David Yager

David Yager is Dean of the Arts Division, Distinguished Professor of Art, and Affiliated Faculty with the Digital Arts and New Media program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has been with UC Santa Cruz since July 2009. During the 2014-15 academic year, he was on sabbatical during which time he conducted research on design-driven health outcomes at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Johns Hopkins Children's Center, where he currently holds a faculty position in Pediatrics.

Prior to coming to UCSC, Yager was the founding executive director of the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). The center was created to explore how art can interpret and offer solutions for social ills. He was also the founder/director of the Innovation and Design Lab, and founder/past director of the Imaging Research Center and Chair of the Department of Art at Maryland.

A noted photographer and designer, his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is part of the permanent collections of many major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Chicago Art Institute, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Yager has talked at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on the relationship of art and science and has been an advisor and panelist for the NAS on three publications and projects.

In March 2014, he was a featured guest speaker at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology (at the University of Illinois) where he discussed "The Case for an Unusual Collaboration: Artist-Designer, Physicians, and Nurses", as part of their Medical Humanities Lecture series. The talk focused on the collaborations of both medical and non-medical academics, students, and clinical faculty and staff from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

Since joining UC Santa Cruz, Yager has built a culture of collaboration between staff, faculty and students that is also student and faculty-centric. His passion for his students has driven the Arts Division into a culture of excellence, creativity and cooperation.

An avid fly-fisherman, Yager also enjoys outdoor activities and devoting time to his family. He is currently pursuing new photography research on golf and its history. Regarding art in general, Yager says: "I've always thought about art as a way of both exposing and creating a framework for discussion."

Yager was recently asked to serve on the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI) Steering Committee on Art and Science, Engineering and Medicine Frontier Collaborations. A project of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.