Faculty for Game Sound Design Degree

John Billingsley

Biography

John has diverse broadcast and media production experience, having worked in various capacities in television, radio, film and music production. Early in his career, he spent many years working in the music business in New York City while on staff at two major recording studios, Quad Studios and Looking Glass Studios. During this time, John worked on and received engineering credits on many major label releases, including albums by Phillip Glass, Nils Lofgren and Phish. Later, as a freelance audio engineer in New York, he worked for a variety of television stations and independent production companies, including MTV, VH1, The Oxygen Network and Giants Football Broadcasting.

More recently, John spent a decade working as a producer and production engineer at Vermont Public where he recorded, edited and mixed audio for broadcast and podcasts on a daily basis. In addition to producing audio content, he created videos for the station’s website. John developed and produced a music video performance series titled Live From The Fort that ran for 5 years, garnishing over 100,000 views on Youtube. He also developed, produced and occasionally hosted, a weekly series titled Safe and Sound, that focused on Vermont musicians.

Through his production company, Breadbox Productions, John have produced several documentaries. One feature documentary he co-produced, directed and wrote, Liemba, tells the story of Africa’s oldest operational ship which plies the waters of Lake Tanganyika. He has also written, performed and mixed the musical scores for several independent productions. Through the use of midi, samples and virtual instruments, he composes in styles ranging from hip-hop to classical.

John received a Bachelor of Arts from St. Lawrence University and a Master of Arts in Media Studies from The New School.

Publications & Abstracts

Liemba

Favorite Quote

“Learn as if you will live forever, live like you will die tomorrow.”

—Mahatma Gandhi

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Samara Fantie

Biography

Samara Fantie is a game developer and artist currently based in Vermont. Her robust background in the sciences includes an MA from American University in Mathematics and a BA with distinction from Amherst College in Psychology and Mathematics.

Leveraging a lifelong love of art, games, and interactive narratives, Samara has accumulated over a decade of experience helping people tell their stories. Her portfolio spans a wide array of projects including visual development, comics, 3D modeling, illustration, and many other flavors of game-related art and design. She has collaborated with a diverse range of clients including neuroscientists, indie developers, and Unity, showcasing her versatility and expertise in both technical and artistic domains. Her passion for the craft and innovative adaptability have enabled her to consistently deliver compelling creative solutions that resonate with audiences.

As co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of game studio Glossbird, Samara brings a unique blend of analytical rigor and creative vision to the gaming industry. Prior to teaching at Champlain College, she taught graduate-level courses at American University’s Game Lab for their Master of Arts in Game Design program.

Distinctions & Awards

• a16z TxO f’23 Accelerator Cohort
• PocketGamer: Most Innovative Mobile Game of the Year Finalist
• SmithMicro: The Avatar Challenge Design Contest

Publications & Abstracts

A Burlington Game Developer Hopes to Hit It Big With ‘Fitment’

Professional/ Scholastic Affiliations

Glossbird

Recommended Reading

Mrs. Davis

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Jonathan Ferguson

Biography

Jonathan Ferguson, Assistant Professor, Game Design and Game Production, Division of Communications and Creative Media at Champlain College is a Game Designer and software freedom advocate. Prof. Ferguson has over 28 years of technology development experience, spanning careers in Cybersecurity, Software Development, Game Development, and Teaching.

Professor Ferguson maintains particular interests in free and open source software, game technology, game history and game preservation and access. Prof. Ferguson holds a Masters of Science in Managing Innovation in Information Technology from Champlain College.

Professor Ferguson is the creator of the Game History Collection at Champlain College. The mission of the Game History Collection is to preserve and provide access to historical games for study and play. This requires ongoing preservation and maintenance of game software, hardware and online platforms needed to replicate the experiences of historical games. Providing access to past experiences drives the preservation efforts of the Game History Collection in The Game Studio at Champlain College. The GHC offers access to thousands of games for students to study and play, providing direct access to original hardware, emulation, and hardware-reimplementation of games.

Since 2009, Prof. Ferguson has served as the Faculty Advisor for the 3 hours weekly project-based Free and Open Source Technology Club (FOTC) at Champlain College, offering weekly opportunities to explore and discuss software and hardware freedom. Over the 2022-2023 academic year, students built a small-scale (Beowulf) compute cluster, and learned about Amateur Radio and Electronics. Over 2024-2025 academic year, students engaged in learning about Software Defined Radio and the HamSCI project.

Professor Ferguson is also the Faculty advisor for the Juggling Club.

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Distinctions & Awards

2021 John Lavallee Innovation Award

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

• ACM
• IEEE
• AAAS
• IGDA

Curriculum Vitae

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Ken Howell

Biography

Ken Howell is an Associate Professor in the Division of Communication & Creative Media, where he teaches in multiple programs. He started teaching at Champlain as an adjunct in 2006, having previously taught at the New York University Steinhardt School and New Jersey City University.

Ken has been working with Champlain’s Emergent Media Center (EMC) since 2008. He has worked on an array of projects, including the UNFPA Game to Prevent Violence Against Women and IBM Virtual Worlds project. Along with support from the EMC, Ken recently served as Faculty Advisor for the Sandbox team, a group of students exploring new and novel forms of human-computer interaction. Work from that team has been exhibited at the Chicago Design Museum, the Game Developers conference, and many other venues internationally. He also works with a group of artists called the Illumination Collective, exploring digitally controlled lighting as a means of art making.

In addition to teaching, Ken has been an independent Interaction Designer and Developer for over twenty years, and has worked on such broad-ranging brands as Urban Outfitters, Rossignol, Pantene, and Skittles. He is also active in the Maker Movement, and is a founding board member of Generator Makerspace

When he is not working or teaching, Ken enjoys drawing, painting, tinkering in his laboratory, taking care of his Bonsai trees, and all things outdoors.

Curriculum Vitae

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Max Johnson

Recommended Reading

• The Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers
• The Foley Grail by Vanessa Theme Ament
• Aaron Marks’ Complete Guide to Game Audio

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John Thomas Levee

Biography

John Thomas Levee is an artist, composer, and educator working at the intersection of a variety of mediums. His work often examines notions of human interaction with the environment and with technology. He currently teaches at Champlain College, where he is the Program Director for the Sonic Arts program, as well as the Program Director for the Game Sound Design program. He is also manages their recording studio facilities. He has studied at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he received his Master of Fine Arts in Sound Art, and at Stetson University, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Audio Technology & Industry and his Bachelor of Arts in Digital Arts. He resides in Ryegate Corner, where he serves as First Constable.

Favorite Quote

“If I was an artist, and I was in the studio, then whatever it was I was doing in the studio must be art.”

—Bruce Nauman, 1978

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Kyle Patterson

Biography

Kyle graduated from Champlain College in 2016 with a degree in Game Production Management and has worked at various game and tech companies such as Zynga, Warner Bros Games, Disney Interactive, Jam City, and Snapchat. He is a part time adjunct professor at Champlain focused on supporting the Game Studio.

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

• Agile Game Development with Scrum by Clinton Keith
• Horus Rising -1 – The Horus Heresy by Dan Abnett
• Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry by Jason Schreier

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Eric Sample

Biography

Eric Sample teaches Fundamentals of Music, Film Scoring, and Synthesis & Sound Design. He also facilitates the recording studio at Champlain College.

He is thrilled to have just completed a worldwide sabbatical, researching the music of the African diaspora and traveling to Cuba, Brazil, Kenya, Ghana, Gambia, and Senegal. He received his initial music training on the island of Jamaica, starting at the Jamaica School of Music before studying privately in Kingston with the amazing Michael Dyke (a lifelong mentor). After leaving Jamaica, Sample moved to the bright lights of New York City, and freelanced at 100+ different advertising agencies over a five-year period, getting a fascinating look at the New York media and marketing landscape.

A relentless lifelong learner, Sample has attended the following schools: the Jamaica School of Music, the Brooklyn Conservatory, the School of Visual Arts, UC Berkeley, the Berklee College of Music online, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Sample also loves architecture and design, having designed the layout of the Champlain Music Studio and his parents’ cottage. He is looking forward to his next project (with his mentor) entitled “Rock Hall Trilogy,” a cross cultural musical extravaganza featuring Love, Sex, Death and the Devil—all set in the teeming vibrant wondrous land of Jamaica.

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Walter Westinghouse

Biography

Walter Westinghouse is an audio professional and educator form the North East Kingdom of Vermont. Walter has industry experience in live sound, touring, studio recording, component level audio equipment repair and recording studio installation and maintenance. He is an Avid Pro Tools Certified Operator of Post Production and Music and in 2023 became an Avid Certified Pro Tools Specialist.

Distinctions & Awards

2014 Seven Daysies Award: Best Recording Studio/ Engineer

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Van Dora Williams

Biography

Dr. Van Dora Williams brings over 30 years of industry experience as a journalist, documentary producer and researcher to the classroom and is dedicated to teaching the next generation of journalists, writers, audio and documentary producers. She currently serves as Assistant Dean of Administration for the CCM Division and holds the rank of full professor as well. She co-created the Game Sound Design program by combining sound design and audio production courses with Game Studio courses and is currently its program director. She has earned multiple Emmy and Telly awards along with having her work seen on the PBS network and through multiple film festivals that include Sundance. She created content for the print, radio, video and web platforms for several years before moving into teaching at the higher education level. Her multiplatform storytelling experience provides her the flexibility to teach the tenets of journalism and storytelling through several mediums.
She believes in bringing real world experience to students within the classroom as well as outside of the classroom. As faculty, Williams co-led two international service-learning trips to The Gambia in West Africa and to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where students worked with local journalists and filmmakers to create two short films and three short documentaries. A few of those productions earned regional Student Production Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and were broadcast statewide on Vermont Public. In coordination with the College’s Special Collections and community organizations, she worked with her colleagues to gain funding from the Council of Independent Colleges’ Humanities for the Public Good. The grants allowed her to work with students on two documentaries titled Forget Me Not Vermont (2020), Outside the Fence (2023) and a website, Green Mountain Melodies, all examining the historical impact of culture on music and urban planning.
As a researcher Dr. Williams most recent work included serving as an archival researcher for the documentary, Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (2017). She served as an associate producer on Banished (2008) as well as many local documentaries and news programs as a senior producer at WHRO, the PBS station in Norfolk, Virginia where she earned multiple Emmy and Telly awards. Some of her research and producing work include Church Street: Harlem of the South (1997, WHRO), Common Ground: Legacy of Race in Religion (1999, WHRO), Noble Desire (2001, WHRO), Century: 100 Years of Life in Hampton Roads (2001, WHRO), Matters of Race (2003, ROJA Productions), Citizen King (2004, ROJA Productions). In between working on historical documentaries, Dr. Williams earned her PhD in Communication in 2017. Her dissertation focused on the impact Birth of a Nation (1915) had on three Virginia communities. She published a chapter in two international peer reviewed edited books focusing on the film’s 100th anniversary as a controversial and groundbreaking film.
She continues to conduct archival research and produce compelling documentaries on the national and regional events of the Progressive Era that continue to have an impact on American culture and society.

Publications & Abstracts

Resisting The Birth of a Nation in Virginia

Standing their ground: A southern community’s response to The Birth of a Nation

The Growing Resistance: Virginia’s Response to The Birth of a Nation, 1915 – 1925

Curriculum Vitae

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