Faculty

Art and Design Faculty

Enrolling at Sessions give you the opportunity to study with a Faculty of industry-leading artists, designers, and writers who share a passion for online teaching. They bring decades of professional and educational experience to deliver challenging curriculum and expert critique and feedback.

Faculty members are recruited for their knowledge of the industry and excellence in creating or teaching design. The Faculty includes published authors, professional photographers, architects, illustrators, design agency directors, and Adobe-certified trainers.

The Sessions College® teaching Faculty consists of more than 30 experienced art and design professionals:

Alex Jimenez is a veteran game designer and Vice President/ Lead Designer of Tesseraction Games. The creative force behind the original Dungeons & Dragons games by Capcom, Alex has contributed to the concept, design, story writing, and development of a host of high-profile licenses including X-Men: Children of the Atom, Army Men Sarge's Heroes, Darkstalkers 1 and 2, Super Street Fighter 2, Battle Tanx 1 and 2, Marvel Super Heroes, Enigma: Rising Tide, Minigolf Maniacs, and Alien Vs. Predator. Alex has implemented projects on a wide range of platforms including PS 1 and 2, PC, N64, and coin-op formats. Alex has lectured on the game industry topics at conventions and to college students and both developed and taught video game development courses to high school students.

Andrew Shalat is an author, designer/illustrator, educator, and Mac expert. Since 1985 he has been designing and writing articles for Macintosh, Mac software, and publishing technologies that have appeared in Macworld, maccentral.com and macweek.com (for which he was a columnist writing "Shalat's Web"). He currently has two books: Do It Yourself Mac Projects, published by McGraw-Hill, and MacDesign Out of the Box, published by Inside Mac Press. Andrew's design work covers a large range of media including book, CD and DVD covers, brochures, catalogs, outdoor signage, print ads, artwork, logos, Flash and Web design, and grocery lists. Over the past two decades, he's taught literature, writing, Web design, and print design.

Bruce Bicknell is a writer, instructor, illustrator, animator, Web designer, video editor, marketing pro, and graphic designer based in Tampa, Florida. In his career he has worked on projects for Adobe Systems, ATI, Photoshop Elements Techniques, MacTribe, Yellow Machine and Mac Design to name a few. Bruce has degrees in Computer Animation and Web Development from The International Academy of Design and Technology.

Carolina Caycedo is an emerging contemporary artist whose most recent exhibitions were at Blow de la Barra in London, UK, and Galeria Comercial in Puerto Rico. Her fine art and photography collections have been written about in The New York Times, Artfacts.net, Artecontexto, The Nation, and Art Dispatches. Photography from Carolina's bartering project, entitled "Daytoday," was featured at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City. Carolina has given talks about art at The Whitney Museum in New York, The Art, Memory, and City Seminar in Bogota, and the National University in Bogota. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Contemporary Artists Center in Massachusetts and at Foraneza in Puerto Rico. Carolina was born in London and educated in Colombia. She earned her BA in Fine Arts from Los Andes University.

Chris Georgenes has been using Flash since version 3, when Flash was primarily considered an animation tool. His background is art, and he is self-taught as an animator. Chris spent six years as Director of Creative Development for Soup2nuts (a division of Scholastic, www.soup2nuts.tv) and art-directed many animated TV shows including Home Movies (Cartoon Network). Chris is currently a full-time freelance artist, animator and all-around designer for the Web, digital media, and television. His clients include Pileated Pictures, Lucas Arts, Universal Records, Plot Developers, AOL and more. He also maintains www.mudbubble.com as his online portfolio and www.keyframer.com, an online Flash tutorial resource. Chris is a member of Team Macromedia.

Claire Boger is an interactive designer and founder of ImaginationAlley.com, a Web-based software training and design resource site. Claire has more than 15 years professional design experience including corporate identity and package design. Over the past 10 years Claire has concentrated on interactive media and was rewarded as co-recipient of a patent for CD-based technology AudioVisionCD. Claire has played a variety of roles in the development of both large and small scaled interactive projects for such notable corporations as Daimler Chrysler, Kodak, Merrill Lynch, Mutual of Omaha, and MasterCard.

Cristin McKee is a character animator at Anzovin Studio, where she has worked on a number of high-profile projects including the features GI Joe: Valor vs Venom and Action Man: X Missions, game cut scenes for Halo 2, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Da Vinci Code , and Sid Meier's Railroads, as well as a number of television projects and short films. Cristin has spoken about animation on panels at Siggraph and Northampton Film Festival and taught animation at Hampshire College , MA. Cristin is currently co-directing an animated short. Cristin earned her Bachelor of Arts from Hampshire College, MA.

David Witt is a San Francisco-based new media artist and award-winning interactive multimedia designer. He has worked for many top brands and agencies, and has a background in graphic design, web design, digital imaging and high-end print production. His current focus is on creating new paradigms in interface design and multimedia applications using FlashMX/Actionscript. David holds a MFA in Design + Technology from Parsons School of Design.

Donald Gambino is a computer artist, consultant, educator, and trainer, since 1983, teaching students of all levels and abilities. Formerly the Chairperson of the Computer Art Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, he has taught innovative computer art courses for over 12 years, and created the BFA program in Computer Art.

Ian Kelleigh has over 10 years of experience in both print and web design and development, with a specific expertise in Macromedia’s FreeHand and Flash. Ian is a member of Macromedia's selective test panel for Freehand, and runs the award-winning tutorial Web site www.freehandsource.com dedicated to the software. Ian freelances in Seattle, and his clients include Microsoft, Group Health Cooperative, and Virtuoso.

Janet Valade is the author of five published books on PHP and MySQL: PHP & MySQL Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies, PHP & MySQL: Your visual blueprint for creating dynamic, database driven Web sites, PHP & MySQL Everyday Apps for Dummies, PHP & MySQL for Dummies Third Edition, and PHP 5 for Dummies. Janet has also written a Dreamweaver book and a Linux book.

Janet has over 20 years experience in the computing field. Most recently, she designed and programmed the Web site for a small engineering firm, including programming the e-commerce functionality for the site and converting the documentation for the company products to Web documents. Prior to that, she provided technical support to faculty and staff at a large University for over 10 years, as well as providing systems analysis, designing and developing a state-wide data archive, and designing and presenting seminars and workshops on a variety of technology topics.

Jesse Brophy is a 3d artist who has worked at a range of game design companies, including THQ, Atari, Breakaway Games, and Sony. Throughout his career he has worked on numerous titles in various capacities including character, environmental, and technical art positions. Jesse currently works at his dream job as an artist for Blizzard Entertainment. Jesse has a BFA in drawing and visual communication from the University of Arizona.

James Dodson is an architect with 10 years of experience at the norwegian firm Snøhetta (the internationally acclaimed designers of the Alexandria Library in Egypt, JMW Turner Gallery in Margate, England, and the WTC Memorial Complex in NYC). James has extensive expertise in the use of 3D modeling as a design tool. For Spring 2006 he has been appointed as visiting lecturer at the University of Texas School of Architecture where he will be teaching an advanced design studio and a seminar course entitled "Explorations in Digital Design Process." SketchUp will form an important part of the course that will seek to define a new digital workflow for architects and designers. James has been developing and teaching courses at Sessions since 2000.

John Feld is the editor of The Graphics Report, a resource for graphic and Web designers and digital photographers. John has been involved in the graphics world for over twenty years, as a graphic designer, owner of a large photographic studio, graphics trainer, system integrator of graphics software and networks, and manager of the creative concept and development of graphic software. He has worked at Scitex, MetaCreations, and UCLA and has taught at corporations and movie studios, recording companies, and advertising agencies including Paramount, Disney, Columbia, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Chiat Day, 30sixty design, R.R. Donnelley, Toyota, and TransAmerica Corp. John started teaching computer graphics with PageMaker 1.0, and QuarkXPress, set up a Quark Authorized Training Center, and has since taught on the Windows, Unix and Macintosh platforms. He co-founded the Adobe User Group in LA and the Digital Prepress Committee for the PIA and co-authored the first industry standards for digital graphics for the printing industry. At UCLA, he created and taught the Digital Prepress curricula. John has lectured and taught at graphic and computer conferences, including AIGA, Comdex, Seybold, MacWord and E3 and has been active in developing on-line communities.

Jordon Schranz, a 7-year inhabitant of Brooklyn, New York, is represented by the Black and White Gallery in New York, New York. He has had one-man shows in both New York and Chicago and he has participated in several group shows in the USA and internationally. His work is also included in several private collections as well as the collection of the Museum of Air and Space in Moscow, Russia. His work focuses on the idea of social and political interaction and how the media influences it. In addition, Jordon Schranz regularly stages, performs, and promotes avante garde, free jazz and experimental music performances and is a recording artist on the Black Saint record label with his group “The Eastern Seaboard”. Jordon is currently leading the development of a Fine Arts program at Sessions. Jordon earned his BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art.

Joss Parsey likes to describe herself as a graphics nomad. In the past two decades she has traveled through the diverse world of graphics, working full-time and freelance for a varied crowd. The work has gone from designing fabrics for Liz Claiborne, logos for various institutions or for individuals, marketing pieces for photographers or corporations and posters for publishing houses. She worked in-house at Adobe Illustrator and was the graphic communication leader at Smart Design working on projects for Copco, Serengetti Sunglasses and Kepner Tregoe. She worked behind the scenes at the Art Institute in Chicago coordinating Design and Architecture programs and makes a point of never specializing within a media to be labeled a certain type of designer. Diversity and timeless solutions are key to her approach.

Ken Milburn is a professional photographer and leading expert in digital photography. Ken's photographic career has ranged from starlet publicity photos for Univeral Pictures, to album covers, advertising, and editorial work for the TV Guide and Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine. His work has been featured in Design Graphics Magazine and Computer Graphics World. Ken is the principal author of 20 computer and photography books including Digital Photography: Expert Techniques from O'Reilly Associates, and The Digital Photography Bible from Wiley and Sons, and several books on Photoshop techniques. Ken has has written more than 300 articles on digital media, featured in Publish, DV Magazine, MacWorld, Computer Graphics World, PC World, and InfoWorld.

Margaret Penney is a teacher, designer, writer and media artist. Margaret teaches Web, print and motion graphic design, multimedia, and JAVA programming at an independent school outside New York City where she designs the Computer Science department curriculum. As a Web designer and developer, Margaret has created a multi-channel community portal for Hong Kong teenagers; ecommerce for Delias.com girls' clothing; a flash promotional for Nike; and currently she is working on a site for artist Sol Lewitt. As a new media artist, she has exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London; the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City; and around NYC. Her artwork has been reviewed globally online, in print magazines, and included in the book Eye Candy from the Underground: Fresh Styles for Web Designers. She has lectured on new media art at Purchase College, the School of Visual Arts Annual Conference for Educators, and the Pratt Institute. As a writer, she has been published in New York Arts magazine, Rhizome.org, and the Baltimore City paper. Margaret has a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and M.F.A. from Columbia University.

Matt Kloskowski is a writer, instructor, illustrator, and graphic designer based in Tampa, Florida. Author of Illustrator Most Wanted and Extreme Photoshop, Matt is certified as an Adobe Certified Expert, in Macromedia Flash, and as a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD). An expert in dynamic- and database-driven Web development, Matt writes weekly columns for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and Mac Design magazine's Web site and features for Create Magazine’s Studio column. Matt's tutorials have been used in over 15 schools throughout the United States and translated into seven languages. Matt graduated from University of South Florida with majors in computer information systems and marketing.

Michael Hamm is a freelance designer and Web developer with over a decade of experience in the creative field. Based in Washington state, Michael provides design solutions for clients across the country through his company ClayEdward Design. Prior to working on his own, Michael worked for JPMorgan Chase in Houston, Texas as an interactive designer. His work has been published in various Web design books and magazines and he is a regular contributor to Layers Magazine. In addition, he has served as technical editor on several design books published by Friends of Ed. Michael recently co-authored Introduction to Web Design Using Macromedia Dreamweaver published by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. Michael is an Adobe Certified Instructor in Adobe Illustrator and is the founder, designer, programmer, and writer of Points&Paths.com, a Web site that grew from his passion for illustration software and all things vector.

Nat Stein is a modeling supervisor and CG artist at Anzovin Studio. He has worked on animation for games such as Sid Meier's Railroads and Halo 2, as well as a variety of TV shows and movies. Nathaniel attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he also taught courses in Animation and Modeling after his graduation. Nathaniel co-authored the book Visual Quickstart for Maya 7.0, and is currently working on a new book. Nathaniel received his BA in Computer Animation from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Piper Nilsson is a graphic designer and information architect. In her four-year career for a leading Web design agency, she blueprinted sites for such global clients as MetLife, Pepsi, ETS, and Citibank. Her current projects include building an e-learning prototype for children with learning disabilities and teaching technology in New York City public schools. She received a degree in graphic design from Pratt Institute.

Dr. Taz Tally is the president of Taz Tally Seminars, a computer publishing consulting and training company. Taz is the author of numerous graphics and print production books including Photoshop Before and After Makeovers, Acrobat and PDF Solutions, Avoiding the Output Blues, Avoiding the Scanning Blues, and is a contributing author to The Photoshop World Dream Team Book. Taz has produced numerous instructional videos, CDs, and DVDs on scanning, prepress, Photoshop, color correction, and font management. Taz is a frequent presenter at seminars and trade shows throughout the U.S, and is a member of the Photoshop Dream Team at the biannual Photoshop World convention. Taz is a frequent contributor to Photoshop User magazine, for which he writes a regular prepress column. Hailing from Homer, Alaska, Taz has developed accessible yet content-rich courses and seminars for NAPP, Lynda.com, Staffingtools.com, and now Sessions.

Thom McKenna is the Owner/Senior Creative Director of FlatironWorks, a graphic/multimedia design firm based in New York City. Thom has over 12 years experience in the graphic design industry, including multimedia and television work within the advertising, design and publishing world. As Art Director of Emerging Markets, an international daily newspaper covering the major IMF/World Bank and Regional Bank meetings, Thom has published on-site in the following countries: Argentina, Bulgaria, China, Ivory Coast, England, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, The Philippines, Portugal, Russia and Spain. His current clients include Sports Illustrated, JP Morgan, American Express, AIG, Thomson Financial, Thomson Publishing, Berlitz International, Citibank, Tower Air, and Merrill Lynch.

Todd Gantzler is a game artist, educator, and writer. Todd has worked as a 3D artist on such games such as Gex 3D, Cyberia, and Akuji the Heartless and specialized in game design work and character animation. Todd has served as Program Leader for game development degree programs at the Media Design School in New Zealand and at the University of Salford in England. He has been designing and teaching game art and design classes since 2000. Todd's first book Game Development Essentials: Video Game Art was published by Thomson Delmar Learning in July 2004. Todd moved into games from work in graphics and animation for TV and film; his film credits include The Pagemaster (1994).

Yeesan Loh is an interior designer, photographer, painter, and graphic designer who has extensive experience in architecture. Yeesan's photography and painting has been exhibited in Artworks Gallery in Miami and The Las Olas Art Center in Fort Lauderdale and her photo essays published in Vida magazine in Asia. Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, she is currently an associate in Design Space Associates, a Florida-based interior design firm; co-owner and residential designer of StopDrop&Roll, a graphic tees company based in Buenos Aires; and a "New Malaysian," as featured by Harper's Bazaar, Malaysia.