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PhD Alumni Profiles

PhD Alumni Profiles

Below you will find a list of doctoral dissertations, career outcomes and several alumni profiles to highlight the wide array of research conducted by our esteemed alumni body and the vast career trajectories a PhD in Arts Administration, Education and Policy can take students.

Yu-Chin "Alice" Cheng
Critical witnessing in higher education: Teaching race, ethnicity, and gender diversity through visual culture
Advisor: Joni Acuff

Headshot of Lori Esposito

Lori Esposito - Arts instructor, mentor and consultant, The Columbus College of Art and Design, Art Possible and The Greater Columbus Arts Council | Teaching Artist, Ohio Arts Council
An Arts Research Approach to Transforming Maternal Grief
Advisor: Jack Richardson

Lori designs and teaches first year students in an art and design program, and is an instructor for continuing education and pre-college students. She assists disabled artists with grant applications and integrates arts programs into K-12 public school curriculum. One piece of advice Lori would share with current students is to not lose sight of their professional networks and successes during their graduate program. Students will likely return to it, hopefully more confidently and better informed.

Anna Freeman
Aligning Indigenous Presence, Ancient Earthworks, and Artistic Practices at a Land-Grant University: An Indigenous-Led Participatory Action Research Study
Advisors: Richard Finlay Fletcher and Christine Ballengee Morris

Polina Isurin - Ohio Teaching Artist, Ohio Council for Arts and Adjunct Professor, Columbus College of Art and Design
Where I Am From: Developing a Pedagogy of Memories through an Emergent Practice-Based Self-Study
Advisors: Richard Finlay Fletcher and Shari Savage

Aelim Kim - Art Education Fellow, University of Arkansas
Critical Multicultural Art Education Through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL): Connecting Students in the U.S. and South Korea Author Info
Advisor: Joni Acuff

De'Avin Mitchell
Equity and Justice in the Arts: From the Inside
Advisors: Joni Acuff and Jim Sanders

Stephanie Stillman - Middle School Art Teacher, Our Lady of Mercy School for Young Women
Eating by Us: Setting the Table as Site for Performance Pedagogy
Advisor: Dana Carlisle Klethcka

Amanda Tobin Ripley
"Another World is Possible:" Liberatory Unionism in the U.S. Art Museum Labor Movement
Advisor: Dana Carlisle Kletchka

Molly Burke - Lecturer, The Ohio State University
Women in Glass: A portraiture study on female artists who utilize glass
Advisors: Rachel Skaggs and Shari Savage

Gilhyun (Gillian) Kim
New Governance and Citizen Participation in Creative Placemaking; A Comparative Case Study of the Short North Arts District and the Franklinton Arts District
Advisor: Shoshanah Goldberg-Miller

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Tamryn McDermott - Assistant Professor of Art Education, Utah State University, College of Arts & Sciences, Caine School of the Arts, Art + Design Department
Arts-Based Inquiry as Artist-Teacher: Fostering Reflective Practice with Pre-Service Art Teachers Through Intermedia Journaling
Advisor: JT Richardson

Tamryn currently serves as the area coordinator for art education at Utah State University where she teaches art education and studio art courses.

Tamryn found the experience she had supervising AAEP pre-service teachers to be invaluable and shares that she would likely not be in her current position without that opportunity and experience. Tamryn also benefited from teaching the Introduction to Art Education course and getting to work directly with art education majors and pre-majors at OSU. "I learned so much while in the university supervisor role working alongside Dr. Ketal Patel! She is an amazing mentor!"

Tamryn recommends current AAEP graduate students to develop their research into presentations and publications while they are still in graduate school to get some of that experience prior to being on the job market and feels that attending conferences in one's field and networking is very important. Tamryn shared that she would not have had the same opportunities without keeping in touch with and getting to know other scholars in her field. Working with and supporting fellow graduate students while in graduate school helped Tamryn get to know her peers better and gave her experience collaborating on major projects. She also recommends seeking out a leadership role within the department, university or organization.

Noor Murteza - Visiting Assistant Professor in Interior Design, Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design, Indiana University Bloomington
Developing a Fractal Mindset: Leveraging the biophilic effects of nature in a community-engaged action research study
Advisors: Dana Carlisle Kletchka and Shari Savage

Erin Hoppe - Associate Teaching Professor, Miami University
Embodied and creative experiences of (some) nonprofit arts administrators: A queer, arts-based inquiry walking policy, practice, and professional lines
Advisor: Jim Sanders

Headshot of Divya Janardhan

Divya Janardhan - Assistant Professor of Arts Administration, Management, and Advocacy, Area Head of Arts Administration, J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts, Texas Tech University
Cultural Equity Policy in the Clutch City: Analyzing Houston’s Arts & Culture Organizations and Funders through a Creative Justice Lens
Advisor: Shoshanah Goldberg-Miller

Divya is an Assistant Professor of Arts Administration, Management, and Advocacy at the Talkington College of Visual and Performing Arts (TCVPA) at Texas Tech University (TTU) where she also serves as the Area Head of Arts Administration for the School of Theatre & Dance at TCVPA. Divya developed TTU's new doctoral track in Arts Administration and rebuilt the arts administration course suite at the graduate level. She teaches arts administration and cultural policy courses for the Fine Arts Doctoral Program and the MFA in Theatre Arts - Arts Administration Program, and an arts outreach service-learning tandem course for graduate and undergraduate levels.

The research and teaching skills developed at AAEP were essential to Divya's tenure-track responsibilities and her responsibilities in providing research guidance to graduate students. Divya also credits the teaching skills developed via the opportunity to be the instructor of record for ARTEDUC 3681: Managing Non-Profit Arts Organizations: Balancing Continuity & Change. Divya appreciated the support AAEP provided for GTA's via the seminar she took in our first semester of teaching.

Divya would tell current students to learn about the what, how, and why of the research process and be prepared to do the necessary legwork before deciding on the research topic. "You are in a top program, and the right efforts will pay off."

If you're interested in learning more about Divya's educational journey or career in academia, contact her at dijanard@ttu.edu. 

Andrea Luque Karam - Executive Director, Ragtag Film Society
Listening to Music Educators in Sonora, México While Challenging My Privilege: An Autoethnographic Account
Advisor: JT Richardson

Megan Wanttie -  Manager of Family and Youth Programs, Columbus Museum of Art
Pandemic Iteration: Constructing alternative ways of knowing & being through critical posthuman educational technology in museums
Advisor: Dana Carlisle Kletchka

Yingchong Wang - Mellon Postdoc Researcher
Traveling Historical Cities in the Age of Social Media –Branding and Tourism Planning in Xi’an and Santa Fe
Advisors: Joni Acuff and Tiffany Bourgeois

Olivia Huffstetter - Professor of Art, San Jacinto College- South Campus
Feminist Pedagogy, Action Research, and Social Media: TabloidArtHistory's Influence on Visual Culture Education
Advisors: Dana Carlisle Kletchka and JT Richardson

Ava Morgan - Director of Public Practice, Dublin Arts Council
Trauma and the Body: Turning to Fiction as Inquiry
Advisor: JT Richardson

Ketal Patel - Director of Field Experiences and Licensure Program, Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy, The Ohio State University
Investigating Intersections of Art Educator Practices and Creative Placemaking Practices Through a Participatory Action Research Study
Advisors: Karen Hutzel and Christine Ballengee Morris

Allison Paul - Co-Founder, Sister Trillium
A Relational Approach to Peacelearning through the Arts: A Participatory Action Research Study
Advisor: Karen Hutzel

Yifan Xu - Research Planning Consultant, Chinese Cultural Center of San Francisco
Creating Resilient International Performing Arts Festivals: A Study of China Shanghai International Arts Festival from The Legitimacy Perspective
Advisors: Margaret Wyszomirski and Shoshanah Goldberg-Miller

Xuan Zhang - Assistant Professor, School of Design and Arts, Beijing Institute of Technology
Contemporary Artwork Data Visualization in a College Level Digital Artmaking Class: A Medium for Constructing Students' Shared Experience in Social Justice Issues
Advisor: Joni Acuff

Biyun Zhu - Lecturer in Arts and Cultural Management, University of Manchester
Cultural Diplomacy as National Strategy: A Comparative Study of Cultural Diplomacy Flagships Through A Multi-Level Design Framework
Advisors: Margaret Wyszomirski

Eleanor (Elle) Pierman - Director of Education, BalletMet
Dance-ability: A Mixed Methods Study of Dance and Development in Preschool Students with Disabilities and Adaptations for Sustainable Dance Programming
Advisor: Shari Savage

Jessica Pissini - Professor, Digital Communications, Savannah College of Art and Design
Embodied by Design: The Presence of Creativity, Art-making, and Self in Virtual Reality
Advisors: Dana Carlisle Kletchka and Christine Ballengee Morris

Sharbreon Plummer - Interim Artistic Director, Threewalls NFP | Founder and Consultant, AYA Thought Studio
Haptic Memory: Resituating Black Women’s Lived Experiences in Fiber Art Narratives
Advisor: Joni Acuff

Yan Zhao - Lecturer, Stony Brook University
Exploring the Intricacies of International Performing Arts Exchange: Case Studies of Arts Programs between U.S. and China
Advisor: Margaret Wyszomirski

Basma Almusallam - Assistant Professor, Kuwait University
From Gyms to Classrooms: Enhancing the learning experience inside the design classroom through communities of practice
Advisor: Candace Stout

Michelle Attias - Human Resources and Fiscal Manager, Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy, The Ohio State University
Journaling in Search of the Neurodivergent Self: An Arts-based Research Project Dialoguing with Kurt Cobain's Journals
Advisor: JT Richardson

Terron Banner - Director, Urban Arts Space
A Case Study of The Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County Education Compact: Responsive Education and Reform in a Diverse 21st Century
Advisor: Candace Stout

Veronica Betancourt - Principal Consultant, Veronica Betancourt Consulting
Visiting while Latinx: An Intersectional Analysis of the Experiences of Subjectivity among Latinx Visitors to Encyclopedic Art Museums
Advisors: Karen Hutzel and Theresa Delgadillo

Wen Guo - Assistant Professor of Arts Administration, Florida State University
Arts, Place, and Advocacy Coalition: Policy Network of Creative Placemaking
Advisor: Margaret Wyszomirski

Christopher Jeansonne - Lecturer, Department of Communication and Media, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Superheroes in the Classroom, Or: An Autoethnography of Great Power, Responsibility, and Community in a Critical Media Pedagogy
Advisor: Shari Savage

Min Kyung Kim - Research Fellow, Busan Development Institute
Governance Matters in Policy Design Process for Urban Cultural Redevelopment: A Comparative Case Study of Gordon Square Arts District and Uptown District in Cleveland, Ohio
Advisor: Margaret Wyszomirski

Youngaah Koh - Assistant Professor, Arts Management and Entrepreneurship Program, Miami University
Community-based Culturally Relevant Art Education for Korean-American Elementary Students: Impact and Policy Implications
Advisor: Joni Acuff

Xuefei Li - Associate Professor, Director of Department of Cultural Industries Management, University of International Business and Economics
Positioning the Cultural Creative Economy in Intra-Urban Vitality and Inter-Urban Competitiveness: A Comparative Case Study of the Dynamic Cultural Policy Design in Boston and Qingdao
Advisor: Margaret Wyszomirski

Akhona Ndzuta - Head of Department and Lecturer in Cultural Policy and Management, Wits School of the Arts, University of the Witwatersrand
South African Festivals in the United States: An Expression of Policies, Power and Networks
Advisor: Margaret Wyszomirski

Ramya Ravisankar - Associate Professor, Columbus College of Art and Design
Artmaking as Entanglement: Expanded notions of artmaking through new materialism
Advisor: JT Richardson

Audrey Reeves - Assistant Professor, Bowling Green State University
Compassion Fatigue: Stories/Artworks of an Art Teacher with a Trauma-Informed Pedagogy
Advisor: JT Richardson

Rebecca Turk - Assistant Professor, Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts, The Ohio State University
Costuming as Inquiry: An Exploration of Women in Gender-Bending Cosplay Through Practice & Material Culture
Advisor: Shari Savage

Katie Uelk - Senior Research Scientist, UChicago Impact
Arts-Based Pedagogies and the Literacy of Adolescent Students in High-Risk and High-Poverty Communities
Advisor: Joni Acuff

Jimin Cha - Senior Researcher, Institute for Hybrid Future Culture at Sungkyunkwan University
Memorial museum as a “Perfect End”: reimagining memorial museums through split and continuum
Advisor: Wayne Lawson

Kathleen Goodyear - Lecturer in English, Wartburg College
Undergraduate Identity Exploration Through the Arts: Increasing Self-Awareness and Cultural Sensitivity
Advisor: Christine Ballengee Morris

Sujin Kim
A Case Study of Pages at the Wexner Center for the Arts and Its Implications for Collaborative Art Museum-School Programs
Advisor: Joni Acuff

Andrew Moffatt - Art Educator, Worthington City Schools
My Art Educations: Learning to Embrace the Dialogism in a Lifetime of Teaching and Learning Experiences
Advisors: Shari Savage and Debbie Smith-Shank

Kelsi Stoltenow Petersen - Lecturer, Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy, The Ohio State University
YouTube beauty vlogs: How social media blurs social boundaries
Advisor: Shari Savage
 

Zülâl Fazlioğlu Akin - Assistant Professor of Teaching
Cultural Policy in Turkey – European Union Relations
Advisors: Margaret Wyszomirski and Philip Armstrong

Jessica Hey (Huth) - Adjunct Faculty, College of DuPage
A New Queer Trinity: A Semiotic, Genre Theory, and Auto-Ethnographic Examination of Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival
Advisor: Jim Sanders

Ah Ran Koo - Assistant Professor of Art Education, Department of Art and Design, California State University, Fresno
Being and Becoming in the Space Between: Co-Created Visual Storying through Community-Based Participatory Action Research
Advisor: Karen Hutzel

Stephen Morrow - Writer/Editor, Kentucky Housing Corporation
The Art Education of Recklessness: Thinking Scholarship through the Essay
Advisor: Jack Richardson

Karen Munnelly - Director of Client Experience, Arts Vision and Instructional Designer and Instructor, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Understanding Career & Degree Expectations of Undergraduate Music Majors
Advisor: Wayne Lawson

Nakyung Rhee - Research Manager, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
Creative Aging: Building Capacity for Arts and Aging Policy Making
Advisor: Margaret Wyszomirski

Ah Young Yoon
Aging and Arts Policy: Interrogating Perceptions of Older People in South Korea
Advisor: Margaret Wyszomirski
 

Headshot of Will Johnson

William (Will) Johnson - Data Analytics Manager, Kelly Education (Kelly Services)
Four-Year Music Degree Program Perceptions of Value from Administrators and Students: A Mixed Methods Study
Advisor: Wayne Lawson

As the Data Analytics Manager with Kelly Education (part of Kelly Services), Will sets up data warehouses, pipelines and refreshes connecting this data to PowerBI, and consults with field employees to provide insights and get additional enhancement ideas. This is indirectly related to education as the data is for a major substitute staffing company.

Focusing on the administration and policy side of his degree, Will found courses available through the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and his economic electives to be directly impactful to his career. Will's courses in AAEP helped him approach problems from different angles, provide well sourced evidence for arguments, and "learn how to work (really) hard." Will shared that his classes helped him become a well rounded and intelligent person, which was one of the things he wrote about in his dissertation.

What advice would Will give to current graduate students in AAEP? "Study stuff outside your degree if you can. Art theory/history for the spreadsheet jockeys and Excel/business stats for artists/teachers. All of these courses were useful for both sides of my brain, and you’re going to need arts and sciences for your career in ways you don’t foresee."

Contact Will Johnson at willjohnsonwork@gmail.com if you are interested in learning more.

Heather Kaplan - Assistant Professor of Art Education, University of Texas at El Paso
Young Children’s Playful Artmaking: An Ontological Direction for Art Education
Advisor: Sydney Walker

Rawon Lee - Assistant Professor, Program Director for Arts Management & Administration Program, Eastern Michigan University
Interorganizational Relationships and Mergers of Nonprofit Arts Organizations: Two Case Studies of Mergers of Nonprofit Arts Organizations
Advisor: Wayne Lawson

Timothy (Tim) Smith - University Researcher, University of the Arts Helsinki
Nomadic Encounters with Art and Art Education
Advisor: Sydney Walker

Jason White - Associate Professor and Program Director, Arts Management, Xavier University and Research, WRD Consulting
The State of Entrepreneurship Across The Ohio Arts Sector: Generating nascent data for informing arts entrepreneurship education and practice
Advisor: Sonia Mañjon

Tiffany Bourgeois - Assistant Professor, Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy
Exercises in Soft Power and Cultural Diplomacy: The Cultural Programming of the Los Angeles and London Olympic Games
Advisor: Margaret Wyszomirski

Yeunkyung Choo (Park) - Researcher
Strategies for Urban Cultural Policy: The Case of the Hub City of Asian Culture Gwangju, South Korea
Advisor: Margaret Wyszomirski

Jason Cox - Assistant Professor, University of Toledo
Educational Communities, Arts-Based Inquiry, & Role-Playing: An American Freeform Exploration with Professional & Pre-Service Art Educators
Advisor: Christine Ballengee Morris

Jorie Emory - Director of Philanthropy, Shriners Children's Northern California
Public Pedagogy and Relational Philanthropy: An Insider Action Research Study of Columbus SOUP
Advisor: Jim Sanders

Li Shao - JD Candidate, Villanova University
Arts Clusters in Beijing: Socialist Heritage and Neoliberalism
Advisor: Margaret Wyszomirski

Hyesun Shin - Co-Founder and Director, WECULTURE Research and Consulting
Promoting Trust Building in a Unified Korean Society: The Arts-based Policy Strategy for Social Cohesion
Advisor: Margaret Wyszomirski