Faculty and Staff Features

Meg Fowler

Visiting Instructor

Dr. Margaret ("Meg") McCrummen Fowler specializes in 18th and 19th century French and American art histories. Her dissertation rethinks the critical reception of Auguste Rodin through pseudo-scientific beliefs about degeneration and French nationalism following the Franco-Prussian War. She previously directed the History Museum of Mobile and served as founding director of Africatown Heritage House, including "Clotilda: The Exhibition." She completed a curatorial fellowship at the Musée d'Orsay in 2018 and holds a Ph.D. in Art History & Society from Tulane University.

Elizabeth Heuer

Associate Professor

Dr. Elizabeth B. Heuer specializes in 19th- and 20th-century American visual and material culture. Her interdisciplinary research explores cultural memory, identity, materiality, and the intersections of art and ecology. Her publications include a monograph on Eugene Savage, contributions to several anthologies, and the recent collection catalog American Made: Painting and Sculpture in the DeMell Jacobsen Collection.

Lisa West

Instructor

Lisa West holds an M.A. in Art History from Louisiana State University with a research emphasis on the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, Italy. Since 2002 she has taught at eight institutions in five states, offering courses from Art Appreciation and Survey sequences to upper-level seminars in Greek, Islamic, Byzantine, Dutch Baroque, and Modern European art. She has taught abroad at Charles University in Prague and across seven cities in Germany and Austria.

Trevor Dunn

Associate Professor

Trevor Dunn studied sculpture and ceramics at the University of South Florida before earning his MFA from Utah State University in 2009. He has lectured internationally and led workshops in wood firing, salt/soda firing, and kiln building. His work is held in public and private collections worldwide. In 2009 he received the NCECA Graduate Student Fellowship Award for research in Jianxi, China.

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Stephen Heywood

Professor

Stephen Heywood creates wheel-thrown and hand-built mechanical forms influenced by barns, factories, smokestacks, and water towers. He has shown in over 300 national juried exhibitions and represented the United States in the First International Ceramics Journal Editors Symposium in Xi'an, China (2004). His work appears in 500 Cups, 500 Bowls, and Ceramics Monthly. He won the Craft Award at the Westmoreland Arts National in 2022.

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Isabella Arrazola

Assistant Professor

Isabella Arrazola is a graphic designer, researcher, and educator whose work intersects human-centered design, data visualization, and design culture. She has over a decade of professional experience in brand identity, advertising, packaging, and textile design. She holds an M.F.A. in Design and Visual Communications from the University of Florida and teaches at the junior and senior levels at UNF.

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David Begley

Associate Professor & Program Coordinator

Dave Begley brings over 20 years of teaching experience and maintains an active design practice with national clients. As Program Coordinator for the Limited Access Graphic Design program, his courses focus on Brand Development, Typography, Poster Design, and Layout. He serves as an expert reviewer for NASAD accreditation and conducts research on design in the craft beer industry, presenting findings at national conferences.

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Vanessa Cruz

Professor

Three-time Fulbright Award–winning media artist Vanessa B. Cruz holds an MFA from CalArts and a BFA from RISD. She has over a decade of animation industry experience (20th Century Fox, Film Roman) and her independent films have screened internationally. Since 2005 she has taught at UNF. Her awards include a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship and a UNF High Impact Grant. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Educational Leadership.

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Beth Nabi

Associate Professor

Beth Nabi specializes in type communication, publication design, graphic design history, and design for social good. She earned her MFA in Graphic Design from SCAD. She is creator of the U2 Tattoo Project — an international curatorial study that has visited four continents, exhibited at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Sphere in Las Vegas, and is featured in two official U2 publications. Outside teaching, she pursues concert photography.

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Shailja Patel

Instructor

Shailja Patel brings a background spanning advertising, marketing, UX design, UX research, and business strategy, with contributions to projects for Google Pay, the Google Privacy Team, Deloitte, and Royal Caribbean. She holds degrees from MAAER's MIT, Pune, and the Savannah College of Art and Design, and is currently advancing a thesis on a UX data privacy framework.

Claudia Scaff

Associate Professor

Claudia Scaff holds an M.F.A. in Graphic Design from Iowa State University and a B.A. in Industrial Design from Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado in São Paulo, Brazil. Her courses and study abroad programs in Brazil feature nonprofit collaborations. Her research on graphic design education, sustainability, package design, and Brazilian design has been published in international journals and presented at national and international conferences.

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Thony Aiuppy

Foundations Adjunct Professor

Thony Aiuppy is a visual artist, art educator, writer, and storyteller. He holds an MFA in Painting from SCAD and has exhibited at Andalusia Farm (home of Flannery O'Connor), the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, and the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens. His current practice focuses on sequential storytelling through comics and zines.

Caitlin Flynn

Foundations Adjunct Professor

Caitlin Flynn holds a BFA from the University of New Hampshire and a Master's from Pratt Institute. After exhibiting in Santiago, Chile and New York City, she relocated to Neptune Beach, FL. She currently teaches drawing at UNF and exhibits throughout the United States. Her work is held in collections in California, New York, and Ireland. The Huffington Post praised her "emotive abstract ocean scenes reminiscent of Richard Diebenkorn."

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Jason John

Associate Professor

Born in Detroit in 1980, Jason John holds a BFA from Kutztown University and an MFA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. His work has appeared on the covers of Blue Canvas Magazine, Art Calendar, and Poets and Artists, and has been featured in American Arts Quarterly and American Art Collector. He won first prize at the Alexandria Museum of Art's Annual Juried Competition in 2024 and is represented by 33 Contemporary Gallery in Miami.

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Adam McGalliard

Assistant Professor

J. Adam McGalliard is a contemporary realist who blends traditional oil painting with modern technology to explore identity, myths, and societal divides. Trained by Vincent Desiderio and Steven Assael at the New York Academy of Art, he spent nearly four years as an artist assistant for Jeff Koons. His work has been shown at Context Art Miami, Sotheby's, and Museo de la Ciudad de México. His latest series, Erewhon, envisions potential futures amid societal polarization.

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Deborah McKinney

Foundations Adjunct Professor

Deborah S. McKinney is an award-winning designer and educator with a BA in Visual Communication from Florida State University and a Master's in Illustration from Syracuse University. A founding member and past president of the AIGA Jacksonville Chapter, she received the 12-Who-Care Award and Jefferson Medal from the American Institute for Public Service for her work with the Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless. As CEO of McKinney Levine Studio, Inc., she continues to create and publish in Visual Communication.

Nikki Rakov

Foundations Adjunct Professor

Nikki Rakov holds an M.F.A. in Painting from SCAD and a Master of Education from UNF. With over 26 years of teaching experience, she creates layered paintings of figures and animals interpreted from dreams, visions, and reference photographs — inspired by folk magic, mythology, and family history. Her work seeks to restore agency to women as spiritual intermediaries across time. She teaches Drawing at UNF and pursues research travel to Europe.

Jacob Wan

Instructor

Jacob Z. Wan is a contemporary bookbinder creating mixed-media conceptual books that celebrate the importance of the self. A finalist for the 2022 MCBA Prize, his books are held in numerous university and museum collections. He holds an MFA from the University of Central Florida, has exhibited at the Florida Biennial, Art Fields, and the International Art of the Book show, and immigrated from China to the United States in 2014.

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Marisa Yow

Visiting Instructor

Marisa Yow is a multidisciplinary artist and educator whose work explores memory, identity, and human experience through painting, drawing, and mixed media. She holds an MFA from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She developed "Drawing Jacksonville," connecting local history to on-site drawing experiences, and is a board member at CoRK Arts District. She is currently working on a collaborative exhibition opening in Barcelona in 2026.

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David Fenner

Distinguished Professor

David Fenner joined UNF in 1992 and was elected Distinguished Professor by the faculty in 2010. He has served as interim chair of the Philosophy Department, dean of the Graduate School, and president of the Faculty Association. His authored books include The Art and Philosophy of The Garden (Oxford University Press, 2024), Plain Aesthetics (Broadview Press, 2024), Art in Context (Ohio University Press, 2008), and Introducing Aesthetics, translated into Chinese.

Alexander Diaz

Associate Professor

Alexander Diaz's artwork marries documentary photography with conceptual art to comment on environmental issues, consumerism, religion, and the particulars of place. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, the Norton Museum of Art, and the Mobile Museum of Art.

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Christopher Trice

Associate Professor

Christopher W. Trice joined the UNF faculty in 2010 after earning his MFA in Photography from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has over twenty years of experience teaching photography and digital imaging and received the UNF Faculty Association Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2023. His research interests span personal and cultural histories, American popular culture, Italian cinema, and historic photographic processes.

Samantha Burns

Adjunct Instructor

Samantha Burns is an interdisciplinary artist whose work integrates printmaking, sculpture, and installation to explore the body-mind connection, trauma recovery, and the contradictions of normalcy. With over a decade of exhibiting in the US, Canada, and Europe, she has received residencies at UNESCO's Art Camp in Andorra and the Vermont Studio Center. In 2024 she received an Individual Artist Grant from the City of Jacksonville. Since 2019 she has collaborated with animal conservation programs across four states and Brazil.

Sheila Goloborotko

Professor

Sheila Goloborotko sustains a restless, auto-ethnographic multidisciplinary practice employing symbols of transience, impermanence, and democracy. Her recent exhibitions include the Florida Prize for Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum (2024), the International Print Center of New York (2022), and the Zuckerman Museum of Art (2020). Her work is held in permanent collections at The Brooklyn Museum, The New York Public Library, and Yale's Beinecke Library, among others.

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Andrew Kozlowski

Associate Professor

Andrew Kozlowski is an artist and educator whose work expands printmaking into prints, mail art, comics, zines, community engagement, and publishing. A faculty member at UNF since 2017, he has shown at ArtSpace Raleigh, 1708 Gallery in Richmond, and Yellow House Gallery in Jacksonville. In 2023 he received an Art Ventures Individual Artist Grant. He also helps organize the Duval Comics and Zines Fest, attracting thousands of guests annually.

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Jenny K. Hager

Department Chair & Professor

Jenny K. Hager chairs the Department of Art, Art History, and Design and is a Professor of Sculpture. Her work has been shown in Germany, Poland, Wales, Latvia, and Italy, and includes a 20-foot giraffe sculpture for the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. Since 2006 she and Lance Vickery have installed over 90 sculptures in Jacksonville. In 2014 she founded Sculpture Walk Jax and also directs the UNF Seaside Sculpture Park.

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Aisling McDonald

Visiting Instructor

Aisling Millar was born in Dublin in 1982 and received her MFA in Sculpture from East Carolina University in 2014. She has completed public commissions for the City of Amelia Island, the City of Atlantic Beach, and the Jacksonville Jaguars Miller Electric Performance Center, among others. In 2024 she received an Individual Artist Grant from the City of Jacksonville. She creates outdoor steel sculpture, cast iron wall hangings, ceramic sculptures, and mosaics.

Lance Vickery

Associate Professor

Lance Vickery balances digital fabrication knowledge with traditional fabrication experience to create distinctive large-scale public sculptures across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi — in materials ranging from wood to stainless steel. Together with Jenny K. Hager through Havic Studios, he maintains a synergistic collaborative practice whose output is greater than the sum of its parts.

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Ian Carey

Curator of University Galleries & Instructor

Ian Carey holds a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from Illinois State University. He has served as gallery director at Illinois Wesleyan University and as Permanent Art Collection Curator at Indiana State University. He teaches painting, drawing, and Museum Studies courses, integrating exhibition programming into unique learning experiences. He is also an active artist with national and international exhibitions.

Amanda Campbell

3D Technician

Amanda is a Jacksonville native who graduated from UNF with a BFA in Sculpture. She developed her carpentry and fabrication skills in the Exhibits Department at MOSH, where she installed traveling exhibitions and designed new in-house displays. Her artwork explores planar forms — joining intersecting shapes into three-dimensional structures that play with light and cast shadow across organic and geometric series.

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Tamra Conner

Office Manager

Tamra Conner has been employed with UNF for 25 years. She graduated in 2000 with her B.F.A. in Painting/Drawing from UNF, and her education under Professor Emeritus Paul Ladnier and Professor Emerita Louise Freshman Brown set her on a path to receive grants, commissions, and entries in juried exhibitions. She has witnessed the department grow from its earliest days through to the present.

Quinn London Echelson

2D Fine Arts Lab Technician & Research Assistant

Quinn's photography focuses on capturing nature's most admirable moments, celebrating the natural world with a goal of highlighting the importance of conservation. His nature-driven work invites viewers to find reflection and inspiration in the landscape, treating it as both an escape and a root for creativity.

Jennifer Graham

Administrative Secretary

Jennifer Graham began her career in broadcast news before returning to her artistic roots at UNF. She holds a B.S. in Communication with a minor in Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking from UNF (2018) and is currently pursuing a BFA. As Administrative Secretary, she supports departmental operations, coordinates events, and assists with exhibitions. Outside work, she enjoys singing and exploring Jacksonville's vibrant gallery scene.

Nofa Farha Dixon

Professor Emerita

Nofa Farha Dixon's 49-year career in art education began at Wm. M. Raines High School. She served as Curator of Education at the Jacksonville Art Museum (now MOCA) and as Artist-in-Residence for Duval County Schools. In 1998 she received the Art Educator of the Year Award from the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville. Beginning in 2009, her Art in Public Places class produced four murals and 16 mosaic columns that now embellish UNF's campus. Her artwork is held in numerous corporate, public, and private collections throughout the United States.

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Paul E. Ladnier

Professor Emeritus

Paul Ladnier taught painting and drawing at UNF for nearly forty years. Upon retirement, UNF honored him with an eponymous scholarship for exceptional painting majors. He holds an MFA from Syracuse University and a BFA from Ringling School of Art. Elected to the Salmagundi Club in 2017, he was one of eight charter members who founded the CoRK Arts District. He continues to travel, paint, exhibit, and teach at his CoRK studio.

Debra Murphy

Professor Emerita

Debra Murphy served as inaugural chair of the Department of Art and Design from 2004 to 2019. Her scholarship spans 16th century Italian studies and publications on the art, patronage, and collections of northeast Florida. She served as president of the Southeastern College Art Conference, founded the UNF annual program to Italy (now in its fourteenth year), and was recognized as a "Cultural Icon" by the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Boston University.