Dr. Bess Williamson is a historian of design and material culture and Professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the author of Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design (2019) and co-editor of Making Disability Modern: Design Histories (2020). Her work explores diverse histories and practices of design that extend expertise to users and communities, and challenge designers to address access and power in their work. For 2022-2023, she is director of SAIC's Art History MA programs.