"In a designed world, designers matter." - Lindsay Tan

Lindsay Tan is a best-selling author and award-winning strategist whose expertise has been featured in places like Forbes, Reuters, Faculty Focus, Homes & Gardens, CBC, and NBC. Her strategies, systems, and toolkits are used by high-performing teams around the world. Tens of thousands more have benefited from her books, workshops, programs, and seminars.

Lindsay Tan is widely recognized as a thought leader who breaks the mold at scale. She was named Most Innovative Educator by Top Hat and among her field’s Most Admired Educators by DesignIntelligence.

She is author of the #1 best-seller Project Management Playbook and the award-winning Brilliance Hacks for Work-Life Balance as well as two interactive digital textbooks.

Armed with a unique skillset, Tan has been able to bridge gaps and jump fences throughout her career, applying her design insight to interiors, exteriors, exhibits, visual merchandising, stage, TV and film, products, digital and print media, UX, virtual and augmented reality, apps, and games.

Lindsay Tan (2024)

Her ability to simplify complex ideas into engaging sound bites without compression loss has made her an adept collaborator and in-demand expert source for journalists. You can find her featured in places like CBC, NBC, Forbes, Reuters, Homes & Gardens, and Faculty Focus.

She has written numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, trade publications, and popular press and is a named and unnamed contributor, expert reviewer, editor, and ghostwriter on a variety of writing projects.

Tan retired from academia in 2022 after working in higher education for over two decades, spanning three top-ranked programs. During her time in the classroom, she developed almost 100 unique courses and maintained a five-star average across 19,000 student reviews.

Her contributions to teaching and research earned her rank and tenure as the W. Allen and Martha Reimer Reed Professor at Auburn University, an R1 land-, sea-, and space-grant institution with Carnegie Community Engagement classification, where her leadership roles included Program Coordinator for the nationally-ranked interior design program and Director over two research labs.

She was a founding member of the Tallahassee School of Design and pioneered the fields of design ecology and environmental symbology. She is a certified Evidence-Based Designer and an NCIDQ-qualified Interior Designer.

Most Innovative Educator

W. Allen and Martha Reimer Reed Professor

Community Engaged Faculty

NCIDQ Ambassador

SGA Outstanding Faculty Member

Mary Jo Weale Award for Excellence

Best Space Planning - Hospitality Design

Favourite face of design

Auburn Author Awards

Outstanding Incorporation of Diversity & Inclusion

Academy of Reviewers

Most Visually Engaging Poster

Mary Jo Weale Award for Excellence

Best Elevator Interior - Hospitality Design

Most Admired Educator

Advisory Board

At-Large Board

Star Award - Innovative Marketing Campaign

Merit Award

CAD Lab Goddess

PhD Forestry

Building Resilience

Prescribed burn Manager

LEED-GCP Green Classroom Professional

EDAC certified

Responsible Conduct of Research

Philosophy Minor

First aid

MFA Interior Design

NCIDQ certified

Selling with Empathy

BS Interior Design