UNCSA welcomes new faculty members

UNCSA welcomes 28 new faculty members, including several alumni, for the 2021-22 school year, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Patrick J. Sims has announced. 

“It takes a special breed of educator to train and mentor the incredibly creative students who enroll at UNCSA,” said Sims. “We are committed to finding a diverse group of instructors who are not only passionate about their craft or their discipline, but are uniquely suited to engaging with our extraordinary students. This year’s class of new faculty has demonstrated its commitment to education and the arts. We are excited to see how students will flourish and grow under their leadership.”

The new faculty include:

Clara Abernethy Ortega, School of Design and Production (D&P)

Alumna Clara Abernethy Ortega (M.F.A. Design and Production ’18) is teaching wig and makeup design. She has experience in theatrical wigs and makeup at Williamstown Theater Festival, the Children’s Theater of Charlotte and Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre. She has also worked as a nonsurgical hair replacement and hair add specialist in Hickory and Charlotte. Ortega has a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and digital imaging from High Point University and a cosmetology license from the AVEDA Institute in Charlotte.

Tamara Akinbo, High School Academic Program

Tamara Akinbo is teaching Spanish. She previously taught at North Carolina Governor’s School for five summers; at area schools including Mount Tabor High School, Reynolds High School, Parkland High School, Wiley Middle School, Jefferson Middle School, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem State University, North Carolina A&T State University and Forsyth Technical Community College; and at schools in Jamaica, New York, and Roanoke, Virginia. She has a Master of Arts in education from Wake Forest University and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Spanish from Winston-Salem State. Akinbo spent five months in Querétaro, México, studying language, history, literature and culture at Tec de Monterrey while living with a native family.

Maggie Anderson, School of Drama

Alumna Maggie Anderson (High School Drama ’92) is directing the High School Drama Program. Since 2013, she has been associate professor of musical theater and director of movement at Temple University, where she received an excellence in teaching award. She has also taught at the College of New Jersey, McCarter Theatre, Wagner College and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Anderson has directed and choreographed productions at Temple Theater, Villanova Theatre, Drexel University and many regional theaters. As an actor, she has appeared in regional theater productions, film and television roles, and commercials. She has an M.F.A. in musical theater from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a B.F.A. in music theater from Elon University.

Trevor Anderson, School of Design and Production

Trevor Anderson will teach theatrical production. He has been shop steward and supervisor in Design and Production since 2019. He was previously technical director for the Department of Theatre and Dance at Wake Forest University for 16 years, which included supervising technical aspects for productions of the National Black Theater Festival held in Wake Forest facilities. Anderson has also worked as a theater technician specialist with Dudley Theatrical and held various positions with Seaside Music Theater in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Chamber Theatre Productions in Boston. He has a Bachelor of Arts in theater design and production from Lynchburg College in Virginia.

Benjamin Atherholt, School of Music

Benjamin Atherholt is teaching bassoon. He is the director of NOLA Chamber Fest and the music coordinator for Lyrica Baroque, both in New Orleans. He is also the contrabassoonist and assistant principal bassoonist of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. In the summer he serves as the contrabassoonist with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in New York. For 13 years Atherholt was instructor of bassoon at Tulane University, and frequently teaches as a featured guest artist in master classes and residencies across the country. He holds a Bachelor of Music in performance and composition from Oberlin Conservatory, studying under the tutelage of George Sakakeeny and Jeffrey Mumford.

Christopher Burris, School of Drama

Christopher Burris is teaching acting and directing. Burris has an extensive resume as a professional actor in theater, film, television and voice-over, and as a director in both professional and university theater. He has taught at Pace University, New York University, University of California San Diego and LaGuardia Community College. He has also taught at the Atlantic Theater Acting School in New York. He is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Actors’ Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. He has served on the Drama League’s nominating committee and directors council, and the nominating committee for the Kilroys’ List, which honors new plays that were canceled, postponed or closed early due to COVID-19, and were written by women, transgender and nonbinary writers. Burris has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and an M.F.A. in acting from the University of California San Diego. He will direct “Passing Strange” for the School of Drama in March 2022.

Fayth Caruso, School of Drama

Alumna Fayth Caruso (High School Dance ’04, B.F.A. Dance ’07) is teaching ballet for actors. She holds an M.F.A. from Hollins University in collaboration with the American Dance Festival and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and The Forsythe Company, both in Germany. Caruso has danced and choreographed professionally for various festivals, concerts, music videos, theater productions, and dance companies in New York, Chicago and internationally. She was awarded the UNCSA Kenan Fellowship at Lincoln Center Institute, where she pursued opportunities in teaching and also choreographed and performed numerous innovative original works. She is education director for bellicon usa, an international fitness company specializing in mini trampolines and a co-founder of bellicon Home, an international online video fitness platform.

Ilana Coleman, School of Filmmaking

Ilana Coleman is teaching undergraduate producing. She is a Mexican-U.S. director, cinematographer, producer, writer and editor who was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2017.” She received her M.F.A. in film directing from the California Institute of the Arts and won the Jovenes Creadores scholarship given by the Mexican National Fund for Culture and Arts. Her feature-length directorial debut, “The Inventory,” has received support from Sundance Institute, Field of Vision and Ibermedia. Coleman’s directorial work has screened in Morelia, Guanajuato and Fantasia international film festivals, and at REDCAT International Children’s Film Festival. In 2020, she was an invited producer to the Rotterdam Lab, where she represented Sin Sitio Cine, a collective she co-founded that is based in both Mexico and the U.S. as a champion for filmmakers working within their own communities.

Molly Doan, School of Design & Production

Molly Doan is teaching costume design. She is currently costume collection manager at UNCSA. She has designed costumes for Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, including a production at the Spoleto Festival in Spoleto, Italy, and for Barter Players and Barter Theatre Stage II. She has designed and fabricated prosthetics and makeup for Barter Theatre, Hartford Stage and the pilot of fantasy/adventure series “The Witch and the Warden.” She was also the production designer and concept artist for “The Witch and the Warden.” Doan has a B.F.A. in costume design and technology from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Kelly Donnellan, School of Filmmaking

Alumna Kelly Donnellan (B.F.A. Film ’00) is teaching picture editing. She is an award-winning documentary editor and director who has edited two feature documentaries and more than 50 short films, including the 2012 Student Academy Award Silver Medal documentary “Dying Green.” Her editorial work can be seen on several short documentaries for the Favorite Poem Project, Chicago, sponsored by the National Poetry Foundation. She edited the award-winning short documentary “I Throw Rocks!” and her directorial effort, “I is Another,” earned her recognition as the “Best Female Director-Woman to Watch” from the Underexposed Film Festival in 2013. Donnellan has an M.F.A. in film and electronic media from American University. She has taught at American University, the University of Maryland at Shady Grove and the University of Idaho.

David Dunlap, School of Filmmaking

David Dunlap will teach cinematography. He has worked extensively in television and film, with credits that include “House of Cards,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “Royal Pains,” “Gossip Girl,” “Lipstick Jungle,” “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” “Annie,” “Air Force One,” “Boys on the Side,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “Forrest Gump,” “Julie and Julia,” “Goodfellas” and “Men in Black.” He has also worked on commercials for the Olive Garden, Glaxo Smith Kline, Kimberly Clark, Publix, Verizon, Lifeline and Marie Callender. Dunlap worked on the documentary “Play On John: A Life In Music” for the Smithsonian Channel and on the Jamie Cullum music video “High & Dry.” He has a B.F.A. in film from Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts).

Doug Griffith, School of Design and Production

Doug Griffith is helming the new animatronics graduate program. He has more than three decades of experience with Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, California, and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, where he provided animation, show concept design, character development, and animation design and direction for popular characters located at Disney theme parks around the world. He also produced educational materials for Disney’s trademarked form of robotic animation, explaining the foundational principles of art form, applied techniques and best practices. Griffith studied character animation and film on a full Disney Scholarship at California Institute of the Arts and commercial and fine art at Shepherd University.

Brent Harvey, School of Music

Brent Harvey is teaching tuba and euphonium. He has a Doctor of Musical Arts and a Master of Music from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro (UNCG) and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Minnesota. For 10 years he has been associate professor of low brass and music theory at Winston-Salem State University, and has also taught at Wake Forest University, Pfeiffer University, UNCG, and North Carolina A&T State University. Harvey has performed professionally with symphony orchestras in the North Carolina cities of Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Durham, Salisbury and Fayetteville, and orchestras in Norfolk, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina. He has performed extensively as a chamber musician; with jazz bands, brass bands and wind symphonies; and as a soloist.

Keith Hobgood, School of Filmmaking

Keith Hobgood will teach animation. He has 17 years of experience creating animation and graphic design for Out of Our Minds Animation Studio. He was nominated for an animation award for “Dear, Sweet Emma” by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and won Best Independent Animation from the Hollywood Film Festival for “The Magistical.” He has a B.F.A. in communication arts from East Carolina University.

Samone Jacobs, School of Design and Production

Alumna Samone Jacobs (B.F.A. D&P ’19) will teach wig and makeup design. She has worked professionally with Wig Maker Associates, Christaline Studios, Charles LePointe Wig Studio, and Hero Hair, working on Broadway productions including Disney’s “Aladdin,” “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations,” “Beetlejuice,” “Hamilton” and “Spongebob Musical”; tours for “Hamilton” and the “Donna Summer Musical” tour; and film and television projects including “Loud House: A Very Loud Christmas” and “Dispatches From Elsewhere.” While at UNCSA she was manager of the Wig and Makeup Shop for two years.

Tyler Kinnear, Division of Liberal Arts

Alumnus Tyler Kinnear (B.M. ’07) is teaching humanities. He has a master’s degree from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia, both in musicology. Kinnear has taught at Western Carolina University, the University of Oregon and the University of British Columbia. He was co-curator of a sound-based exhibition, “Resounding Change: Sonic Art and the Environment,” at the Western Carolina University Fine Arts Museum and is principal investigator for the Sonic Histories Project to cultivate awareness of former Cherokee Indian and African American settlements on what is now the campus of Western Carolina University.

Ashley Lindsey, School of Dance

Alumnus Ashley Lindsey (Arts Diploma, Dance ’07) has been director of the Summer Dance program at UNCSA for two years. He has been a member of the Limón Dance company, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Helen Simoneau Dance and Jessica Gaynor Dance Company and has performed throughout the United States, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, China and Mexico. Lindsey performed in the film “Bolden” and has appeared in music videos and commercials for Target, ESPN, Skype and Dental Works. As a choreographer he has created works for UNCSA, UNC-Greensboro and numerous dance companies throughout the United States and Bermuda. In 2012, he founded Ashley Lindsey Dance, a contemporary dance company that has performed in various festivals in New York City. He has taught as a guest artist at UNCSA and with Jose Limon Dance Foundation, New York City Dance Alliance and Joffrey Ballet summer intensives. He has led master classes at Duke University, American Dance Festival (Samuel H. Scripps Studio), Steps On Broadway and Elon University. He will premiere a new work at Fall Dance, which opens Tuesday, Sept. 28.

Ryan Mulder, School of Filmmaking

Alumnus Ryan Mulder (M.F.A. Film Music Composition ’20) is teaching film music composition. He has a B.A. summa cum laude in music, jazz studies and music technology from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. He has composed the scores for the independent horror comedy film “All Monsters Are British” and for the UNCSA student films “Delivery,” “Lost in the Red Snow,” “Love Garden,” “Laying Down the Law,” “Graduation Day,” “Blues and Hues,” “Do You Remember,” “Issues” and “The Last Time.” He performed on the accordion with the UNCSA Wind Ensemble and on the saxophone with the UNCSA Jazz Ensemble. He is co-owner of Scoring Winston-Salem, which provides recording and mixing services for media projects and contract musicians for recording sessions.

Bailey Pittenger, High School Academic Program

Bailey Pittenger is teaching English senior seminars. She has a Ph.D. in literary arts and creative writing from the University of Denver, an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Notre Dame, and an M.A. and B.A. with honors in English, both from Wake Forest University. She has previously taught at the University of Denver and the University of Notre Dame, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, and as a teaching intern at Wake Forest University. She is co-founder of Triad Abolition Project, a grassroots organization in Winston-Salem.

Evan Richey, School of Filmmaking

Alumnus Evan Richey (High School Music ’82, B.M. ’84) will teach film music composition. He is the owner of Ovation Sound, where he produces and engineers recordings and composes music for audio and audiovisual media. He has composed music and designed sound for Telly, Addy and Emmy award-winning projects. Richey has previously taught cello at Salem College and cello and music production and recording at Wake Forest University. He was assistant principal cellist with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and operations coordinator at public radio station WFDD. He has an undergraduate degree in cello performance from The Juilliard School.

Natalie Rogers, High School Academic Program

Natalie Rogers is teaching advanced placement English literature and composition and English senior seminar. She has a Ph.D. in English and creative writing from the University of Denver, an M.F.A. in creative writing from Syracuse University and a B.A. in English literature from Reed College in Oregon. Rogers’ teaching experience includes Utah State University, the University of Denver, City University and Chinese University of Hong Kong, Syracuse University, and Cleveland Humanities Magnet School in Reseda, California.

Benjamin Roidl-Ward, School of Music

Benjamin Roidl-Ward is teaching bassoon. He has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, along with several regional orchestras throughout the United States. He has performed with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, the Chicago Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic, and has appeared at the Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Lucerne, Tanglewood, Spoleto and Banff festivals. A 2018 Luminarts Fellow in Classical Music, Roidl-Ward is a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He has a Doctor of Musical Arts from Northwestern University, a Master of Music from Rice University and a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin College and Conservatory, all in bassoon performance. His teaching experience includes the University of Northern Iowa and North Carolina Governor’s School.

Jessica Singerman, School of Design and Production

Jessica Singerman is teaching color and design. She is an award-winning artist with solo exhibitions at the Sawtooth Center in Winston-Salem, Greenhill Center for North Carolina Art in Greensboro and Attention Gallery in Durham. Her works are held in private collections in the United States, France and Australia. Singerman has an M.F.A in painting from the University of Delaware and a B.A. magna cum laude in studio art from the College of William and Mary. She also studied at the Parsons Paris School of Design. She has taught previously at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, Cornelius Art Center (North Carolina) and the University of Delaware.

Frazier Smith, School of Filmmaking

Alumnus Frazier Smith (M.F.A. Film Music Composition ’20) is teaching film music composition. He has a B.F.A. in arts administration from Piedmont College and works as a composer for visual media including films, video games and television. Smith has composed scores for the short films “Gone But Forgotten,” “Blue Bison,” “Stick to Manual,” “Delivery,” “Love Garden,” Logged On” and “Renaldo,” and the podcast “Improvisers.”

James Suttles, School of Filmmaking

James Suttles will teach cinematography. He has 15 years of experience as a producer, director and cinematographer for film, television and multimedia projects. Feature film credits include “Shifting Gears,” “Hurry Scurry,” “Touched by Grace,” “Alone Yet Not Alone,” “For the Glory,” “Hero,” “Red Dirt Rising,” “A Dance for Bethany” and “Radomcity,” and two documentaries, “Three Cultures of Appalachia” and “Women of These Hills.” Suttles is co-owner of Cine Foundry, which provides production services including camera, grip, electric and lighting rental for the motion picture industry. He served on the board of directors of Native Intelligence, a film, music and audio book marketing and distribution company.

Brandon White, School of Filmmaking

Alumnus Brandon White (B.F.A. Film ’13) is teaching screenwriting. He has written five feature-length screenplays and one novel. He is a Slack moderator for Treehouse Inc., an online technology school, and has worked as unit production manager for Heads Up Film. White also has an associate’s degree in business administration from Guilford Technical Community College.

Katherine Wiley, Division of Liberal Arts

Katherine Wiley is teaching humanities. She is a violinist with the Winston-Salem Symphony and is director and instructor with the Piedmont Suzuki Studio. She has also taught at the Indiana University School of Music and Peabody Preparatory of Johns Hopkins University, and has been a guest lecturer at Wake Forest University and UNCSA. Wiley is founder and director of Blue Ridge Music Camp in Orkney Springs, Virginia. She has a Bachelor of Arts in music from Oberlin College in Ohio and a Master of Music in pedagogy and performance from East Carolina University. She is a certified Koru Mindfulness teacher. She also completed a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program at Brown University.

Kim Zubick, School of Filmmaking

Kim Zubick will teach creative producing in the graduate program. With her production company, Zubick Films, she has released “TOGO” for Disney Plus and “The Zookeeper’s Wife” for Focus Features. She was the president of production for Tollin Productions (“Green Wave,” “Happy Camper” and “Crossover”) and for the Robert Simonds Company (“I Dream of Jeannie,” “Pink Panther 2,” “License to Wed” and “Yours, Mine and Ours”). As vice president of MGM Studios, her projects included “Thelma and Louise,” “The Russia House,” “Shattered,” “Not Without My Daughter,” “The Vagrant” and “Undercover Blues.” She has a Master of Arts in clinical psychology from Antioch University and a Bachelor of Arts with a triple major in international relations, French and German, from Mount Holyoke College.

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