Sheri Parks, PH.D. is an ordinary aesthetics intellectual, strategist, senior higher education professor, administrator and author, working to bridge the cultures of communities, academia and industry to address urgent societal challenges. She is a research associate at the National Center for Smart growth. Her positions have included Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the Maryland Institute College of Art; Associate Dean for Research, Interdisciplinary Scholarship and Programing and Founding Director of the Center for Synergy at the University of Maryland where she helped science and technology innovators to gain insights and strategies via the arts and humanities.