Graduate Faculty

School of Web Design + New Media
Graduate Faculty

Lourdes Livingston | Graduate Director
From 1977 until 1993, Ms. Livingston worked as an Editorial Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Her assignments at the Chronicle included all aspects of visual newspaper reporting, from developing daily political commentaries to backroom action at the Cannes Film Festival and street fashions in Milan. Ms. Livingston, already well-grounded in Mac usage, expanded her skills to include working on the SGI platform, and began to work with Silicon Graphics as a Graphic Designer. She later turned her digital focus to the dual Mac-PC environment at Women.com, where in a five-year span she helped build a small startup to a thriving network. As Creative Director at Women.com, she defined the look and feel of the entire network, working with art staffs in New York and San Francisco. She is currently the Director of Graduate Studies in Web Design + New Media. She served on the Education Program Committee for SIGGRAPH 2004 and 2005. She has moderated panels at SIGGRAPH, TYPECON, and at The Academy of Art University; she’s currently a member of BAYCHI, ACM SIGGRAPH, AIGA, and The Graphic Arts Guild.

Kathleen Watson | Faculty
Kathleen Watson has over 20 years work experience in the interaction design and usability.  She is currently a free-lance user experience specialist and web designer, running her private consulting business, Kats Vision. Over an 18-year period, Kathleen has worked as a senior human factors engineer and user interface designer for various companies to include Opsware, FileMaker, Claris, Financial Engines, Lotus, Tandem and Ford Aerospace.

Kathleen Watson is a Certified Human Factors Professional in accordance with the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics procedures and standards, specializing in visual communication. She holds a Masters of Arts in Research Psychology from San Jose State University, and Certificates in Fine Arts and Graphic Design from University of California, Santa Cruz Extension.

Kathleen Watson’s past teaching experience includes: 1) teaching assistant for undergraduate Statistics at San Jose State University, California, 2) private individual statistics tutoring, and 3) teaching the computer lab portion of the department multivariate statistics course and consultation to students and faculty on a variety of research design and data analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

Liam Aleguire | Instructor
Liam has worked on the East and West Coast as a New Media designer for numerous online companies, including Ask.com and the world-renowned Flash designer, Hillman Curtis. Liam recently led the redesign of hillmancurtis.com, as well as produced several Flash and DV spots while working alongside Hillman in New York. Prior to joining the Academy of Art University, where he is currently an online course designer and instructor, Liam worked as a Senior Designer for SightSpeed, a leading video conferencing company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Liam has also served as an Electronic Arts and Multimedia Instructor at BAVC & California State University, East Bay, where he received his Master’s degree in Multimedia.

Martha Breen | Instructor
Martha Breen is a Web Designer/Developer working for the Academy of Art University’s Cybercampus, where she is responsible for the global media tools used in online classes. She also produces special presentations, micro sites and ongoing media development initiatives that help keep the Cybercampus on the cutting edge (which is quite a challenge with students in over 40 countries!). Her work requires exploring new technologies as they immerge and considering their uses in an educational environment, focusing primarily on the User’s experience. Media on the web is a fast moving target, and it requires a someone who is dedicated to constant learning…it keeps her busy.

Liza Brown | Instructor
Liza Brown began her training in New Media at the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) in San Francisco in 2001.  She completed the Multimedia Production Certificate program at the top of her class and began working at BAVC as an Instructional Assistant, and later an Instructor. After starting her own web development and design company, she completed new sites for clients including a Chamber Music Society, an Investment Corporation, an IT Training Institute and a Botanical Body Care company. She started at the AAU as an E-Learning Designer, eventually becoming a Supervisor, and finally a UI lead on the team that built the Academy’s Learning Management System. Liza has since returned to contract work, teaching, and her other main creative pursuit – glass art.

Michael Brunsfeld | Instructor
Michael Brunsfeld received his BA in Art from Western Illinois University, and soon after his graduation, dived into the commercial world. He worked as a video designer doing set design, camera work, video illustrations and print. Then he worked two years in a film company creating motion graphics, titles, and special effects. Past and current clients include Chevy Suburban, Apple, Microsoft, Perrier, Coke, Disney, and MTV. For his work, Michael Brunsfeld has been awarded an Emmy and a Clio. He became a member of ILM Art Department in 1996, and he continues to create a variety of art work in commercial and film worlds.

Amy Louise Carr | Instructor
Specializing in photojournalism and candid portraiture, Ms. Carr has a wide range of experience in both digital and film mediums with extensive experience in digital enhancement and post- production.  Amy is a widely published photographer, with credits including The New York Times and the San Jose Mercury News. Her public relations, marketing and photography company, Amy Carr & Associates, serves a corporate clientele including Adobe Systems, Ziff Davis Media and Flipside Editorial.

Claudia Dallendörfer | Instructor
Claudia Dallendörfer was born in Germany 1972 and went on to study at the University of Arts Berlin, where she gained an MA in Industrial Design ” New Media”. Upon graduation she was hired as a full-time staff Designer and Analyst for Aaron Marcus and Associates in Emeryville, California. During her 7 years experience in user- interface design, she worked with international designers on various projects including web applications, mobile devices, web sites and prototypes. Clients have included Microsoft, Visa and Samsung, among others. Claudia Dallendörfer has been co-teaching “Interactive Infographics” at the Academy of Art University since 2004.

Julia Debari | Instructor
As a Presentation Layer Developer, Julia has had extensive experience building dynamic web sites, XHTML/CSS templates, as well as AJAX widgets for various sites. Julia is focused on designing the best possible solution by understanding the client’s business strategy, user needs, and technical environment. She has experience playing a dual role as both a designer and a developer. She currently works as an Information Architect for Avenue A I Razorfish, where she creates the information architecture and interaction design for transactional, informational, and marketing web sites.

Mitchell Hudson | Instructor
Mr. Hudson previously worked for WeeBee TeeVee of San Francisco, preparing artwork for interactive children’s multimedia titles. His various freelance clients include Mindscape, Multicom, CyberLab, and Strata Vision Inc. His software skills include Macromedia, Adobe, Strata Vision, and more. Mr. Hudson has studied Printmaking at City College of San Mateo and Academy of Art University. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Art in Printmaking from San Francisco Art Institute. He has been teaching at the Academy of Art University since 1995.

Jean-Benoit Lévy | Instructor
Swiss designer, Jean-Benoit Levy has taught regularly and given lectures about his work in various schools in Europe, Japan and the United States since 1991. From logo to corporate identities, postage stamp to coin design, street posters to book design, private projects or for-clients assignments, his professional experience is extensive.  His work has been awarded in international competitions and published in books and magazines. He has been a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) since 1998.

Scott Looney | Instructor
Scott studied jazz and improvisation at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and completed his MFA at the California Institute of the Arts. Upon graduation, Scott moved to New York, where he honed his improvisation skills in sessions with internationally known NYC improvisers like Reuben Radding, Randy McKean and Lou Grassi. In 1996, he moved to Oakland where he was inspired to add live electronics to his palette of sounds. Recently, Scott has appeared at the Big Sur Experimental Music Fest, the Olympia Experimental Music Fest, the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival and the Line Space Line Fest in Los Angeles. In addition, Scott works as a recording engineer with credits on Cadence Jazz, Balancepoint Acoustics, Edgetome/Pax Recordings and Limited Sedition Records.

Georgia McInnis | Instructor
Georgia McInnis has more than 20 years of professional experience in various areas, including photography, filmmaking, 3D Animation, education/administration and screenings/exhibitions.  Her works have been exhibited in many museums in different cities across the United States as well as in Germany and Israel. McInnis is an award-winning professional. Some of her honors include being elected to the Regional Board of the Alliance for Access Television Producers, named to the Texas Commission on the Arts Roster, and receiving the Mortar Board Outstanding Educator award, which is given to the best professor as judged by students at the University of Houston. She has collections in art museums, including London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, Switzerland’s Gernsheim Collection, Denmark’s Museet for Fotokunst, Brandts Klarderfabrik, and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Additionally, McInnis has held workshops with prominent photographers and artists such as Marie Cosindas and George Krause. She has also participated in open forums on photography, participated in the Women in the Arts Conference, Alliance for Access Television Producers Regional Conference, various SIGGRAPH international conferences on animation and the National Women’s Conference as a presenter. McInnis holds a MFA in Painting and Sculpture and a BFA and BA in Painting, Sculpture, and Ceramics and History.

Ryan McLaughin | Instructor
Ryan McLaughlin has worked as an instructor, instructional designer, curriculum developer, lead designer, internet specialist, graphic designer, operator/project manager, and art director in various companies such as Academy of Art University, Bay Area Video Coalition, Wells Fargo Bank, and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and many others. McLaughlin has a strong background in the printed arts world and a strong educational background in cognitive science. Since 2000, he has been a lead instructor with the Bay Area Video Coalition and MediaLink, where he teaches internet design and production skills to low-income adult students in 16-week intensive programs. He is a current member of Film Arts Foundation and the Bay Area Video Coalition. He has attended various workshops and conferences on web content, postproduction, Final Cut Pro, and Java.

Ryan Medeiros | Instructor
Mr. Medeiros, who received his Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of California at Santa Cruz in l994, is a freelance motion graphics and new media designer. He has worked as a web designer for numerous Silicon Valley computer companies.  In 1996 Mr. Medeiros was hired at Primo Angeli Inc., a premier San Francisco design firm.  His duties included web design and CDRom design. In April of 1997, he received a Design Merit award from HOW magazine, for design and technical production on the Primo Angeli Inc. web site.  As a freelance designer, from 1998 to 2000, Mr. Medeiros designed and developed corporate logos, business materials, web sites and motion graphics for clients, including:  Deluxe Distribution, Baywell Technologies, and Future Farmer Recordings. In 2001 he was invited to work with Primo Angeli as a personal design assistant in his Mill Valley office.  This was a profound period of growth and education in design.  Mr. Medeiros is currently concentrating on motion graphics and new media. He has been teaching at the Academy of Art University since fall 1997.

Alex Pineda | Instructor
Co-founder and Creative Director for The Retina, a cross-media design company, Alex has served clients such as Computer Associates, Compaq, Intel and Qwest. He has been an Art Director and Creative Director since 1997. Alex has worked on many platforms and mediums, from print to web, broadband to wireless, motion to brochure. Alex says, “What I seek is to keep learning, work with interesting people, and create inspired work for inspired clients.”

Ed Salvana | Instructor
Experienced in working as both designer and engineer, Ed is a Design Technologist at Code and Theory ( www.codeandtheory.com). He is a graduate of the MFA New Media program at the AAU and has a BS Management Information Systems from the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, an education that has given him a unique insight into both code and applied art. During his spare time he experiments with code, design and pretty much everything related to the web at www.visualgratis.com.

Barbara Traub | Instructor
Barbara Traub is a photographer and multimedia artist currently residing in San Francisco. After earning a degree in humanities from Johns Hopkins University, she studied photography and computer imaging at Studio Art Centers International in Florence and Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She began her career at a daily newspaper and yearbook company. In 1987 she won first place in the Baltimore Sun Magazine annual photo contest and went around the world to photograph people in their own milieu. Influenced by the abstract images of Ralph Gibson and Ruth Bernhard, Traub went on to explore the figure as landscape. A selection from this body of work is featured online in the New Nude, in Feierabend’s hardcover editions of Naked and Nudes Index, and on guest room walls of the New Orleans Crowne Plaza. Micropublishing News of Northern CA identified her as ‘A San Francisco Photographer Who Specializes in the Surreal’. For a number of years Barbara has been to Burning Man, and her photos from this series have appeared in publications such as Wired, Mondo 2000, Spiegel Online, Photo District News, Australian Financial Review, New York Press, and New Age. She was chief photographer for HardWired’s book Burning Man, curator of the ‘Art of Burning Man’ show at Photo SF, and author of Desert to Dream: A Decade of Burning Man Photography (reviews in SF Gate, TakeGreatPictures.com).

Kapin Weatherly | Instructor
Kapin Weatherly graduated with High Honors from UMass Dartmouth with a BFA in Graphic Design. She began her career in web design and application in the late 1990s with multiple Internet companies, Johnson & Johnson and Academy of Art University. Her web projects include an extensive Healthcare portal system, CRM Enterprise software application and online education. She’s currently a full-time designer for Hewlett Packard.

Ethan A. Wilde | Instructor
Ethan Wilde holds a M.A. in Architecture from UC Berkeley. Wilde has over 17 years experience in procedure-based, object-oriented and application-based programming as well as extensive database design experience. He is the President and Co-Founder of an industry award-winning web and multimedia development studio, Mediatrope Internet Studio. He is the author of Adobe Illustrator 9.0 Scripting Guide and AppleScript for the Internet: Visual QuickStart Guide, both reference books for AppleScript. For 6 years he was a Graphics and Computer Consultant. Wilde also has a BA in History from UC Santa Cruz.

Ruben Mosqueda | Instructor
Ruben Antonio Mosqueda has over 10 years experience as a art director, graphic/web designer and digital media artist. After receiving his Bachelor’s of Art in Graphic Design from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Mosqueda worked for AT&T in Redmond Washington in the collateral and branding divisions producing business to consumer brochures, booklets, take-ones and various point-of-sale materials. He also worked in collaboration with design firms in Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. Ruben currently works as a design educator and freelance designer for agencies throughout the United States, Mexico and South America.

Ben Day | Instructor
Ben Day is a UI Developer/Designer in San Francisco, CA for the Online Campus at the Academy of Art University. Ben previously worked in San Francisco for Quinn Interactive as a web developer. Ben Day graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in Art History in 1998, moved to San Francisco and has lived there since. Early on in the city, while working for an auction company, he had his first taste of internet design/development work with early live internet auction projects and the web tech boom dealing with eBay and other online auction companies. After deciding to stop studying industrial design, he gravitated fully to the Internet.

David Bishop | Instructor
David Bishop has been a commercial photographer since the late 70’s, both in NYC and San Francisco, and presently has a studio South of Market. He and his wife reside in Marin and are raising two daughters, a horrendously large tabby named Milo, some rats, a snake or two and the occasional opossum that come for a little R&R. This is his first semester teaching at the Academy of Art University.

Joe Cieplinski | Instructor
Joe Cieplinski is currently Creative Services Manager at ON24 in San Francisco. Before that, he was an Instructional Designer at the Academy of Art University, where he helped create online courses in various fields of art, including Illustration, Fashion Design, Interior Architecture, Advertising, Graphic Design, and others. Joe also has worked for Apple, where he developed workshop content, designed multimedia presentations and consulted with musicians and filmmakers. He holds a BA in Secondary Education from La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA.

Ryan McLaughin | Instructor
Ryan McLaughlin has worked as an instructor, instructional designer, curriculum developer, lead designer, internet specialist, graphic designer, operator/project manager, and art director in various companies such as Academy of Art University, Bay Area Video Coalition, Wells Fargo Bank, and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and many others. McLaughlin has a strong background in the printed arts world and a strong educational background in cognitive science. Since 2000, he has been a lead instructor with the Bay Area Video Coalition and MediaLink, where he teaches internet design and production skills to low-income adult students in 16-week intensive programs. He is a current member of Film Arts Foundation and the Bay Area Video Coalition. He has attended various workshops and conferences on web content, postproduction, Final Cut Pro, and Java.

Torrey Nommesen | Instructor
Torrey Nommesen is a graphic designer and fine artist who has lived in San Francisco for over 15 years. He runs the non-profit organization YLEM: Artists Using Science and Technology. He is also in the rock and roll band, The Capp Street Girls. Please find more information by googling “Torrey Nommesen.”

Eric Stumbaugh | Instructor
Eric Stumbaugh has held the position of Senior User Interface Designer at the Academy of Art University since 2006. Previous to his position with the AAU, he worked as the Art Director/User Interface Specialist for his own company, Eric Stumbaugh Designs. He has over 11 years of agency experience, and has worked as Production Designer at macromedia.com, Creative Lead at Viant Corporation, and Associate Creative Director at Influence. He holds a B.S. in Graphic Design/Communication and Journalism from Washington University and speaks English, French and Spanish.

Purvi Shah | Instructor
With more than 15 years of design experience naturally progressing from fashion and textile design to print design and new media, Purvi Shah is the founder of a non-profit organization, Kids and Art. She has also been a Creative Director at MediaZone, Owner/Creative Director of dezChutney studios with clients ranging from film director Jessica Lee, DreamWorks, BlogHer and Menuez Pictures , Art Director at KeepMedia Inc., and worked closely with David Siegel as a Concept Designer at Studio Verso.  

Susan Wolfe | Instructor 
Susan Wolfe has over 25 years evangelizing the value of usability and user-centered design to create successful user experiences, and extensive experience making it work in the real world. She has been living in Australia for 14 years, but still calls the Bay Area home, and visits frequently.  She has established and managed the corporate-wide Human Factors Department at Tandem Computers, and prior to that, held human factors positions with General Electric and IBM. Since moving to Australia, she has been involved in a number of usability and user-centered design consultancies and have collaborated with a vast array of commercial, corporate and government clients around the globe to introduce and reap the rewards of user-centered design practices.  She has also worked for Adobe as the Director of Consulting in the Pacific region.  She now has a company called Optimal Experience which focuses on delivering the optimal user experience.  Susan holds a BA in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and an MA, also in Psychology, from San Francisco State University. 

Joshua Turton | Instructor
In 2003, a small but enthusiastic group of elementary school students, teachers and parents celebrated the launch of Maestra Kara’s Road Trip / El viaje de Maestra Kara. This innovative web site told the story of a Spanish Language teacher and her photographer husband – Maestra Kara and Señor Josh – on a road trip across the United States.     

Focusing on bilingual education and US history and culture, the site was the product of one student’s time as an MFA student at the Academy of Art University.     

That student, “Señor” Joshua Turton, graduated in 2003 and is now a full-time web developer. He founded Señor Josh Interactive in 2004, naming the company in honor of that first project.    

Joshua is focused on producing high-quality programming and elegant design. He also partners with other web groups, lending his expertise to the creation of a larger whole.  

Amit Shamis | Instructor
Amit Shamis is a 10 year veteran of the Advertising industry. During this time he has served as an Art Director and Creative Director at such agency brand names as Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB, Digitas, Brann, and BBDO, working on such clients as Toyota, eBay, Charles Schwab, Isuzu, VISA, Shutterfly.com, and Bank of America.

Erland Sanborn | Instructor
I obtained my BA in Digital Media from the art department at UC Santa Barbara, where I also studied computer science and physics. My interests are broad, spanning web design, motion graphics, photography, video production, music composition and performance, computer programming, and even the occasional interactive installation. I’ve been in freelance design and music production for over eight years, and joined the Academy of Art University two years ago as a Mac Lab technician. From there I enlisted as an ARC tutor and interactive instructor for both the Advertising and Computer Arts/New Media departments.
 
Matt Cooke | Instructor
Matt Cooke has over ten years’ experience designing, writing and editing for the arts, non-profit and commercial sectors. His user-centered design work has been commended by the British Medical Association, in London, England, and has also been featured as a case study in “Visual Research: an introduction to research methodologies in graphic design”, published by AVA Publishing in 2005. Cooke holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies, and a Master’s Degree in Typo/Graphic Design from the London College of Printing. He is the founder of Matt Cooke Design, an award-winning design studio specializing in the arts, non-profit and commercial sectors, and is also a Partner, and Associate Creative Director, at Iron Creative in San Francisco.