Susan Margaret Watkins (born June 12, 1943) is a Cornell University professor emerita who founded the academic field of functional apparel design. She is the author of the seminal textbook in the field, Clothing: The Portable Environment (1984), and holds patents as a result of her collaborative research with the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, firefighters associations, and other industrial partners. In 1991 Watkins was inducted as a Fellow into the International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA), the highest honor awarded by the organization, for her contributions in shaping the field of functional apparel design. Biography Watkins was born on June 12, 1943, in Jacksonville, Florida. Her grandmother taught her how to sew on a treadle sewing machine. After graduating from Central Dauphin High School, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, she pursued clothing design as her profession with the goal of teaching at the university level. She received her B.S. in 1965 and her M.S. in 1967 from Pennsylvania State University in Textiles and Clothing, with a focus on the social and psychological aspects of clothing. In 2014, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Minnesota in recognition for establishing the field of functional apparel design and for her continuing contributions to the field. Academic career Watkins was a faculty member and researcher at Cornell University from 1967 to 1998, attaining the rank of Professor in the Cornell University College of Human Ecology in 1987, and is currently an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Fiber Science & Apparel Design. She spent time in residence as a visiting professor at Oregon State University, the University of Minnesota, Kansas State University, and Seattle Pacific University. Development of the Functional Design Program Watkins’s work at Cornell focused on training apparel designers to understand and create garments designed primarily to function well for workers needing protection, for athletes, and for the military. Watkins organized collaborations with apparel companies for her students and discussed the theory and process of apparel design with academic colleagues and industry partners. These projects played a significant role in shifting the focus in the curriculum at the Department of Textiles and Clothing from preparing young women for work in the home, managing a family, toward preparing them to work in the apparel industry. In the late 1960s Watkins came in contact with Dr. Stephen J. Kennedy, then director of what is now the United