Kat Lombard-Cook

Dr. Kat Lombard-Cook is an educator, designer, and researcher who is passionate about the power visual communication has to speak beyond the bounds of language.

Growing up in New England, she read a lot of Robert Frost. His poem "The Road Not Taken" shaped her life on a subconscious level. She loves to learn as much from her students as they do from her.

Before joining Simmons, Lombard-Cook had a varied professional and academic career. She worked for six years at a corporate and broadcast video production company. During that time, she was a production assistant, a grip, a teleprompter, a soundperson, an editor, a motion graphic designer, an art director, a post-production supervisor, and co-creative director. She wanted to know how things work from beginning to end and preferred to get her hands in the mix. She moved to Scotland for the next six years. She had the privilege of studying at the Glasgow School of Art and walking its storied halls before two tragic fires took the historic building from us. It was there that her personal interest in comic books shifted to a professional one. At Edinburgh, she dug into how the structures we use when reading comics can be used and subverted to allow us to communicate in a way that allows us to transcend the limits of language.

Moving back to New England, she has taught across Massachusetts, from Wentworth in the Fenway to Salem State on Cape Ann to American International College in Springfield. What ties the various threads of her story together is a desire to empower the voices of those whose stories might get otherwise overlooked. It could be using comics to tell a divergent story of immigration or supporting a first-generation student in her journey through higher education. She took the road less traveled, and it has made all the difference. She wants to support others on their journey, no matter what road they take.

Education

• PhD, Design, from University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, UK, Thesis: Analyzing and Interrogating Narrative Structures Through Comic Books (2017)
• MFA, Communication Design, from Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK (2012)
• BA, Graphic Design, from Regis College, Weston, Massachusetts (2004)

License/Certifications

• Certified Scorer for American Association of Colleges & Universities in Written Communication VALUE Rubric

Courses

COMM 110 Introduction to 2D Design Technology 
COMM 112 Introduction to Animation and Motion Graphics
COMM 114 Introduction to Audio and Video Editing COMM 121: Visual Communication
COMM 210 Introduction to Design
COMM 240 Typography
COMM 241 Human-Centered Design
COMM 244 Introduction to Web and Interactive Design
COMM 333 Design for User Experience 
COMM 340 Advanced Design
COMM 390 Studio 5

Research/Creative Activities

The focus of Lombard-Cook's research and academic design practice centers around post-structuralism and how it relates to communication, specifically in the medium of comics. Comics blend various levels of language — visual, textual, sound, diegetic and mimetic — which allows it to be more than the sum of its parts. She is fascinated by how we can activate multi-modal storytelling to create new meaning and speak the unutterable.

Publications/Presentations

"Jason Shiga’s Meanwhile and digital adaptability of non-traditional narratives in comics." In the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 2014.

"Separating the territory from the map: The intersection of cartography, memory and identity in autobiographical comics." In the journal Studies in Comics, 2024.

Professional Affiliations & Memberships 

• Assistant Editor for the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics
• Member of American Institute of Graphic Arts [AIGA] Boston
• Founding Member of the Comics Studies Society
• Member of University & College Designers Association
• Member of University Film & Video Association
• Member of Women in Film & Video New England