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.

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

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, Arts Management & Arts Entrepreneurship, 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

Dr. Hoppe's primary role is teaching undergraduate students the fundamentals of arts management and arts entrepreneurship (AMAE) in Miami University's College of Creative Arts. Some of the classes she teaches are introduction to arts management (nonprofit basics), financial management and development in the arts (my favorite), strategic innovation in the arts (capstone working with community clients), and several on career preparation. She gets to focus developing students' hard, soft, and transferrable skills, while mentoring aspiring creatives in whichever niche they're passionate about. Erin advises AMAE minors and provides service to the university and field and recently joined the writing center's advisory board and a faculty learning committee to make courses more accessible for students with disabilities. Erin was appointed Secretary of the Association of Arts Administration Educators. On top of these tasks, Erin still finds time to research, mostly on the intersection of AI with arts management practice and education, which she connects to pedagogy, service, and conference presentations.

How did AAEP help Erin get to where she is today? "So many things not inclusive of a single paragraph. I started my PhD in Fall 2019, and we all know what happened in Spring 2020, so always have plans B, E, J, and H ready. Perhaps one of the biggest impacts from my PhD days was leaning into creativity and creative thinking. Not nurturing this mindset led to my arts practitioner burn out. I think this is where AAEP shines compared to other arts administration programs. Thanks to my faculty (who made creativity part of class), peers (who are creatives), and the Trace Layer Play collective (thinking creatively about research) I challenged myself to think beyond the comfort of my spreadsheets (though I still use/love them). I got better about asking Why questions, making unexpected connections, and practicing empathy - invaluable as an undergrad professor in the classroom with its parallel bureaucracy."

Erin would advise students to "Be kind. Be proactive. Listen actively. Remember the details. Adaptability is essential. Read for fun."

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

As Manager of Family and Youth Programs at the Columbus Museum of Art, Megan designs, evaluates, and runs programs for families and children from 0-18. Some of the common responsibilities of this position include defining learning objectives and key outcomes; arranging the time and space for the program; collaborating with others on the team to decide messaging and work with partners outside the museum; select and manage materials for the art-based activities; select and train museum educators to facilitate the programs; work with marketing to develop copy and promotional materials for the events; and connect with curatorial to align internal goals, messaging, and outcomes across the museum space.

AAEP helped Megan understand how to manage multiple deadlines, maintain high standards, work well under pressure, collaborate meaningfully with her peers, and to always ground her research in practice.

What piece of advice would Megan share with current graduate students? "I would recommend that current AAEP graduate students follow their passions but also ground their research in meaningful practice. What is the impact of the research that you are doing? And, why is it important that you do it now? Where are you planning to go after graduate school and what job do you want to have when you are complete? How will your research and time in graduate school serve you moving forward?"

Email Megan to learn more about her academic and professional journey.

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

As a professor at San Jacinto College, Olivia teaches introductory arts survey courses, including Art Appreciation, Art History I, and Art History II, which are requirements for Fine Arts Majors and Certificate seekers; they also fulfill the required "creative core" credit for Texas college/university general education requirements as part of a degree seeking plan. In addition to teaching courses, Olivia is responsible for selecting the course materials and maintaining curriculum standards, such as required "signature" assignments for the stated courses. Outside of teaching, she's responsible for establishing and overseeing the functions of the Fine Arts Library/Archive. This includes cataloguing, condition reporting, and acting in a supervisory role for the Federal work-study employees.

Olivia's degree from AAEP helped her transition from a focus on an art historical track to an arts education track. Originally, her plan was to pursue a career in the museum field, with cataloguing/collections management and curatorial duties. However, Olivia realized that she wanted to focus more on the educational side of the arts. Olivia wasn't certain that she would go into teaching, necessarily, but work within the greater field of arts-education. She was fortunate to be given the opportunity to be an instructor of record in the AAEP department and, in addition to her own graduate courses and research, this helped her better navigate course preparation and assignment development.

Olivia advises graduate students to start researching career opportunities early; apply to jobs across multiple sectors, so you can get a feel for everything that is available. "Think about how your skills could be applied in a number of settings, and don't limit yourself to one specific role," she shares.

Contact Olivia to learn more about her position or her time in AAEP.

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

Yifan is currently contracted with the Chinese Culture Center to plan and implement a research project funded by the Wallace Foundation. Her responsibilities include: conducting fieldwork at the organization; coordinating internal discussions with the organization to refine research goals; independently working with other researchers to produce a research proposal to secure a multi-year fund from Wallace; co-presenting the updates of this research proposal at Wallace Foundation's cohort conventions; coordinating IRB reviews between the organization and an independent IRB review board; and actively communicating with the organization for feedback.

Yifan's work aligns closely with her research expertise and provides an opportunity to further explore organizational resilience in diverse contexts—particularly those experienced by Asian American and BIPOC arts organizations. Her graduate school network played a pivotal role in shaping her career path, especially as she transitioned to a new location after graduation. Speaking to the power of networking, Yifan's current opportunity with the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco arose from a connection she built with fellow AAEP graduate students. Beyond research skills, Yifan has found that transferable skills such as teamwork, time management, coordination, and the confidence to reach out for support have been invaluable in her current work.

Yifan recommends that current graduate students remember that the skills and relationships you develop in graduate school are highly transferable and will continue to support your career growth. Yifan shares, "It’s absolutely okay to pivot in your career and stay open to new possibilities, even when they arise in unexpected ways."

Interested in learning more about Yifan's career and research. Email her at sissiyifan@gmail.com.

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

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

Karen is currently the Director of Client Experience at ArtsVision, a cloud-based performing arts management software solution. In this role, she works with leading performing arts organizations around the world, including Lincoln Center, the Chicago Symphony, the London Symphony, Juilliard, and the Aspen Music Festival and School, to ensure they maximize the value of ArtsVision's software. She also serves on the strategy team, contributing to decisions on future product development. Prior to joining ArtsVision, Karen was a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Florida State University, where she directed the arts administration program in the College of Music.

Karen's background in orchestra operations gave her project management experience, but her PhD studies took that skill to a new level. Planning and executing her dissertation entirely on her own, without hard deadlines, required a high degree of autonomy, discipline, and strategic planning. Karen's time in the AAEP program also strengthened her writing and communication skills, which she uses daily when working with clients and solving complex problems. Additionally, studying the history of cultural policy in the United States provided important context for understanding the broader arts and cultural landscape, which continues to inform Karen's work in the performing arts sector. Even though she is not working in academia, Karen is grateful that she pursued a PhD and believe it makes her stronger in her current position.

Karen shares an important piece of advice, writing, "Don’t be afraid to pivot and explore new paths if you are unhappy in your current situation. Many people thought I was crazy to leave a tenure-track position at an R1 university. While I loved aspects of academia, sacrifices such as location constraints and salary stagnation affected my quality of life. At OSU, I focused solely on a career in academia, despite already having experience as an arts administrator. Looking back, I wish I had explored more options, such as internships in tech or other industries, which are often only available to students. The career center has great resources that I wish I had taken more advantage of. It is okay to change your mind about what you want to do, and it is important not to let others’ expectations dictate your choices."

Email Karen Munnelly if you are interested in learning more about her time in AAEP or her career.

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

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

Dr. Lee is an assistant professor and a program director for undergraduate- and graduate-level arts management and administration programs at Eastern Michigan University. She oversees the management of the program and provides advising for all current and prospective students. In reflecting on her time in AAEP, Rawon shared that the program provided her with a scholarly foundation in her chosen field and that she was able to make lifelong connections with colleagues in the field as well.

Rawon shared that there are numerous tools now available for students to explore diverse career options and advises current students to make connections with working professionals in and outside the field- explore all career paths one is interested in, while in school.

Email Rawon to learn more about her career or time in AAEP.

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

PhD Alumni Profiles

PhD Alumni Profiles

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