Vanessa Cruz, M.F.A. 

Associate Professor of Graphic Design + Digital Media  

Vanessa B. Cruz attended The California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA, where she earned her M.F.A. in Experimental Animation a year early and holds a B.F.A. in Film/Video/Animation from the Rhode Island School of Design. in 2005 she joined the University of North Florida faculty after working in the animation industry for over ten years. She has worked for such studios as 20th Century Fox Television Animation, Film Roman, as well as created her own independent films. Her films have been shown internationally and she’s won awards at the Ottawa International Film Festival and Oslo Animation Festival. Ms. Cruz was also curator for screenings at the REDCAT in Los Angeles, Santa Monica Museum of Art, as well as the Japanese American National Museum. She has also received the 2008 Individual Artist Fellowship Award from the State of Florida, and in 2009 the UNF Summer Scholarship grant, which will help fund her two films, “Icarus” and ”Eve As a Young Child” which are in production.