Jennifer Kolstad is the Global Design and Brand Director at Ford Motor Company, the first design leader to establish a vision for environmental design at Ford, and one of the only female design executives leading an OEM in the world. Since joining Ford in 2019, she has created a global strategy for brand experience, unifying a portfolio exceeding 200 million SF with the global retail network of 10,000+ dealers.
Introducing the legacy brand to neuroaesthetics and research-led design, Jennifer has constructed an award-winning internal design team and agency roster, while collaborating with external luminaries, product design, UX, technology, marketing, and global brand.
Jennifer has disrupted institutionalized expectations over 30 years of practice. She has effectively integrated adjacent core competencies including human science into her team, expanding the value of design, proving impact with measurable outcomes.
She is the recipient of the 2023 ASID Luminary of Distinction award honouring the advancement of the design industry through innovative contributions and is the 2023 recipient of the “Beyond Automotive Design” Award for Car Design News.
Jennifer is a Doctoral candidate at the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape at the University of Calgary (’26) researching the intersection of business and design. She achieved a Master of Architecture degree from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and was a recipient of the SOM Graduate Fellowship. She has undergraduate degrees in Interior Design, Art and Art History. Prior to Ford, she designed at SOM, Gensler, HKS, and ALDAR in the United Arab Emirates.
Jennifer is an invited NASA Luminary teaching her “Brain to Building Framework” as a design tool for off-planet habitation. She has appeared on PBS Newshour, NBC News, Fortune’s 2022 Brainstorm, and Microsoft Envision, speaking on human-centered design. She is a member of the Health Advisory Council at the School of Design and Creative Technologies at Dell Medical School’s Design Institute for Health at UT Austin, and has presented at the ANFA/Salk Annual Conference, IDEC’s Annual Conference, and The Design Museum Everywhere Innovation Summit. Jennifer has been an invited keynote, lecturer, and juror at the Darden School of Business, University of Lincoln, Nebraska, Utah State University, UT Austin, University of Michigan, and National ASID Conferences.
Elected Chair of the American Society of Interior Designers (2020), she served on the National Board from 2015-2021.
