Chanel Beebe

Dr. Chanel Beebe serves as an Intermittent Lecturer at the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, teaching courses including Radical Planning (URP 611) and Listening (UT 210) for Winter 2024-2025 semesters. Concurrently, she works as a researcher at D-Ford (Ford Motor Company's research division) on future of work and transportation solutions, and leads her equity-focused design firm Beebe Arts LLC.

Her educational background includes:

• Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Industrial Engineering from University of Michigan
• Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University

Dr. Beebe's research centers on community-driven design methodologies and liberatory learning models, with critical focus on how marginalized populations experience engineering engagement programs. Her socio-technical activism integrates systems thinking to address sustainability, health equity, and creative resistance through STEAM education, particularly examining Black and Indigenous experiences in urban contexts. She investigates meaning-making processes in community partnerships and barriers to homeownership through human-centered design frameworks.

Her scientific recognition includes:

• Gates Millennium Scholar
• Ford Foundation Fellow

As an educator, Dr. Beebe mentors through the CS4Detroit Student Leadership Team and supports undergraduate research via UROP youth apprenticeship programs. Her funded work includes Ford Foundation support for doctoral research on community partner perspectives in engineering programs and Gates Millennium Scholar resources for developing equity-centered design curricula. She actively secures community-based grants through Beebe Arts LLC for social reform initiatives.

Dr. Beebe directs Beebe Arts LLC as her primary research laboratory, producing community-centered initiatives including the CREATE Festival and Cultural Design Marathon. These projects merge abstract painting, photography, and participatory research to foster healing and institutional change within Detroit's Black communities, with regular exhibitions like Soulful Symbolism and Brush & Focus serving as platforms for critical dialogue about identity and liberation.