Renée Stevens is an award-winning motion and augmented reality designer, educator, and public speaker currently located in Syracuse, NY. She is the creator of tagAR, an augmented reality mobile application that helps users never forget a name again. Her creative research looks at how Augmented Reality can help overcome Learning Disabilities, specifically Dyslexia.  She splits her time between running an independent interactive design studio and as an Associate Professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She is also the Chair of the Visual Communications Department. She has worked with great companies doing great work such as Forbes, Google, Dreamworks, Suave Kids, West Elm, and Minted. She was named a 2022 Person to Watch by GDUSA, a 2017 Educator to Watch by GDUSA and received a prestigious 2018 Meredith Teaching Recognition Award from Syracuse University.

As a speaker she has been invited to events around the world, including TEDx, SXSW, Sundance Film Festival, AIGA, and the U.S. Department of Defense, to talk about her work. She is an active member of AIGA Upstate New York. Stevens has been recognized nationally and internationally with awards from Graphis, Print, GDUSA, AEJMC, Minted, and Lightwork. Her favorite things include properly kerned type, perfectly paced music, and designing for good.

Renée is the Creative and Executive Director for the annual design workshop, Pixels & Print (https://pixelsandprint.newhouse.syr.edu/) at Syracuse University, which provides a real-world collaborative experience to design students by working on projects focusing on the power of design by designing for social good.