Scheri Fultineer

Scheri Fultineer began as Dean of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts on January 1, 2023. As dean of SMFA at Tufts, Dean Fultineer oversees all operations at the school. She works closely with faculty and staff across the university to forge curricular and co-curricular connections between and among artists and other academic practitioners.

Dean Fultineer has diverse experience as a professor and higher education leader, as well as an accomplished landscape architect and artist. She most recently served as Dean of the Division of Architecture and Design at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where she oversaw a division comprising seven departments offering undergraduate and graduate degrees to over 1,000 students and supervised 13 department heads and program directors and 75 full-time faculty. In addition to playing a key role in leading RISD through the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked closely with senior leadership to implement the university’s strategic plan. Prior to her deanship, she served as a department head for five years and held the role of Interim Associate Provost of Research at RISD.

Dean Fultineer was a Professor of Landscape Architecture at RISD, where she taught courses in the Department of Landscape Architecture, including: Oysterculture: Creating Sculptural Shellfish Habitat; Rocky Point: Contemporary Issues in Coastal Parks; The Presence of Absence: Reimagining Memorial; and The Future of Dams: Visualizing Alternative Scenarios. Prior to her time at RISD, Fultineer taught for more than a decade at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Dean Fultineer holds a Master in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, and a Bachelor of Arts from Antioch College.

A practicing landscape architect and artist, Fultineer was a founding principal of Reisen Design Associates, a multidisciplinary firm that provides consulting, master planning, and design services to a variety of clients ranging from religious organizations seeking to establish contemplative campuses in remote and ecologically sensitive sites to residential landowners.

Her art involves years of research into the ways that cultural practices influence the shaping of the landscape, and a vigorous interest in the contemporary challenge of incorporating sustainability into our design and cultural practices. As an example, her project, The Dead, examines how humans are the only species on earth to ritually prepare and intentionally place their dead, constructing graves, tombs, sepulchers, catacombs, ossuaries, crematoria, and columbaria, among other structures that mark our cities and landscapes. Her studio’s work also addresses the dynamic exchanges between ecological and human systems.