Dr. Alessandra Wood is a design executive, author, and historian with an eye towards the future. A scholar of art and design history & theory, she leverages visual culture as a tool to understand humankind past and present. With a multi-faceted career in the academic, museum, and business worlds, her point of view is unique as she strives to make art and design accessible to all. In her leadership roles in tech, including as VP of Style at Modsy, she has built, mentored, and scaled multi-disciplinary design teams to solve complex product, brand, and user experience challenges.
With a PhD that focused on Design History & Material Culture and an M.A. in the History of Decorative Arts and Design, Alessandra has intense academic training in the social and cultural context of the designed world—a bona fide scholar, taught by the best of the best curators and historians. Her book, Designed to Sell: The Evolution of Modern Merchandising and Display (Routledge, 2020), highlights how designers worked with executives in 20th-century retails spaces. She is a nationally recognized expert on design history/theory and has engaged in critical conversations 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.
Currently, Alessandra is a part-time professor and lecturer on design. She’s a mom of 2 young kids and fully understands the need for a beautiful and well-balanced life.