Meet Dr. Karen Leonas, a Scientist by Design
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“We’re not what you think,” says Karen Leonas, the dynamic new chair of Washington State University’s department of apparel, merchandising, design and textiles or AMDT.
Leonas points out that most people think of AMDT as a center of creative fashion design in the Northwest. While creative design is certainly one of the program’s strengths, “We’re much more complex and in depth than most people realize,” she says.
With over 250 undergraduates in the program, AMDT serves a complex and diverse industry. Washington’s apparel industry is the third largest in the U.S., accounting for 13 percent of all employment in the state and grossing over a half billion dollars a year. The program requires integration across numerous areas including design, supply chain management, international trade regulations, marketing, consumer behavior, analytical retail practices, interrelationships between culture, gender and dress, textile science and product development.
Beyond creative fashion design, apparel designers also create high-performance uniforms for athletes, fire fighters, doctors and the military, while other designers work with high-tech materials such as Kevlar®, for bulletproof vests, and design spacesuits for astronauts and parachutes for pilots.
“In this industry, we deal with a lot of products and design issues that can impact whether a person lives or dies,” she says.
“There’s a largely invisible body of knowledge behind what we do,” Leonas says. WSU’s program in AMDT is strong in all areas, from the design and development process through manufacturing, marketing and distribution, to performance evaluation. Who knew that radial tires require seven layers of fabric (often polyester) for their flexibility and durability? Or that the tiles on the space shuttle contain rayon? (Leonas points out that it’s the glue that binds the tiles to the shuttle’s body that fails, not the tiles themselves.)
Some of Leonas’s internationally recognized research has focused on the permeability of fabrics worn by medical workers. If microorganisms are able to penetrate the fabric of a surgical gown, the lives of not only doctors and nurses but patients could be at risk.
Leonas pioneered the use of a special kind of electron microscope to create three-dimensional images of blood and microorganism pathways as they travel through fabric. This has led to a greater understanding of the importance of apparel in reducing infection transmission and enabled functional designers to take preventative measures.
Leonas and her husband, Mike, who works for WSU in Capital Planning and Development, moved from Athens, Georgia to Pullman in June. The mother of two grown children (a daughter, 22, who just graduated from college, and a son, 21, entering his senior year), Leonas immediately dived into her new job but nevertheless has managed to get out and about. The couple has gone jet-boating in Hell’s Canyon, hiked on Kamiak Butte and traveled to Seattle and Spokane.
And what about the future of AMDT? It’s still too soon to be specific, Leonas says, but “My role is to facilitate the vision of our amazingly talented and diverse faculty.”Learn more about WSU's program in Apparel, Merchandising, Design and Textiles
Watch a short video about the program.
