2023 Faculty

Designed for Educators

Jennifer Gee, Instructor

San Diego, California

Dr. Jennifer Gee is an Assistant Professor of Elementary General and Choral Music Education at San Diego State University. She instructs undergraduate courses in elementary and secondary general music education, choral music education, and music integration for elementary teachers. Her research is focused on preservice teacher preparation in classroom management and music integration in the elementary classroom. Gee has presented research at the American Orff-Schulwerk Association National Conference, College Music Society National Conference, Desert Skies Symposium for Research in Music Education, International Society for Music Education World Conference, Mountain Lake Colloquium, National Association for Music Education Music Research and Teacher Education National Conference, and the Symposium for Music Teacher Education. Her research has been published in the International Journal of Music Education, Journal of Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, and Visions of Research in Music Education. 

https://music.sdsu.edu/people/gee-jennifer

WORKSHOP Classroom Engagement in the Arts
Alonso Nuñez

Alonso Nuñez, Instructor

San Diego, California

Alonso Nuñez is the founder and Executive Director of Little Fish Comic Book Studio, a comic arts-based educational nonprofit. He graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2009, and is a proud third generation San Diegan. He is a 2021 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Judge, and has taught and advocated for comics, in all its forms, for over a decade. He is the recipient of the Jonathan Maberry Inspiring Teens Award in 2021 and the San Diego Writers Festival Community Leadership Award in 2022. 

His work focuses on the unique storytelling power of the comic arts, and his passion lies in finding bridges for comics out into other artforms, educational disciplines and communities. 

lilfish.us

WORKSHOP Comics in the Classroom
Cynthea Liu

Cynthea Liu, Instructor

McKinney, Texas

Cynthea Liu writes for young people of all ages. For Disney and Marvel, her titles include board books, picture books, Little Golden Books, chapter books, and junior novels for Disney and Marvel. She has also authored works for other major trade publishers including THE DARE (originally published by Penguin Random as PARIS PAN TAKES THE DARE), an Oklahoma Book Award Honor. Cynthea's picture book BIKE ON, BEAR! (Simon & Schuster) is an Illinois Reads title and Oklahoma Book Award Winner. Her work has been translated into multiple languages including German, French, Portuguese, Korean, and Chinese. Cynthea has also published WRITING FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS: A CRASH COURSE to help others ramp up quickly on the business of writing for children and teens.

WORKSHOP Writing for Children and Teens: A Crash Course

Kelly Doremus Stuart, Instructor

Concord, New Hampshire

Ms. Kelly Stuart has been sharing her love of dance and expressive movement with people of all ages and abilities in a wide range of venues throughout New Hampshire for over 30 years. Professional teaching credits include; Roster Artist/Trainer with VSA Arts NH, The State Organization on Arts and Disability, Roster Teaching Artist with the N.H. State Council on the Arts, Arts-in-Education and Arts in Health Care programs (1989-2018), Part-time faculty, New England College (NEC) Theater Department, (1988 - 2019), Visiting Artist, Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center residential school, K-12, (2011-2018), Co-Director Petit Papillon, The Ballet Theatre of NH (1989–2016). Stuart integrated dance with classroom curriculum in her school residencies. She was a lead teacher trainer with VSA NH. She directed and choreographed over 30 original productions for NEC’s Annual Dance/Movement Concerts and the Ballet Theatre of NH. She believes in the transformative power of dance to strengthen the human spirit.

WORKSHOP Creative Movement and Dance: Kinesthetic Learning in the Classroom

Photography

Evan Beasley, Digital Photography Technician

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Evan Beasley is an Oklahoma City-based artist and internationally-published photographer with a background in commercial photography and photofinishing. In 2016, he established EB PHOTO and specializes in artwork documentation and fine art printing. While he works with a variety of subject matter, the majority of his current efforts are spent photographing for various businesses around Oklahoma City and managing his photofinishing business. His work has been published in Vice, LinkedIn Learning and People of Print magazine along with various other publications. 

ebphotollc.com

WORKSHOP Mastering Light: Exploring the Art of Photographic Illumination

Troy Word, Instructor

Petersham, Massachusetts

Troy is originally from Bartlesville, Oklahoma and developed an interest in photography at a young age. He attended the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute in 1979 and 1980. While at OSAI, Troy met legendary fashion photographer Richard Avedon, inspiring his move to NYC. Living at the YMCA while studying at School Of Visual Arts, Troy began documenting NYC nightlife which gave him a dramatic introduction to the world of celebrity and fashion. Following three years as the assistant to noted photographer Albert Watson, Troy embarked on a solo career. He has since worked internationally for a large base of commercial and editorial clients.

His clients include: Lancôme, Loreal, Pantene, Avon, Bacardi, Macy’s, Harrods, Bobbi Brown, Victoria’s Secret, Lovesac, and Neutrogena. 
Editorial publications include: InStyle, GQ, Elle, People, Self, Allure, Glamour, Red, Marie Claire, and Esquire.
Celebrities include: Carrie Underwood, Beyoncé, Julianne Moore, Matt Damon, Rachel McAdams, Heidi Klum, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and many others.

troyword.com

WORKSHOP Mastering Light: Exploring the Art of Photographic Illumination

Writing

A black and white headshot of a middle-aged person looking up with glasses.

Brian Turner, Instructor

Orlando, Florida

Brian Turner is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently: The Wild Delight of Wild Things (2023), The Goodbye World Poem (2023), and The Dead Peasant’s Handbook (2023), all forthcoming with Alice James Books. His other collections include Here, Bullet to Phantom Noise, and the memoir My Life as a Foreign Country. He is the editor of The Kiss and co-editor of The Strangest of Theatres anthologies. A musician, he has also written and recorded several albums with The Interplanetary Acoustic Team, including "11 11 (Me Smiling)" and "The Retro Legion’s American Undertow." His poems and essays have been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, Harper’s, among other fine journals, and he was featured in the documentary film Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, which was nominated for an Academy Award. A Guggenheim Fellow, he has received a USA Hillcrest Fellowship in Literature, the Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship, the Poets’ Prize, and a Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. He lives in Orlando, Florida, with his dog, Dene, the world’s sweetest golden retriever.

brianturner.org

WORKSHOP The Writer's Toolbox

Music

Melissa Blum, Instructor

Iowa City, Iowa

Melissa Blum, Executive Vice President of West Music, has over 30 years’ experience teaching music at the preK-adult levels. Blum has been a member of the World Music Drumming Faculty since 2009, creating and teaching Drumming Up the Fun! and related workshops for teachers of children ages 3-8. She developed the curriculum for Sing & Play & Learn Today!, West Music’s early childhood music and movement program. Blum has facilitated World Music Drumming ensembles as a team-building exercise at a variety events for children and adults, and is a frequent clinician for music conferences, Orff workshops, daycare/preschool providers, public school professional development, and ECMM educators on the topic of incorporating developmentally appropriate music activities in the pre-k through elementary classroom setting.

WORKSHOP Applications of World Drumming: PreK-6th Grade

Paul Corbière, Instructor

Iowa City, Iowa

Paul Corbière has taught Elementary General Music for 30 years in Florida/Iowa and is currently the 4-5 Music Teacher at Oak Hill Elementary in the Clear Creek Amana School District. Paul is a member of the World Music Drumming Teaching Staff and has been a featured clinician at a number of Music Education Association Conferences, AOSA Conferences, and for the European Council of International School. Paul is a consultant for the Just Play It! Classroom Harmonica Method, a classroom Blues Harmonica curriculum. Paul has authored several resources that feature ensembles for the general music classroom. Paul received his MM from The Ohio State University.

WORKSHOP Applications of World Drumming: PreK-6th Grade
Marc Silverberg

Marc Silverberg, Instructor

New York, New York

Dr. Marc Silverberg has established himself as one of the leading voices in a cappella education today. He has served on the executive board of CASA.org as Director of Education and presented workshops on vocal improvisation at over twenty national and state festivals. 

Beginning in 2020, Dr. Silverberg pioneered two new breakthroughs in a cappella education: A cappella Masterclass (acappellamasterclass.com) and VocaVersity, the world’s first, certified online school for contemporary a cappella. In spring 2020, Dr. Silverberg released his first published book, co-written with Deke Sharon and Dr. J.D. Frizzell, with GIA Publications titled Teaching Music Through Performance in Contemporary A cappella. Under his pseudonym “Docacappella,” (docacappella.com) he has released several humorous a cappella parodies, which have been nominated for 11 Contemporary A cappella Recording Awards. University of Delaware (B.M.), Westminster Choir College (M.M.), and Five Towns College (D.M.A.).

marcsilverberg.com

WORKSHOP Contemporary A cappella 101

Visual Arts

Marwin Begaye, Instructor

Norman, Oklahoma

An internationally exhibited artist, Marwin Begaye examines the issues of cultural identity through the intersection of American Indian and popular cultures. His ongoing research investigates the technical processes related to printmaking and construction of mixed-media art. He has received numerous awards as an artist-in-residence and through juried exhibitions, often negotiating the cultivation of his own skills and opening doors for his students. His work has been featured in numerous publications and he maintains an active exhibition schedule, featured in exhibitions in New Zealand, England, Argentina, Paraguay, Italy, Siberia and Estonia. He is in private, museum collections and the United States Library of Congress, Prints and Photograph Division.

marwinbegaye.com

WORKSHOP Bird and Patterns

Misty Gamble, Instructor

Canyon, Texas

Misty Gamble’s work is inspired by the human figure and its infinite capacity for communication. Gamble’s current work, life-size ceramic figurative sculptures and installations of multiple figurative fragments, focuses attention on issues surrounding femininity and challenges conventional standards of morality, normalcy and propriety. Misty has been awarded residencies and fellowships at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, New Harmony Clay Project and the Armory Art Center, Project Art, C.R.E.T.A Rome, SACI Florence, Woodstock Byrdcliffe, Hambidge Center for Arts and Sciences, Buffalo Creek Art Center, Rowan University, Wildacres, and Vermont Studio Center. Gamble is the co-founder of Studio Nong: International Sculpture collective and residency program which travels to China and the US to accomplish residencies that focus on clay figurative sculpture. Misty was a full time Assistant Professor at the Kansas City Art Institute for nearly a decade and has taught throughout Italy. Currently, she is Assistant Professor of Art at West Texas A&M University.

WORKSHOP Ceramics: Focus on the Face

Chris Hopkins, Instructor

Everett, Washington

The career of Chris Hopkins spans over four decades encompassing many genres including high profile illustration for film, entertainment sports, publishing and the corporate world, including theme art for three Superbowls and marquee art for the film, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He has created work for the U.S. government with works displayed in the White House during the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and a commission from the Obama White House. Many of his paintings are in the permanent collection of the Pentagon. Hopkins has painted works for the Air Force from assignments to Afghanistan, Thailand and Central America. He has created museum exhibits that celebrate the human, spirit painting bodies of work that narrate and recognize the N.W. Coast First Nations People, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the Japanese American Internment. He has been awarded with gold and silver medals from SILA.

chrishopkinsart.com

WORKSHOP It Takes a Vision
Ben Long

Ben Long, Instructor

San Francisco, California

Ben Long is a San Francisco-based photographer, writer, and teacher. The author of over two dozen books on digital photography and digital video, he is also the author of several best-selling LinkedInLearning.com photography courses. His photography clients have included 20th Century Fox, Blue Note Records, Global Business Network, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Pickle Family Circus, and Grammy-nominated jazz musicians Don Byron and Dafnis Prieto. He has taught and lectured on photography around the world, including workshops at the Santa Reparata International School of the Arts in Florence and a class for imaging engineers at Apple, Inc. He occasionally dabbles in computer programming and has written image editing utilities that are used by National Geographic, the British Museum, and the White House. Long was an OSAI acting student in 1985.

completedigitalphotography.com

WORKSHOP Storybook with Artificial Intelligence

Farah Mohammad, Instructor

New York, New York

Farah Mohammad (b. Karachi, Pakistan) is a printmaker, installation artist, and educator based in NYC. She received her BA from Bennington College and her MFA from Columbia University. Her exhibition highlights include a solo exhibition at Nyama Fine Art, NYC, and group exhibitions at the Moss Art Center, Blacksburg, VA; Print Center New York (PCNY), Half Gallery, EFA’s Blackburn 20|20 Gallery, The Jewish Museum, ChaShaMa, Field Projects, and Local Project Art Space, all in New York. Farah’s work has been acquired for the permanent collection by the Baltimore Museum of Art. She was the Artist in Residence at Cornerstone Studios (2022-2023) and was also the recipient of the Keyholder Residency (2021), The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Blackburn Print Excellence Award (2021), and the Lucas T. Carlson Grant at Columbia University (2020). Farah is a Teaching Artist at Creative Art Works, and she also teaches the Fluid Monotype class at EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop.

farahmohammadart.com

WORKSHOP Monotype Printmaking
Joel Nakamura

Joel Nakamura, Instructor

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Joel Nakamura is an image maker, writer, and art educator. Nakamura creates art for commercial clients and galleries. He has won numerous awards of excellence for his advertising, editorial, and corporate illustrations. His clients and projects include the 2002 Winter Olympics opening and closing program illustrations, Nike, Time Magazine, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Nakamura’s illustrations and graphics for Maxalt, a Merck Pharmaceutical migraine medicine, made it the number one recognized medical branding in the world. He is the author and illustrator of the award-winning children’s books Go West! and I Dreamed I was a Dog. Go West! was chosen to represent the State of New Mexico Library Association at the Library of Congress Book Fair in Washington D.C.

joelnakamura.com

WORKSHOP Visual Arts: Random Narratives

Kayla Ohlmer, Instructor

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Growing up in Oklahoma, Kayla began blowing glass in Oklahoma City when she was in high school. She attended Centre College in Kentucky where she graduated with a BA in Studio Art in 2014. After graduating she worked as a Studio Assistant at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio in Norfolk, VA and has been privileged to attend other institutions such as Pilchuck Glass School and Penland School of Craft. In 2020, she received her MFA from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Her work explores themes of perception, distortion, and vanity. Ohlmer is currently the Program Director at Tulsa Glassblowing School in Oklahoma.

kaylaohlmer.com

WORKSHOP Glass Kiln Forming Foundations

Frank J. Williams, Instructor

Pasadena, California

Frank J. Williams received his MFA  degree from UCLA, and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. He has two BFA degrees from the University of Oklahoma in Norman.  

He is known as a visual artist, educator, and designer.  He has been featured in one-man and group exhibitions.  His artwork can be found in public and private collections throughout the country, and is included in several publications.  Williams has taught at both the high school and college levels.

He works with enamel paint on wood.  By combining these two mediums, it allows him the freedom and flexibility needed to create both sculpture and painting together.  He likes building with his hands to see each image transform and come alive.  Colors of paint flowing into one another bring drama, movement, and excitement to each piece.  There are no limitations–only great possibilities.  

frankjwilliams.net

WORKSHOP Beginning Acrylic Painting

Summer Zah, Printmaking Technician

Ada, Oklahoma

Summer Zah (Jicarilla Apache, Navajo, and Choctaw) is an award-winning printmaker and installation artist who received her MFA from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. She has participated in public lectures and questionnaires about her art, taught a variety of age groups, and has exhibited work at notable galleries including the Southern Plains Indian Museum, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Craft Alliance in St. Louis, MO, and the Fruitlands Museum of Art in Harvard, Massachusetts. Summer’s work critically analyzes the current state of North American Indigenous communities by visually expressing her personal stories through multidisciplinary mediums. Presently, she works at the First Americans Museum store as assistant manager where she aids in curation choices, social media marketing, as well as events planning.

summerzah.com

WORKSHOP Bird and Patterns
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