degree and a five-year interior design degree. She later earned a graduate degree in Architecture from the University of Oregon, along with a technical teaching certificate focused on sustainable design, lighting, and materials. Throughout her academic career, Matheny has held teaching positions at institutions including the University of Oregon, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of Colorado Denver, while also gaining valuable professional experience in the design industry.
Prior to returning to academia, Matheny practiced as a designer, including a role with a Columbus-based design firm beginning in 2011, where she applied her expertise in retail environments, brand strategy, and sustainable design. Her career reflects a strong connection between professional practice and design education, allowing her to bring real-world industry perspectives into the classroom. As a sustainable design strategist and educator, her research focuses on retail and brand environments, higher education spaces, and the impact of materials, sensory experiences, and design strategies on human connections to place. One of her notable achievements is the development of the Retail Design Collaborative Studio course, which prepares students to become sustainable innovators and future leaders in the design industry.
Matheny attributes her success to the strong work ethic instilled by her educator father, the creativity inspired by her mother, and the guidance of influential mentors throughout her career. She is committed to paying that support forward by mentoring students and creating opportunities for emerging designers to grow and succeed. Guided by values of honesty, transparency, integrity, hard work, and determination, Matheny continues to make a lasting impact through her teaching, research, and service to the interior design profession. Her dedication to innovation, sustainability, and student development has established her as a respected leader in design education.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Rebekah
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to growing up with a father who was an educator and a creative mom, which gave me the work ethic I needed. Strong mentors helped guide my career decisions like where to go to graduate school and how to approach tenure track. Mentorship is critical and I try to pay that back by being an aspirational mentor who continues to support students long after they leave the classroom.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
You start off with your career with all of these buckets that need to be filled with knowledge and skills, and when you get to a place of work, if that bucket starts overflowing and not flowing into the next bucket, then it's time to move on. Sometimes one company fills all your buckets by moving you around and advancing you, but if you get stagnant you need to go to a place that fills the next bucket.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Women should know their own knowledge and trust in their own instincts and use their voice and bring that to the table because women have a unique perspective that needs to be validated. The room shouldn't be dominated by one singular gender or ethnicity because as designers we're designing for all people.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges is AI technology advancements taking over and how we navigate creativity with access to technology that's giving answers but not necessarily creative problem solving. It's a double-edged sword, a challenge but also an opportunity for people to be more creative explorers and innovators. I teach students to use it to enhance their ideas but not create the ideas.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty and transparency come together, that's what makes me a good educator and relatable to students. Integrity and hard work are really imperative. I wouldn't be where I am because I wasn't necessarily the smartest kid but I worked hard and was determined. Success is earned through persistence.
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