Interim Program Director

Ken Howell

Ken Howell is the Interim Director of the MFA in Emergent Media and Assistant Professor in the Division of Communication & Creative Media. Ken joined Champlain's Emergent Media Center (EMC) in 2008 but has been teaching at the college since 2006. Since joining the EMC he as worked on a variety of projects including the UNFPA Game to Prevent Violence Against Women , CIMIT RIPS project and the IBM Virtual Worlds project. Prior to coming to Champlain College, he taught at both New York University and New Jersey City University.

In addition to teaching, Ken has been an independent Interaction Designer and Developer for over fifteen years and has been fortunate to work on such broad-ranging brands as Urban Outfitters, Rossignol, Pantene and Skittles. In 2002, drawing on a love of electronics and his fine art background, Ken founded Watson Innovations, a group of artists and technologists dedicated to developing new systems of computer user input through physical computing. When he is not working or teaching, Ken enjoys drawing, painting, woodworking, tinkering in his laboratory, and all things outdoors.

Ken's educational background includes a scholarship to the North Carolina High School of the Arts, a BFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Program Director (currently on sabbatical)

Ann DeMarle

Ann DeMarle is the Director of the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College and Associate Professor in the Division of Communication & Creative Media. 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 Educator. 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.

Assistant Program Director

John Banks

John Banks is Assistant Director of the MFA in Emergent Media and Associate Professor in the Division of Communication & Creative Media. He came to Champlain College from National University, where he was a media faculty and served as Interim Dean. John started his teaching career in 1996 at Columbia College in Chicago.

He has worked with digital tools since the early 80s when he co-founded the computer graphics firm Rising Star Graphics. Being a strong believer in maintaining professional practice, John has released four DVD and Blu-ray compilations of his work. Walt Disney distributed the most recent work, WOW World of Wonder. He has also worked on several large civic installations including the Crown Millennium Fountain in Chicago.

His interests and personal work revolve around relating the experience of being in nature, and the formative experiences of exploring as a youth. He has a great interest in travel and is influenced by fantasy writing and visionary music.

John received his BFA in Photography from the University of Arizona and an MFA in Art & Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was a recipient of the Mellon Foundation Fellowship.

Dean, Division of Communication & Creative Media

Jeff Rutenbeck

Jeff Rutenbeck is Dean of Communication and Creative Media at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, overseeing academic programs in game design, art and animation, media communications, digital filmmaking, professional writing, graphic design and digital media. He also oversees art, foreign languages and literature. He came to Champlain College from the University of Denver, where in 1996 he founded undergraduate and graduate programs in Digital Media Studies — an approach which integrates aesthetic, technical and critical approaches to the development of emerging media. He is also the founding president and current chair of the board of the International Digital Media and Arts Association.

His digital life began in earnest in 1987 when he joined Microsoft and worked on the development team of Word for Windows 1.0. Over the last 20 years he has continued to consult with many institutions and organizations about digital media, including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, AOL-Time Warner, The Cable Center, The Guanghzou Media Group (China), Miami University and Canisius College.

His scholarly interests range from media history (especially 19th-century American journalism) to current dilemmas in the digital age, and his work has appeared in a wide variety of publications including Journalism History, Journal of Communication Inquiry, American Journalism, Library Journal, Mass Communications and Journalism Quarterly, and others. He has a bachelor's degree in history and political science from Colorado College, a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a PhD in communication from the University of Washington.

He lives in Williston, Vermont, with his wife, Claire, and his two daughters, Anna and Mary. He is an avid science fiction reader, telemark skier, ashtanga yoga practioner, and computer nerd.

Amanda Crispel

Amanda Crispel is the program director of Game Design and Game Art and Animation at Champlain College. She teaches game design, game production, and portfolio classes, and is a faculty advisor for the Women in Technology Club and the Emergent Media Center. Prior to coming to Champlain, Crispel worked in the game industry specializing in game design for children’s and family entertainment and education titles. She has worked for companies such as Brøderbund, Mattel, Lego, Leapfrog, The Learning Company and Nickelodeon, and is now president and CEO of Hoozinga Game Media. Crispel has an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art with a focus on games as communication.

Amanda has worked as Faculty Advisor on the UNFPA Game to Prevent Violence Against Women and CIMIT RIPS project at the Emergent Media Center.

Erik Esckilsen

Erik Esckilsen has been a Champlain College instructor since 1997, teaching such writing courses as Creative Writing, Interactive Storytelling, Print Journalism, Rhetoric, and Screenwriting, as well as courses on the novel and on Middle Eastern cinema. He is the author of three novels for young-adult readers, all published by Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books: “The Last Mall Rat” (2003), “Offsides” (2004), and “The Outside Groove” (2006). Prior to becoming an educator, he worked extensively as a journalist, both as an editor and as a reporter, publishing articles on art and culture in the Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, Seven Days, and other periodicals. A recent research and applied interest involves narrative design for electronic games; he has been involved in the development of a game, produced in conjunction with the United Nations Population Fund and the Population Media Center, that combines soccer gameplay with a storyline discouraging violence against women. He holds a BA in Writing and Government from St. Lawrence University, an MA in English Composition from San Francisco State University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University. He is a native of Burlington, Vermont, to which he returned after living and working in Kyoto, Japan; Boston; New York City; and San Francisco.

Erik also previously worked as Faculty Advisor on the UNFPA Game to Prevent Violence Against Women at the Emergent Media Center.

Suzanne Glover

Since 1990, Suzanne has practiced varied disciplines within information and communications design, including information architecture, interaction design, usability research, identity and publications design, branding and environmental design. Through design firms, within large corporations, and more recently as partner in her own company, Suzanne has provided comprehensive solutions to both regional and global companies including Steelcase, Iams, Australian Department of Education, Westinghouse, Johns Hopkins University, World Health Organization, PHH Corporation, Zurich Financial Services, Maryland Business Roundtable, Crittenton Services of Greater Washington and the American Institute of Architects. Suzanne’s work has been recognized by Print, Graphis, Graphic Design USA and ID.

Concurrent with her design career, Suzanne has taught for universities, colleges and corporations. Teaching has been a lifelong interest and more recently, a fully dedicated aspiration. Suzanne’s area of focus is User Experience, Information and Interaction Design. She continues to be fascinated by the role of the user in the communication process and hopes to pass her passion for providing accessible and responsible design solutions on to her students.

Suzanne completed her MFA at Towson University and her BFA at University of the Arts in Philadelphia , PA.

Al Larsen

Al Larsen is a new faculty member in the Emergent Media MFA program. He is a media artist working in performance, sound and physical computing. His work engages ideas of public space, participatory culture and embodied interaction. His teaching and research draws on a deep background in DIY (do it yourself) culture including independent publishing, studio recording and performance. Lately he has worked with responsive systems, building electronic circuits and programming software tools for interactive performances.

Al's work in sound art has been exhibited in festivals in Brazil, Poland, Italy, Argentina, the UK and the United States and he has given dozens of performances in venues ranging from theaters and art galleries to sidewalks, rooftops and rec rooms. His writings on art, popular culture and youth subculture have appeared in Careless Talk Costs Lives, Plan B and The Squealer. Al received his MFA in Media Study (Emerging Practices) from University at Buffalo where he taught courses in social media, civic media and new media design.

Eric Ronis

Eric Ronis is the Assistant Dean in the Division of Communication & Creative Media and teaches human communication and acting at Champlain College. He holds a BA in English Literature from Harvard and an MFA in Theatre from Boston University. He has also studied acting at Second City in Chicago, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities at Concordia University. His field of research is street protest and the authenticity of live performance. As an actor, Eric has appeared in numerous plays in Boston, Chicago, New York and Vermont, most recently his own one-man show, “Things I’m Not Supposed to Say.” He is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and has appeared in several feature films.

Bob Selby

Bob Selby graduated from Catawba College in Salisbury, NC in 1971 with a BA in English. He made his way back to his native Massachusetts where he freelanced as an illustrator for such publications as Yankee Magazine, the Boston Globe and the Providence Journal-Bulletin. In 1976 he was hired as an artist by the Providence Journal, eventually becoming a staff illustrator. During his twenty-year tenure at the newspaper, Bob’s assignments were varied and challenging. He worked as a sketch artist in state, federal and the U.S. Supreme court. He produced a weekly comic strip, and researched and executed history paintings, some of which are now held in museums, including the military collection in the John Hay Library of Brown University. He worked on locations as disparate as the deck of a twelve-meter yacht in Newport’s America’s Cup races to Rhode Island homeless shelters. The awards he garnered included recognition by the Society of Illustrators of New York, the Society of Newspaper Design, Print Magazine and the Associated Press.

In 1993 he was awarded a Fulbright Grant in Journalism to research the history of caricature in Spain and spent four months living and working in Madrid, Spain. It was during those years that Bob began teaching as an adjunct in the Illustration Department of the Rhode Island School of Design. He taught Caricature and Three Dimensional Illustration at RISD for fourteen years.

In 1995, when the Providence Journal was downsized and sold to a newspaper chain, Bob took a buyout and began teaching full-time in the Illustration Department of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. After four years, when daughter Shawn had graduated from college and wife Terri had completed her Master’s degree (also in English), Bob resigned his position at UMass/Dartmouth so that he and Terri could realize their long-held dream and move to the Green Mountains of Vermont.

Bob currently combines free-lance illustration from his home and studio in Johnson with teaching. Since arriving in Vermont, he has executed commissions for the U.S. Coast Guard, Renaissance Greetings, Vermont Life Magazine, Brown Alumni Monthly Magazine and Rhode Island Monthly Magazine, among others, and has been teaching as an adjunct in Multimedia and Graphic Design and in the Fine Arts Department at Champlain College since 2002.

Elaine Young

Elaine Young is Assistant Dean of the Division of Business and Associate Professor of Marketing who teaches courses in Marketing, Internet-Marketing, Non-Profit and Social Marketing and Marketing Management. She also has developed the marketing course for Champlain’s MBA and teaches both Core and Communication classes focusing on Technology and the impact of Technology on society and communication.

Elaine holds a PhD in Organizational Management from Capella University; her dissertation research examined the use and adoption of technology by college students, and she developed a teaching model for faculty to follow when teaching a technology application in a classroom environment. She also holds an MS in Internet Strategy Management from Marlboro College, a BS in Communication and Public Relations from SUNY Brockport and an AS in Communication from Genesee Community College. She has more than 10 years of experience in the Marketing and Public Affairs profession, specializing in nonprofit organizations.

She has been teaching at Champlain since 2000. Elaine worked as Faculty Advisor on the UNFPA Game to Prevent Violence Against Women at the Emergent Media Center.

Julie Bond, EMC Interim Director

Julie Bond joined the EMC team in January 2010. She is responsible for all aspects of new project development at the Center, from federal and foundation grants to corporate and non-profit partnerships. Julie holds a Bachelors degree in International Studies and Human Development from Colby College and a Masters degree in Policy, Planning and Administration from Boston University. She has a wide spectrum of development experience in funding research, grant writing and grants management and compliance. Prior to joining the EMC, Julie worked in independent grant consulting; in grants management for the Agency of Commerce and Community Development for the State of Vermont; and in funding research for the Office of Sponsored Programs at Boston University. Julie is also a volunteer grant writer with the global women's health organization, Grounds for Health.

Sarah Jerger, EMC Marketing & Operations Manager

Sarah Jerger joined the Emergent Media Center in January 2008. Graduating from Champlain College in 2004 with a BS in Business and AS degrees in Public Relations & Media Communications and Multimedia & Graphic Design, Sarah brings a broad range of skills to her role. Sarah is responsible for marketing and social media initiatives, public relations and event management, business operations, and budget administration for both the Emergent Media Center and MFA program. Prior to working at Champlain, she held a marketing position at the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of 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, kitty-cat Buster and 75-lb. lapdog lab Sam. In her free time, Sarah dabbles in crafting, sewing, photography, Rock Band, cooking, thrift store hunting, globe-trotting and attempting to rival Martha Stewart.

Lauren Nishikawa, EMC Project Manager

Lauren Nishikawa is the Project Manager for the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College. She joined the EMC staff in 2009, but has worked with the center as a student since 2007. Before graduating in 2009 with her BS in Electronic Game Design, Lauren was part of rapid prototyping travelling teams to Orlando and Houston, as well as a designer for projects with IBM Fellow John Cohn and Champlain College Library’s information literacy initiative. In 2008, she traveled with a team of students to South Africa for the BREAKAWAY game to help end violence against women; this project remains her passion, having served as its Junior Creative Director through the game’s launch in June 2010.

Lauren has been honored with speaking opportunities both locally and nationally, including the Emergent Media Center's grand opening, the Champlain College 50 years on the hill celebration, and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) 14th National Conference. As a student, she received awards commending academic excellence in game design, teamwork and language learning, as well as an Entertainment Software Association (ESA) Foundation Computer and Video Game Scholarship. Lauren continues to immerse herself in the game industry through attendance at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and membership in the International Game Developers Association (IGDA).

Michele Hirsch, Office Assistant

Michele Hirsch joined the EMC in Oct. 2011 after nearly 2 years of working for the US Census in Williston, VT. She is responsible for event planning, tracking student work hours, and generally making sure that the EMC staff doesn't run out of pencils.

Michele holds a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College, and she has over 20 years' experience teaching English as a Second Language to adults in France. She and her family moved from Paris to Burlington in 2008, and still enjoy Vermont's snowy winters.

In her free time, Michele enjoys gardening, sewing, and volunteering at the Humane Society of Chittenden County, where she has donated nearly 500 hours of work.

Amy St. Louis, Academic Operations Manager, CCM Division

Amy St. Louis is the Academic Operations Manager for the Division of Communication and Creative Media at Champlain College. Before coming to Champlain, she worked as a Grant and Contract Accountant at the University of Vermont. Amy has a Bachelor’s degree in Business/Accounting from Castleton State and a Certificate in Supervisory Excellence from the University of Vermont. As Operations Manager, Amy’s daily activities include logistics, oversight, planning, documentation and communication of pertinent data; support of curriculum and course development; budget administration; event and conference planning; support of the Dean and faculty; etc.

Amy grew up in Brattleboro, Vermont, and currently lives in Shelburne with her husband Matt and their two cats. Amy is an antique enthusiast, and you can find her on weekends scouring flea markets, auctions and tag sales all over New England. She also enjoys cooking and interior decorating.