Until her retirement in 2018, Ms. Custer was the head of the MFA design program and resident designer for the Clarence Brown Theatre for more than 35 years. Her design credits include Broadway, regional theatre, the Municipal Theatre of Istanbul, and the National Theatres of Germany and Hungary. Her students have won numerous major awards in recognition of their design excellence. Her former students are working in regional theaters, regional opera companies, in New York, in film, and at universities across the country. Professor Custer has received numerous grants and traveled extensively researching costume designers in Central and Eastern Europe. The University of Tennessee has recognized her with a Thomas Jefferson Award for her research and creative accomplishments and the James R. and Nell W. Cunningham Outstanding Teaching Award. She has won the Triangle Award for Costume Design in North Carolina, the Helen Hayes Award for Costume Design in Washington D,C. and the Knoxville Coalition Award for Costume Design.