Shannon Silvestri
Assistant Professor of Product Design
An expert in process improvement and problem-solving, Shannon Silvestri brings nearly a decade of product development experience to KCAI as an Assistant Professor of Product Design. With a degree in Industrial Design from Auburn University, her work has spanned the furniture, retail, environment, and experience design field, where she focuses on turning real human needs into useful, buildable products.
Before joining KCAI, Shannon served as the Principal Designer at Fox Wedge Furniture and as a retail display designer at Hallmark. A NIMS-certified CNC machinist and self-proclaimed CAD/CAM enthusiast, she integrates advanced fabrication techniques with traditional craftsmanship. To date, she's developed more than 60 furniture pieces and 40 home accessories, leading projects from initial sketches through machining and assembly.
With a knack for bringing diverse teams together for creative collaboration, Shannon's studios are structured, hands-on, and driven by questions. She cultivates trust and collaboration to allow students to feel comfortable experimenting, iterating, and learning from one another. Treating craftsmanship as a tool for thinking, she emphasizes the cycle of designing, reflecting, and refining until a product successfully provides the solution needed. Her teaching approach combines the human, technical, and production functions of design, preparing students to move fluently from concept to fabrication.
As a member of KCAI's growing Product Design department, Shannon is committed to helping students transform curiosity into capability and ideas into products that shape an ever-evolving world.