One imagines Lyn Godley is used to being referred to as a “luminary” in the world of design. First off, she’s an accomplished designer, who has spent 30 years bringing form and beauty to functional objects. Her work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions all over the world, and is part of the permanent collections in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the MAD (Museum of Art and Design) in NYC and in MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art) in NYC. But of all of her design work, it is lighting that captured her soul and on which she has focused for the last twenty-five years.

Lyn’s first formal association with us came in 2016, when she presented at our first Cool Jobs Expo for 7th graders. But she had heard about Fresh Artists from one of her design students at Kutztown University, where she was Assistant Professor of Foundation Design and Product Design prior to joining the faculty of Parsons School of Design in New York. Kutztown has a large art education program.

“I heard about Fresh Artists from former students,” she says, “and learned about what a difference they were making in saving art in public schools.”

In the summer of 2013, Lyn moved her design studio to Sherman Mills, across the alley from Fresh Artists, where her enormous golden retriever, Riley, stole the hearts of Barbara, Roger and the Fresh Artists’ staff. In the summer they’d have lunch together and talk about their work while Riley badgered everyone to throw tennis balls.

“It’s kind of hard not to fall in love with their story,” says Lynn.

As an experienced educator, Lyn is not fazed by the idea of working with middle school-age students as a presenter at Cool Jobs.

“I’m a teacher; I’m around students all the time,” she says, “although not ones that young. You know that some kids will be on the edge of their seats, others want to be back in bed.”

“But what hits me,” she says, “is how much Barbara understands how to make an impact – by addressing the problem of school dropout. She understands her market very well.”

Yup, and it’s an unusual “market” to boot – young teens potentially on the precipice of dropping out of school!

Besides participating in Cool Jobs, Lyn looks forward to lending her expertise in product design – a concept that plays into Fresh Artists “design camps,” introducing young people to the range of career choices in the world of design.

“What they’ve done with Cool Jobs is really exciting,” she says, “because of the potential to reach more students and give them the inspiration from others in the creative field to stay in the creative field.

As a board member, she hopes to “keep the focus on where Fresh Artists wants to end up and on the best ways to get there.”