By Selena Stevens

Margaret Portillo, a leading scholar in interior design research methodology, launched the Strategic Stories Project, which has developed a narrative inquiry method similar to those used in education and medicine.

Nov. 29, 2001 (Lexington, Ky.) -- University of Kentucky Interior Design Associate Professor Margaret Portillo has been honored for her career of research with the UK College of Human Environmental Sciences Outstanding Research Award. The award was presented at the college's annual Evening of Excellence.

Portillo has been a leading scholar in interior design research methodology. As chairperson of the Research Council for the Foundation of Interior Design Research, she launched the Strategic Stories Project, which has developed a narrative inquiry method, similar to those used in education and medicine.

The development has been heralded by interior design scholars as one of the top in the field and has been highlighted in several academic and trade journals, including Interior and Sources, Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences and Design Studies.

Portillo was selected to edit a special issue of the Journal of Interior Design focusing on the research methods embodied in the Strategic Stories project. She is one of only a handful of people who have been asked to guest edit this journal.

Portillo's nomination for the award was supported by J.H. Dohr, professor and associate dean with the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kayem Dunn, executive director of the Foundation for Interior Design Education Research; and Sheila Danko, associate professor of design at the Cornell University Department of Design and Environmental Analysis.

"It is clear to me that she has successfully moved our research agenda forward, producing work that is accessible to a wide range of interior design educators and practitioners," Dunn said. "Her work strongly supports the FIDER mission to lead the interior design profession to excellence."

Portillo has been at UK since 1991 after earning her doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.