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Robin Perlah

Biography

Robin Perlah currently serves as Chair of the Creative Studio (home to Champlain’s creative art and design majors), Program Director for the graphic design (BFA) and interaction design (BS) majors, and is an Associate Professor in the Division of Communications and Creative Media at Champlain College.

In her time at Champlain, Perlah also served as the Academic Director for the Emergent Media Center, where she helped shape the creative vision for the campus-based interactive media studio. Additionally, Robin served as Assistant Dean for the CCM division, interim Program Director for creative media (BFA), and Program Director for the master’s programs in emergent media (MS and MFA). She has taught a wide range of courses in the areas of interaction design, photography, graphic design, and media theory, serving both undergraduate and graduate students. Currently, Robin teaches undergraduate courses in design history as well as photography, image-making, and visual design.

Perlah’s current art practice is based on a persistent interest in the photographic image, both still and moving, as it is transformed by digitality. Her work deals with the ambiguity of memory, the intersection between image capture (both analog and digital) and the methods of processing and presenting images, and how generative art and data mutations can reveal layers of complexity.

Before working at Champlain College, Robin was the co-chair of the Design & Creative Media program at the Center for Technology, Essex, and ran several community art programs to support young people through art-mentoring relationships and other activities. Prior to that, she had a long career as an art teacher and, professional photographer and photo editor, specializing in commercial, portrait, and event photography as well as fine-art printing.

Robin is a site evaluator for the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), is part of the volunteer board for PechaKucha Night (PKN) 365体育官网, and recently rejoined the board of trustees for the Vermont Arts Council as board secretary after finishing her last term as Vice-Chair in 2019. Additionally, she serves as the co-director for the Technology & Design Institute at Governor’s Institutes of Vermont. Robin earned a master of fine arts in emergent media from Champlain College, a bachelor of science in art education from the University of Vermont, and studied commercial and fine art photography at the New England School of Photography.

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Niels Caul

Biography

Dr. Niels Caul graduated with a PhD from University College Dublin in 2022. He has previously presented papers at the James Joyce Symposia in Dublin and Trieste, the James Joyce Italian Foundation Conference in Rome and the 2021 International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures. He has curated literary exhibitions for Museum of Literature Ireland and more recently “Revolutionary Dublin’s Literary Networks: C.P. Curran, Helen Laird and James Joyce’s Ulysses” for University College Dublin Special Collections.

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Annemarie Conlon

Biography

Dr. Annemarie Conlon teaches social work foundation courses. She is a licensed clinical therapist specializing in anxiety-related disorders. Her experience includes working at MD Anderson Cancer Center, providing family-centered counseling to people diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. She has also spent one year as a pre-dissertation intern with Dr. Jimmie Holland at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Annemarie received the American Cancer Society Grant in Clinical Oncology Social Work as a doctoral student and was a Hartford Pre-dissertation Awardee, Cohort III. Before coming to Vermont, she was the social work lead on three federal and foundation grants centering on the interprofessional education of students, faculty, and health care providers who attend to the health care needs of older adults. Annemarie got her start in health care as a graduate intern at Legacy Community Health in Houston, Texas, where she worked with people diagnosed with HIV.

Before entering the health field, Annemarie spent over a decade at American Express in New York City, where she held positions of increasing responsibility. These included the titles of pricing analyst, financial analyst, sr. financial analyst, financial systems lead, and manager of international business development. She worked with a multi-disciplinary team in that position to develop the American Express Card as a franchise in emerging overseas markets.

Distinctions & Awards

Francine Page Excellence in Teaching Award (2023)

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Rachel Hooper

Biography

As a Creative Media Faculty member at Champlain College, Rachel Hooper teaches a range of courses including Human-Centered Design, Creative Media, and Video Game Production. She empowers students to seek patterns, connect dots, and imagine new futures by using data and empathy to uncover and define problems worth solving.

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Meg Jones

Biography

Meg Jones joined Champlain College having received their PhD in Education from the University of Rhode Island. Meg’s research interests include preservice teacher education, social justice & inclusion in PK-16 education, literacy for PK-16, and qualitative research methods. They have over ten years of experience in education including as an elementary and early childhood classroom teacher, district level technology integration coach, professional development facilitator, college course instructor for literacy courses and qualitative methods, and international research fellow.

Meg was the recipient of a Fulbright Finland Foundation grant (2021-2022) and American-Scandinavian Foundation fellowship (2022-2023), which combined supported two years living and researching in Finland. Meg brings these experiences to Champlain to connect local and global communities while ensuring future teachers are ready for diverse classrooms.

Meg’s educational philosophy is rooted in critical approaches to teaching and learning, drawing from the works of bell hooks, Judith Butler, and Paulo Freire. In the classroom, Meg practices “engaged pedagogy” (hooks, 1994) which prioritizes the wellbeing and empowerment of students.

Publications & Abstracts

• Disrupting cisheteronormativity in STEM through humanism
• Unpacking Anti-femininity Among Masculine Identifying STEM Students with Minoritized Identities of Sexuality and Gender
• “You Assumed That Everybody Was…”: Hermeneutic Injustice and Cisheteropatriarchy in STEM Coursework
• Embodied Literacies of Sexuality and Gender of College Students
• Using Digital and Media Literacies to Expand Global Perspectives

Recommended Readings

• Teaching to Transgress by Bell Hooks
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

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April Mentzer

Biography

April holds both a Bachelors and Masters in Social Work and became a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in 2024. She is the Visiting Professor in Social Work at Champlain College. Prior to accepting this position, April worked in the Champlain College Counseling Center providing a variety of services for students including individual therapy, group therapy, health promotion, and assisting with campus wide wellbeing initiatives. April serves as the Clinical Supervisor for PEARLS, a program to reduce depression symptoms in older adults. Before coming to work at Champlain College, April served older adults through her work with the state wide SASH Program (Support and Services at Home), people in Recovery at Howard Center’s Chittenden Clinic, and served on various employee wellness committees.

Throughout her social work career, April has explored what people need to be well, bringing a Bio, Psycho, Social, Spiritual lens to her work. April is also a certified yoga instructor and has studied yoga and mindfulness for more than half her life. When April is not working she enjoys walking with friends, traveling, and spending time with her family and their beloved pet chickens.

What are your hobbies?

Walking, spending time with family and friends.

Favorite local eateries and things to do in Vermont:

Spending time outside.

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Fiadhnait Moser-Hardy

Biography

Fiadhnait Moser-Hardy joined Champlain College as an adjunct professor in the CCM (Writing), SoSI (Elementary Education), and Core Divisions in 2022. She currently teaches Children’s Literature and the Expressive Arts, Creative Writing, Writing for the Workplace, Navigating Your Information Landscape, and Navigating Higher Education.

Moser received her M.F.A. in Writing with a specialization in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2021. She is especially known for exploring difficult themes through fabulism and fantasy within her children’s books. Her publications include two middle grade novels, The Flourishing of Floralie Laurel and The Serendipity of Flightless Things, as well as an article discussing disability in publishing in Publishers Weekly.

In addition, Moser has extensive experience as an interdisciplinary artist and teacher, having previously worked as an elementary art and dance teacher. She is especially passionate about broadening her college students’ perspectives with new and creative ways of learning through interdisciplinary artistic study.

Distinctions & Awards

Featured Author at Denver Children’s Festival of Stories 2019

Publications & Abstracts

• The Flourishing of Floralie Laurel
• The Serendipity of Flightless Things
• It’s Not All About the Pub Date

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

• Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
• I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith

Favorite Quote

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

—Pablo Picasso

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Robin Perlah

Biography

Robin Perlah currently serves as Chair of the Creative Studio (home to Champlain’s creative art and design majors), Program Director for the graphic design (BFA) and interaction design (BS) majors, and is an Associate Professor in the Division of Communications and Creative Media at Champlain College.

In her time at Champlain, Perlah also served as the Academic Director for the Emergent Media Center, where she helped shape the creative vision for the campus-based interactive media studio. Additionally, Robin served as Assistant Dean for the CCM division, interim Program Director for creative media (BFA), and Program Director for the master’s programs in emergent media (MS and MFA). She has taught a wide range of courses in the areas of interaction design, photography, graphic design, and media theory, serving both undergraduate and graduate students. Currently, Robin teaches undergraduate courses in design history as well as photography, image-making, and visual design.

Perlah’s current art practice is based on a persistent interest in the photographic image, both still and moving, as it is transformed by digitality. Her work deals with the ambiguity of memory, the intersection between image capture (both analog and digital) and the methods of processing and presenting images, and how generative art and data mutations can reveal layers of complexity.

Before working at Champlain College, Robin was the co-chair of the Design & Creative Media program at the Center for Technology, Essex, and ran several community art programs to support young people through art-mentoring relationships and other activities. Prior to that, she had a long career as an art teacher and, professional photographer and photo editor, specializing in commercial, portrait, and event photography as well as fine-art printing.

Robin is a site evaluator for the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), is part of the volunteer board for PechaKucha Night (PKN) 365体育官网, and recently rejoined the board of trustees for the Vermont Arts Council as board secretary after finishing her last term as Vice-Chair in 2019. Additionally, she serves as the co-director for the Technology & Design Institute at Governor’s Institutes of Vermont. Robin earned a master of fine arts in emergent media from Champlain College, a bachelor of science in art education from the University of Vermont, and studied commercial and fine art photography at the New England School of Photography.

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Jennifer Supple

Biography

Jennifer Supple has been teaching at Champlain College since 2017. She teaches classes in Environmental Science, Nutrition, and Biology. Jennifer received an M.S. in Ecology/Plant Ecology from the University of Connecticut and an M.S. in Natural Resources/Forest Health from the University of New Hampshire. She has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Colby College in Maine.

Jennifer’s graduate work analyzed tree ring growth and needle health to help understand the effects of air pollution and climate on white pine trees in New England. She has worked in science curriculum development with a special interest in forest health and global climate change. She is also interested in the impacts of nutrition and environmental problems on human health.

In addition to helping her students expand their knowledge of important biological, health, and environmental topics, Jennifer is committed to helping her students understand the scientific process and appreciate the relevance and impact that science has on their lives and society.

Outside the classroom, Jennifer loves to hike, trail run and ski with family and friends.

Distinctions & Awards

Space Grant Fellow, UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, & Space

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Melyssa Sweet

Biography

Dr. Melyssa Sweet is an adjunct professor at Champlain College, bringing extensive practical experience to her teaching. She holds a Master of Science in Educational Psychology & Methodology, a Certificate of Advanced Study in School Psychology, and a Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) in School Psychology from the University at Albany, SUNY.

Dr. Sweet currently works full-time as a school psychologist in the 365体育官网 School District. Her professional journey also includes roles in teaching, school psychology in various PreK-12 public schools, counseling and case management in a residential treatment center for at-risk youth, and autism evaluation. This diverse background enables Dr. Sweet to provide students with a unique perspective enriched with real-life examples. Her research interests encompass trauma, effective program implementation, and wellness practices. Passionate about teaching psychology at the college level, she emphasizes the subject’s relevance to everyday life and relationships, aiming to empower students with knowledge that enhances their personal and professional lives.

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Faith Yacubian

Biography

Faith Yacubian, Ed.D. earned her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in 2020. She is an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and teaches in both the SoSI and Core Divisions. She is also the Program Coordinator for the 365体育官网ature Course Program in SoSI. She is avid scholar of Post-Colonial Theory, Feminist Theories, Queer Theory, and Critical Whiteness Studies. As a academic-activist, she filters her scholarly queries through the insights and stories provided by community-activists and advocacy organizations in 365体育官网 and Winooski.

Distinctions & Awards

Outstanding Dissertation Award ”? University of Vermont, VT 2021

Service-Learning Faculty Award ”? Champlain College, VT 2021

INCLUDE Faculty/Staff Award ”? Champlain College, VT 2018

SGA’s Leadership in Excellence Award ”? Champlain College, VT. 2018

Office of Diversity and Inclusion Administrator Award ”? Champlain College, VT 2009

Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion Ally Award ”? Champlain College, VT 2008

Publications & Abstracts

A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Professoriate And The Embodiment Of Epistemic Coloniality/whiteness: A Call For A Contemplative Approach To Academic Freedom

Favorite Quote

“If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. If you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

—Aboriginal activists group Queensland, 1970s

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