Dr. Alessandra Wood is an author, educator, and design historian with an eye towards the
future. She studied design history & theory and is obsessed with applying that knowledge to understand what makes products beautiful/useful/successful, and what inspires people to love those products. She has a refined eye for style, and strives to make art and design accessible to all. Her roles in tech, including as VP of Style at Modsy, have allowed her to work on the compelling challenge of reimagining the way we design our homes.
She is a nationally recognized expert on design history and has engaged in critical conversations on design in hundreds of articles for print and digital media including in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Associated Press, Washington Post, Forbes, Architectural Digest, and Business Insider. She was also the brainchild and co-host of The Render, a podcast about design history, which landed #6 on the Apple Art & Design Chart and is ranked within the top 5% of most popular podcasts globally.
Alessandra is the author of Designed to Sell: The Evolution of Modern Merchandising and Display (Routledge, 2020), a captivating tale of retail design in the 20th century. With a PhD that focused on Design History and an M.A. in the History of Decorative Arts and Design, she has intense academic training in style, production, and consumption of furniture and decorative arts—a bona fide design expert, taught by the best of the best curators and historians.
Currently, Alessandra is a professor teaching history, theory, and criticism of design. She’s a mom of 2 toddlers and fully understands the need for a beautiful and well-balanced life.
