Class Notes Archive - College of Visual and Performing Arts - VPA

Cyrille Phipps (BFA ’87)

Cyrille made a short film, “Mama Duke,” that was completed in 2022 and has screened at several film festivals, including the Pan African Film Festival and the Coney Island Film Festival. More recently, Cyrille’s work as a young media activist and a member of the film collective, Black Planet Productions, is included in the exhibition “Signals: How Video Transformed the World” at MoMa through July 8.

Nancy Ring (BFA ’78)

Nan’s poem “These Almost Lost Pieces” is now published on Grey Sparrow Press. She will be an artist-in-residence at Millay Arts, New York, in March 2023. For more information about her work, visit nanringstudio.com.

Grant Dinsmore (BFA ’63, MFA ’67)

After graduating cum laude with a B.F.A. in illustration, Grant worked at an ad agency on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., and went through the U.S. Marine Corps basic training (1964, non-com officer 1968). He received a graduate assistant scholarship to Syracuse University and graduated in 1967. He married Barbara Ullmann (B.F.A. advertising design ’67) and worked as an instructor at Penn State University (1967-1974) and a professor at La Roche University (1974-2007). He is now a professor emeritus and is retired and residing in Wexford, Pennsylvania.

Dale Lawrence (BFA ’79)

Dale is currently living in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, near Chattanooga. His pre-retirement job is with Home Depot at the ProDesk. He notes that after almost 18 years at The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta as a stage manager and later house manager of three performance spaces, it was time to move to the country and slow down. Find him on Facebook.

Phillip Gregory Burke (BFA ’07)

Phillip’s play, “He’s The First,” will run in rep at The Fire This Time Festival at the Kraine Theater in New York City from January 16-29, 2023 and will be broadcast on PBS at a later date.

Ken Milch (BM ’91)

Ken serves as principal at Parcells Middle School in the Grosse Pointe Public School System (Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan). He is in his 30th year in public education, having previously served as a high school principal and assistant principal and as a classroom teacher for 14 years. He and his wife Carla reside in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, with their four children.

If There Is No Wind: Poems Margaret R Sáraco

Margaret Sáraco (BFA ’81)

In 2022, Margaret published her first poetry book “If There Is No Wind” (Human Error Publishing), received a Pushcart Nomination from Lips Magazine for her poem “Cookies,” and was a semi-finalist in the Laura Boss Narrative Book Contest. Her book is available online including at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Bookshop.org, and in store at I Am Books in Boston and Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, New Jersey. More information.

Aenea Kanaan (BS ’21)

Aenea recently published “Gold,” her first poetry book. It is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the publisher’s website (Wipf and Stock). Visit Aenea’s website to learn more.

Jay Aubrey Jones (BS ’76)

Jay recently performed in “Bernstein on Broadway: A Celebration” with Chita Rivera at 54 Below in New York. He was also featured in Dylan Thomas’ “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” for Irish Repertory Theatre, also in New York.

Michael Ambrosino (BS ’52, MS ’55)

Michael has retired after spending 40 years in public broadcasting, mostly creating TV series for PBS. Credits include: creator and executive producer, “Nova” and “Odyssey”; executve producer, “The Ring of Truth”; and consulting executive producer, “Eyes On the Prize.”

Emily Wells (BM ’10)

Emily is now the senior assistant dean of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. She was previously the director of administration of the vocal arts department at The Juilliard School.

Daniel Fenski (BFA ’81) and Barbara Battles (BFA ’80)

Windsor Gallery, in Colts Neck, New Jersey, owned by Daniel and Barbara, will celebrate 20 years in business in October 2022. The gallery represents the work of local and nationally acclaimed artists. Daniel, former retail design director at R.H. Macy’s, does fine custom framing for discerning clientele. He is a member of the Society of Gilders; trained in gilding and frame restoration at West Dean College, Chichester, U.K.; and works as curatorial consultant for Monmouth Museum in Lincroft, New Jersey, having served on the board of trustees for 16 years. His wife Barbara recently retired as head of outreach services at South Brunswick Library, where she facilitated several library renovations and the design and acquisition of a new mobile library.

Giuliana Augello (BFA ’21)

Giuliana is in the ensemble of the “Jesus Christ Superstar” 50th Anniversary First National Tour. Catch her touring around North America.

Debra (Rosenthal) Russell (BFA ’92)

Debra has moved to Las Vegas and is an Executive MBA candidate at CU-Boulder Leeds School of Business. She has expanded her coaching practice, which has been focused on arts and entertainment and professional sport, to include small and medium business seeking a higher level of employee engagement, culture change, and professional development for their rising stars.

Nancy Danahy (BFA ’73)

Nancy retired from Pearson Education several years ago. She is doing occasional freelance design work but mostly just enjoying her grandchildren.

Holly Brown (BFA ’98)

Holly showed work in the three-person exhibition “Exquisite Blue Towers” with Juan Manuel Gomez and Mauricio Arroyave at gallery@AGI Denim in New York City this summer. Holly is the founder and CEO of Clockworks Press.

Barbara (Long) Jones (MA ’94)

Barbara was named curator emerita upon retirement in April 2022 after 26 1/2 years as curator/chief curator at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Her final exhibition for the museum, “Simple Pleasures: The Art of Doris Lee,” with co-curator Melissa Wolfe is currently on view at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida, and will travel to the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, opening October 30.

Kathleen (Reilly) Beausoleil (BFA ’96)

Kathleen received a 2022 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and has a solo show at the Monmouth Museum August 20 – September 18. Visit Kathleen’s website.

Nora Carrol (BFA ’71)

Nora, who is principal of CarrolCreative, LLC in Bethesda, Maryland, has joined the communications faculty, advanced academic programs, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University.

W. Emerson (Dusty) Rhodes (BS ’61)

Dusty will retire in March 2023 after 32 years as county auditor in Hamilton County, Ohio, elected and re-elected eight times. He was the first Democrat to win a county administrative office in the county in 20 years. In 2019 the County Auditors Association of Ohio named him “Outstanding County Auditor in Ohio,” and in 2020 he was honored with Greater Cincinnati Right to Life’s annual Life Award. In 1965 he was named “Cincinnati’s Most Popular Disc Jockey” by Billboard magazine. In 2001 he was inducted into the Ohio Radio & TV Broadcasters Hall of Fame.