Sonia Davis Gutiérrez grew up in Central Arkansas and has lived in Northwest Arkansas for almost 20 years. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville with a bachelor of science in microbiology in 1996 and bachelor of art in graphic design in 1998. During that time she spent a year abroad in Salamanca, Spain at the Universidad de Salamanca where she studied art history and graphic design with a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. In 2000 she was accepted to the design and technology masters program at Parsons School of Design in New York, New York. She completed her studies in 2002 and a year later returned to Fayetteville, Arkansas with dreams of founding the first design school in Arkansas. By 2005 New Design Center, a center for professional development where creativity and technology intersect was established and a year later, New Design School received it’s licensure from the Arkansas State Board of Private Career Education to offer a certificate program in graphic design. In May 2009, she was appointed by the mayor to lead a creative economy citizen action group for the city of Fayetteville with the goal of growing the creative economy.
Today Davis Gutierrez practices and teaches graphic design. When she is not in front of a computer she enjoys hiking, traveling and listening to live jazz.
