Academician makes mark in education, research
Dr. Julia Beamish has made a major impact on the campus of Virginia Tech, but her influence on the kitchen and bath industry is hardly restricted to the halls of academia.
A certified kitchen design educator and accomplished researcher, Beamish serves as professor and head of the Department of Apparel, Housing and Resource Management at Virginia Tech, widely acclaimed for its curriculum in residential environments, a four-year major that includes extensive coursework in kitchen and bath design.
Beamish, one of the architects of that curriculum, teaches residential space planning with a focus on Universal Design and accessibility. She was also a member of the founding faculty for Virginia Tech’s Center for Real Life Kitchen Design, a 1,500-sq. ft. learning center that incorporates kitchen vignettes, a flexible classroom and research space with multi-media capabilities.
But Beamish’s impact extends far beyond the confines of her college’s campus. She has also served as an at-large delegate for the White House Conference on Aging. And, along with two other Virginia Tech professors, she was the co-author of a pair of reference books – Kitchen Planning and Bath Planning – that are considered among the most authoritative planning resources available for professional kitchen and bath designers. In addition, among other projects, she was involved in a widely cited research initiative that identified how people use, and what they want in, their kitchens.
