Faculty and Staff
The Emergent Media Center brings a broad range of expertise. From faculty and staff to students and professsionals, each bring their own unique perspective. Idea collaboration and talent is abundant and diverse.
- Ann DeMarle
- Ray McCarthy Bergeron
- Sarah Jerger
- Heather Kelley
- Ken Howell
- Amanda Crispel
- Joe Manley
- Elaine Young
- Megan Frenzen
Ann DeMarle
Director, Emergent Media Center
Dr. Roger H. Perry Endowed Chair 2006
Associate Professor, Division of Communication & Creative Media
Ann DeMarle is the director of the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College. In 2006, she became the first recipient of the Roger H. Perry Endowed Chair, established to support initiatives promoting innovation, change, and entrepreneurship at the College. Formerly the founding director of both the Multimedia and Graphic Design and the Electronic Game baccalaureate programs, DeMarle used the endowment to create an on-campus center dedicated to emergent media. Key to its mission is an approach that brings the media and technology expertise of Champlain students together with businesses and nonprofits looking to explore and create new solutions. Through partnerships, the Center has been exploring the impact of game technologies and emergent media on learning, communication and decision-making. Champlain students have been hosting summits, building games and interactive media, and participating in international conferences.
Much of DeMarle's work has involved the integration of education and technology. In 2008, DeMarle was elected to the prestigious IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors. In 2004, DeMarle was recognized as an Apple Computer Distinguished Educators. She is the founding director of the Governor's Institute of Vermont in Information Technology for outstanding high school students and has been since the program's inception in 2002. She trained Vermont teachers on technology in the classroom to enhance student learning-as an instructor and mentor for the WEB Project and as an organizer of Champlain College/VITA-Learn Dynamic Landscapes program.
DeMarle holds a BFA from State University of New York at New Paltz and an MFA from Rochester
Institute of Technology. Before entering academia she had a long career in computer graphics that
included; creating media for corporations such as Eastman Kodak, Lotus, AT&T, Lockheed Martin, and IBM Research.
Raymond McCarthy Bergeron
Project Director
Raymond McCarthy Bergeron has been an employee of Champlain College since December 2001, starting in the Information Systems department, and joined the Emergent Media Center in November 2007. With both a B.S. in Multimedia and Graphic Design in 2004 and a B.S. in Computer Information Systems in 2007 from Champlain College, he leverages both the creative and technical sides of his brain to solve problems. Even though his primary focus is in managing projects at the center, he fills the gaps where necessary as a Creative, Technical and/or Artistic Technical director. He also is a member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA).
As a student, Ray was recognized for his work in illustration, 2D and 3D animation, as well as video, in the 2002, 2003, and 2004 Champlain Media Awards, placing him in 1st and 2nd in several categories. In 2007, he won 1st place in Vermont's Independent Film Festival for Student Animation.
Ray continues developing and keeping his skills relevant as a freelance designer, video editor, and computer & technical consultant. He loves learning through teaching and enjoys helping out others whenever he can, especially when participating as the Video Editing Faculty during the Governor's Institute of Vermont in Information Technology camp since June 2004. In his spare time, if there is any, he explores digital photography, music, video creation, tactile arts, as well as 3D modeling and animation. He finally relaxes by spending time with his lovely wife, Corinn, and his crazy, lovable, fur-ball-of-a-cat Sam.
Sarah Jerger
Operations Manager
Sarah Jerger joined the Emergent Media Center in January 2008. Graduating from Champlain College in 2004 with a B.S. in Business and A.S. degrees in Public Relations & Media Communications and Multimedia & Graphic Design, Sarah brings a broad range of skills to her role as Operations Manager. Sarah is reponsible for daily business operations, grant and budget administration, event planning and marketing. Prior to working at Champlain, she held a marketing position at the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Burlington, Vermont.
Originally from Connecticut, the unique nature and dynamism of Champlain College and the Burlington area brought her here to stay. She currently lives in Essex Junction with her husband, Jay and kitty-cat, Buster. In her free time, Sarah dabbles in designing stationery, sewing, cooking, thrift store hunting and attempting to rival Martha Stewart.
Heather Kelley
Creative Director, UNFPA Game to Prevent Violence Against Women
Heather Kelley is a computer and video game designer, currently Creative Director on the UNFPA Electronic Game to End Gender Violence under development at the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. As moboid, she creates game-based artwork. For the Spring of 2008, Heather was the Kraus Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, and Adjunct Faculty at the Entertainment Technology Center, both at Carnegie Mellon University. Heather's twelve-year career in the games industry has included AAA next-gen console games, interactive smart toys, handheld games and web communities for girls. She is co-founder of the Kokoromi experimental game collective, with whom she produces and curates the annual Gamma game event promoting experimental games as creative expression in a social context. Her game concept Lapis won the 2006 MIGS Game Design Challenge on sex in games. As moboid, she has created interactive projections using game engines such as Quake and Unreal. Her most recent art game work at Montreal's Hexagram Institute integrates gameplay into full-body interactive gallery installations.
For seven years, Heather served as co-chair of the IGDA's Women in Game Development Special Interest Group. She holds an MA from the University of Texas at Austin, where she is an alumna of the Advanced Communications Technologies Laboratory.
Ken Howell
Artistic Technical Director
Adjunct Faculty, Division of Communication and Creative Media
Ken has been an independent media designer and developer for over ten years. He has been fortunate to work on such broad-ranging brands as Urban Outfitters, Rossignol, Pantene and Skittles. Additionally, drawing on a love of electronics and his fine art background, in 2002 Ken founded Watson Innovations, a group of artists and technologists dedicated to developing new systems of computer user input.
Ken Howell joined the EMC team in 2008 but has been teaching at the college since 2006. Prior to coming to Champlain College, he taught at both New York University and New Jersey City University.
When he is not working or teaching, Ken enjoys drawing, painting, woodworking, tinkering in his laboratory, all things outdoors, and playing with his daughter, Rose.
Ken's educational background includes a scholarship to the North Carolina High School of the Arts, a B.F.A from the Maryland Institute, College of Art and an M.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Ken is currently the Artistic Technical Director for the UNFPA Game to Prevent Violence Against Women and previously worked as a Flash Developer on the CIMIT RIPS project and Project Manager on the IBM Virtual Worlds project.
Amanda Crispel
Program Director, Game Art & Animation and Game Design
Amanda Crispel has 16 years of experience in the electronic entertainment industry, specializing in projects for children and families. She's been on development teams at Mattel, Leap Frog, Lego, Brøderbund Software, The Learning Co., Animated Speech Corporation, Digital Chocolate and Plan B Enterprises. She has designed numerous popular CD-ROM titles in favorite family lines such as Carmen Sandiego, Kidpix, Lego Mindstorm, Rugrats, Leapfrog and Dr. Seuss. Several of her software titles have earned consumer software awards for excellence, including the Family PC Recommended award for her first title, Math Workshop. Other projects include designs for the web, mobile phones, console platforms and traditional board and card games.
Amanda joined the faculty at Champlain College in 2005 and is currently teaching courses in game design. She is the director of the Game Development program and is responsible for developing curriculum for the program as well as establishing contacts with industry leaders.
She believes play can provide a profound insight into understanding human culture. "Through the academic investigation of play and games we have great opportunities to not only create great games for entertainment," she says, "but to also use what we have learned in more meaningful ways such as in education, training, mass media and design." Amanda's goal is to educate her students in both the theory of play and games, as well as the production of rich and rewarding interactive environments.
Before joining Champlain College, Amanda taught at Maple Woods College in Missouri. She earned a bachelor's degree in graphic design at the University of California, Davis and is completing a master's degree in electronic media through the University of Missouri. She is a member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA).
Amanda is currently working as a Faculty Advisor on the UNFPA Game to Prevent Violence Against Women and previously worked as Faculty Advisor on the CIMIT RIPS project.
Joe Manley
Assistant Professor, Division of Communication & Creative Media
Joe Manley is a Flash Developer/Designer, professor and artist. He has taught in Champlain College's Multimedia and Graphic Design program for over three years. Most of his work centers on creating interactive Flash games and educational software. In 2005, Joe worked with a group of Champlain faculty and students to develop and create an animated video and "serious" video game about the dangers of mercury for the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.
Besides teaching three classes a semester at Champlain, Joe is a full-time Flash Developer for the University of Vermont. He's taught at the University of Colorado, Denver University, Red Rocks Community College, the Vermont Clay Studio and the Vermont State Craft Center at Frog Hollow. Joe's educational background includes a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Joe is currently working as a Faculty Advisor on the Robert Wood Johnson Breath Biofeedback game project with the Emergent Media Center and University of Vermont College of Medicine.
Elaine Young
Associate Professor, Division of Business
Elaine previously worked as a Faculty Advisor on the UNFPA Game to Prevent Violence Against Women project.
Megan Frenzen
Assistant Professor, Division of Business
Megan previously worked as a Faculty Advisor on the UNFPA Game to Prevent Violence Against Women project.
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