What is the make-up of industrial design (I.D.) faculty in the U.S.? How diverse are they in terms of gender, ethnicity, background, and experiences? What types of degrees do I.D. faculty have and where did they earn them? Those are the fundamental research questions that drive this ongoing research. This rationale is based on the notion that being taught by diverse faculty and being exposed to a wide variety of role models, might support increased diversity amongst design students and future young professionals. Currently there is inconclusive data (if any) available focused on the demographics of industrial design educators. In response the research team pursued the “industrial design education census”, which is now in its second round of data collection. The first iteration revealed unexpected patterns in the career paths of design educators. For the second iteration the research team added qualitative interviews to a revised survey in order to uncover further details. Our goal of this research is to craft a series of best practices for the purpose of achieving greater diversity in students, faculty, and ultimately in the design profession.