Email:
Phone:
503.943.8721
Address:
Franz Hall 425
Beatrix Itzel Cruz Megchun is an associate professor of design and innovation at the University of Portland's Pamplin School of Business. She obtained her Ph.D. with the thesis "The Strategic Role of Design Management" to enhance the performance of small Mexican technology-based enterprises in new technological industries at Staffordshire University. Subsequently, she was awarded with a post doctoral research fellowship at the Centre of Applied Business Research in the business school from the same university to study the effects of design in the decision-making process of entrepreneurs. Itzel received her M.Sc. in design management from the University of Salford, United Kingdom, and also earned her B.A. in industrial design at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana campus, Xochimilco, Mexico.
Itzel has over ten years of experience working in the creative, manufacturing and new technology industries in Europe and Mexico. She has collaborated for over twenty years with different NGOs and governments in the gestation and implementation of social projects in the cultural area. Her academic experience is at its early stages, as she previously taught design management at the American University of Sharjah, UAE. A central part of her research concerns the understanding, use, impact and value design in SMEs and TBEs during the development and introduction of technological innovations. Itzel's work also explores the use of design as a competitive instrument in transit nations, such as Mexico and the UAE. During the past six years, she has examined the role of design as an agent of change at the social level.
University of Portland
5000 N. Willamette Blvd.,
Portland, Oregon 97203-5798
503.943.8000
