Mary Jo Peterson, CKD, CBD, CAPS, CAASH, CLIPP is an award-winning author, speaker, educator and designer with more than 25 years of experience working in the kitchen and bath industry. She is president of Mary Jo Peterson, Inc, established in 1993, which offers specialized expertise in kitchen, bath, and universal/accessible design. Her firm offers consulting services to private clients, product manufacturers and builders/developers/architects in the design of universal spaces and products, and her projects run the gamut from the Betty Crocker Kitchens at General Mills to designs for Del Webb, Pulte and other major homebuilders to exhibit spaces for GE Appliances, Jenn-Air and Hafele.

Peterson is a member of the National Kitchen & Bath Association’s Hall of Fame, and has contributed to the development of the new national universal design standards introduced in 2013. Author of Universal Interiors by Design (McGraw-Hill Professional, 1999) and Universal Kitchen and Bathroom Planning (McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, 1998) as well as Kitchen Planning and Bath Planning of the NKBA resource library (latest edition, Wiley, 2013), Peterson is a frequent speaker at design events, as well as the author and instructor of the universal design courses offered by NKBA. She has written the Planning & Design column for Kitchen & Bath Design News for more than 25 years, and also shares her knowledge with the next generation of design professionals, teaching at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Named by NAHB as CAPS Educator of the Year 2014, she is also an author/instructor of the CAPS and UD/Build programs of NAHB. Involved with government and advocacy groups, Peterson works at integrating universal access and sustainability into home and product design, and actively promotes change and education towards the integration of access, sustainability and beautiful design.