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Daiga is recognized as one of the most highly regarded female creatives in the communications and design industry. She was named an Advertising Age Woman to Watch, an OMMA Creative All-Star, and one of Business Insider’s Most Creative Women in Advertising. Her work has won awards at shows including Cannes, Communication Arts, W3 Awards, Webby Awards, and the OMMA Awards to name a few.
Her creative entrepreneur career started in 1998 when in Southern California she co-founded Digitaria, the agency that years later joined WPP network and J. Walter Thompson Company to form its digital counterpart Mirum – a global agency with over 40 offices in 24 countries.
Daiga Atvara was the Chief Design Officer at Mirum. She led the agency’s Creative, Design and UX teams to shape the way brands communicate and how businesses run. She has touched almost every account and worked on brands including Rolex, Unilever, Mazda, Royal Caribbean, PBS, Kellogg, Qualcomm, Epson to name some.
Prior to launching Digitaria, she worked as a creative director in the U.S. and abroad helping develop traditional and digital marketing campaigns.
Throughout her career, Daiga’s vision has always been to make design thinking and process to be the central point of brand and business challenges. Under her leadership, disciplines of creative and design brought together the worlds of ideas and technology to create things and experiences that people would find useful, brands meaningful and businesses profitable.
Daiga teaches visual and brand design at NewSchool of Architecture & Design in San Diego and at Latvian Art Academy in Riga.
The grandson of a well-known author, musician, professor, and artist, Chris Clark grew up with art all around him. The fondest memories of his childhood include the sweet smell of oil paints from his grandfather’s art studio and the sounds of Spain coming from his flamenco guitar. These impressions left an indelible mark.
Recognizing a similar calling, Chris became enamored with the advertising arts while attending college at Point Loma Nazarene University. It was through being a professional skateboarder and recording artist that he discovered he also had a strong passion for writing and design. Following his heart, he relentlessly pursued a career that reflected his passions. That pursuit led him to a career as a hybrid advertising creative and professor. He loves every minute of it.
Chris has almost 20 years experience as an award-winning hybrid advertising creative, producing work for such brands as Intel, Qualcomm, Shure Audio, Red Envelope, Total Gym, and The Corky McMillin Companies, to name a few. Active in the industry, he currently works as a designer, copywriter, and commercial music composer.
Chris has 12 years experience as an award-winning creative advertising and design professor, having previously taught at The Art Institute of California – San Diego, Point Loma Nazarene University, UCSD, and the Academy of Art University, before joining NewSchool as their lead creative advertising and media design professor. In the almost 3 years he’s been leading NewSchool’s media design program, the program has had many successes including multiple wins at the American Advertising Awards.
Providing instruction from a real-world perspective, Chris passionately seeks to create the strongest of creative practitioners, ones that have both the design-mindedness to conceive strong conceptual solutions and the production skills to bring them to life.
Chris has an MFA degree in advertising from the Academy of Art University. He and his family live in San Diego, near the NewSchool campus. Still skateboarding and playing music, you might see him doing both around town after class.
UX Psychologist and Interaction Design consultant, Tiziana has more than 20 years of experience in the industry. She combines psychological insights with good design practices and a solid ethical framework to create inclusive user experiences that will persuade without manipulation or dirty tricks. She is a senior educator, teaching Interactive Design, UX, Human Factors and Design Psychology at different secondary institutions. She has a background that includes, along with years of design and web development, a Bachelor degree in graphic design, a Master’s in Media Psychology and several professional certifications, including Ethical Data Science, Behavioral Design and Social Psychology. She speaks at several organizations, talking about Design, UX, Ethics, AI and their intersection.
Watch some of her past talks on her YouTube channel or learn from her course on Linkedin Learning.
Since July 2025, she is also NewSchool Interim Marketing Director, in charge of updating the website and coordinating with enrollment and outreach to produce engaging and coherent branding content.
Deny Ehrlich is a graphic designer and educator. The principal of Deny Ehrlich Branding, Deny has over 30 years of both international and local experience backed by well-respected academic credentials (a Master’s in Graphic Design from Pratt Institute).
She has also been an instructor of graphic design and advertising for 20 years, working at both the Art Institute of Portland and the Art Institute of California–San Diego, developing curricula and teaching classes ranging from concept development to branding and package design to collateral materials.
Deny Ehrlich Branding offers a unique combination of spark and expertise to help uncover the story behind your brand. Deny Ehrlich Branding can identify what works and what doesn’t – and WHY, ensuring that clients move in the right direction. This is what Deny brings to every classroom and every student’s understanding. Her wealth of experience has given her an understanding of how to develop focused strategies & practices, moving effectively from concept to actualization.
Deny has the ability to excite and motivate others. Her students say that her extensive background as a graphic designer has greatly helped them to understand and learn the skills necessary for successful integration into today’s design industry.
I have practiced interior design professionally since 1969, and over the past forty-plus years, have taught a wide range of interior design courses at the university level. Because I value giving back to the design community, I have spoken and lectured on the subject of the design of the interior environment at many universities, community colleges, professional conferences, and other academic and personal enrichment venues throughout the United States. My past experiences as an educator and interior design program administrator, along with my years of experience as a CIDA accreditation site visitor and Team Leader, a member of a special CIDA Task Force and as a CIDA Program Consultant, has provided me with a rich perspective into the analysis and development of interior architecture and design curricula.
I consider myself an avid travel enthusiast, a perpetual student, and a devotee of material culture studies. Wanting to share these experiences with students and others, my academic study abroad has allowed me to author several popular press articles for the online design newsletter Plinth & Chintz. (www.plinthandchintz.com).
Professionally, I have participated in design competitions and have been honored with first place awards for my creative work. In addition to earning graduate degrees in Interior Design, I have been qualified as a professional member of ASID, IIDA, IDEC and have been certified by the National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) since 1982.
Marleen has over 20 years in the architecture and interior design industry with a focus on healthcare interior design.
Originally trained as an architect, Dario Miticocchio likes to call himself a “Design Nomad”, always exploring new facets of the discipline, and has exercised this peculiar angle on design by working in many different professional environments. The restless curiosity that has fueled this journey has taken him across projects that involved architecture, apparel, interiors, services, products, and graphics, with incursions into marketing and ethnographies. He learned the ropes of creating remarkable designs from masters like Makio Hasuike, Stefano GIovannoni, and Guido Venturini, and has continued to deliver iconic and award-winning designs in the very different environment of Corporate America.
He joined NewSchool because the stimulating academic environment is perfect to keep his pursuit going, and is excited about helping establish the new design programs. To make sure he doesn’t lose touch with the professional world he stays engaged in real life projects as a consultant.
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