Cynthia Marvin has been active in the arts community – as an artist, designer, arts administrator, volunteer, and board member – for more than thirty years. After receiving a bachelor of fine arts degree in studio art from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she was accepted into the North Carolina Arts Council Community Arts Internship program. Upon completion of the program, she became director of an arts council in western North Carolina and worked in arts management for ten years. In 1996, she earned a master of architecture degree from the College of Design at North Carolina State University. Her architecture clients have included Fortune 500 companies, prize-winning scientists, and leading research universities. She has designed approximately 1.2 million square feet of technically complex facilities totaling more than half a billion dollars, including the largest proteomics facility in the world and one of the largest vaccine manufacturing facilities in the world. She was also an integral member of an international design team on the University of Toronto Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, which won fifteen design awards and was selected as one of the best new buildings in the world in 2006.