In August 1997, Elizabeth Whelan established her studio in New York specializing in constructed textiles for the contract, residential and apparel markets. Since then the textiles of Elizabeth Whelan Design have been chosen by preeminent American designers to adorn the most innovative and advanced furniture and interior design products being made in this country today.

Her passion began in early childhood when she quickly learned to knit and needlepoint employing complex and advanced stitches. At the Rhode Island School of Design she learned about the process of design, why it was particularly rewarding to her and how to apply her talents to it. She earned the Textron fellowship over the course of her studies and received her BFA in 1991.

While principal of her studio, Ms. Whelan has been an adjunct faculty member at the Parsons School of Design in New York and a lecturer at The Pratt Institute. In November 2001 she was invited to be a guest foreign faculty member at the National Institute of Fashion Technology in New Delhi, India. In 2004 she was an Adjunct Professor of Textile Design at RISD, her alma mater.