Background

Degrees & Certificates

• Bachelor of Fine Arts | University of Colorado-Denver, 1995
• Masters in Fine Arts | University of Iowa, 1999  

Professional Organizations

• Society for Photographic Education
• American Society of Media Photographers
• Colorado Photographic Arts Center

Q & A

What do you do at CCD?

I am the chair of the visual arts department and the primary professor of our foundations classes in photography (digital). I have been a full-time faculty member at the college since the fall of 2000 and each year my knowledge of and dedication to what we do here for students grows!

What awards have you received?

• Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad (GPA) to Syria and Turkey in 2007 (pictured at Palmyra from 2007)
• Best of Show for Colorado Photographic Arts Center 2010 Photography Show
• Fulbright-Hays GPA to Morocco in 2015

What do you enjoy most about your work?

Working with students who demonstrate passion and drive gives me equal opportunity to learn and keep moving forward in my own creative work.

When you’re not working, what do you do?

When not performing the great opportunities and teaching that my 'job' at CCD allows I spend time with my family, work on our ever evolving house and plan for more travel!

What moment at CCD stands out as the most memorable?

The most memorable was when a young man contacted me to share his experience as a professional fashion photographer working in Miami and NYC. This person was a student of mine who called to thank me for what I taught him. Other stand-out moments are about the centrality of personal creativity in one's life, and the opportunities that continual focus on this can bring.

Who had the greatest influence on your education and/or career path?

That would probably be Deborah Goldman, my professor of photography at UCD in the early 90's. Deborah opened my eyes to the conceptual potential of creative use of photographic images, encouraging my risk-taking in mounting a mixed-media installation for my BFA thesis that took many by surprise, including me! Nuclear mythology anyone?

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Don't try to 'strategize' your way into art, you'll end up chasing the tail of that dragon and getting burnt every time. (Graduate Faculty at University of Iowa. Worth every penny.)

Which three people (living or dead) would you invite to dinner and why?

Saladin & Abu Bakr al Bhagdadi & Bashar Al-Assad. Saladin could give the defeated/deceased leader of ISIL and the 'blind' despot of Syria a harsh history lesson on the region, politely of course, over a traditional feast of Kurdish origin.

What or who can’t you live without?

Humanity, simply put.

Please list any research interests.

Contemporary creative photography (of course!) of the regional complexity in MENA and Kombucha.

Please share something cool going on in your classroom.

I have a project in my Digital Photography One class that has students take a step back to examine their own cultural perceptions, identify with the ways 'others' perceive their own culture in revelatory ways and to arrange a body of creative photographic work to express their discoveries about cultural perception. Well that's the goal anyway! (If you're curious, look up the work of Leila Alaoui.)