Faculty Staff

Michelle Rothwell is a former Associate Professor of Art, Media, and Design. During her career in academia, she has created multiple degree programs for colleges and universities, designed dozens of courses, and mentored hundreds. She is the founder of the Game Art, BFA program at The University of the Arts, USA. She has served in a wide range of professional roles, including Director of Information Architecture, Interaction/Interface/Experience Designer, Virtual Reality Researcher, Product Developer, Design Consultant, and Mentor. Her client list includes DuPont, Proctor & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Merrill Lynch, AstraZeneca, SAP, and others. Michelle is a practicing Fine Artist whose work has been shown in international and national solo and group shows. She has been a student of ancient healing practices for over 20 years. She is the founder of Holistic Creativity, a transformational path to creative fulfillment. She teaches workshops, courses, and private sessions for personal creative healing and development.

Throughout her career, Lise has been a champion of the arts and has sought to innovatively engage diverse communities with art in meaningful ways. A native of Canada, Lise started her career developing and teaching art classes and workshops at community centers and museums including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery of Canada. As the director of education at the Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania and through subsequent positions as the executive director of the Driehaus Museum, a decorative arts museum in Chicago and more recently, through her leadership of International Arts & Artists, an arts service organization based in Washington, DC, Lise has remained committed to fostering the personal and professional growth and goals of students, adults, and emerging and seasoned creative professionals.

Phone: (302) 622-8000 Ext. 208

Willow Quillen is the adjunct instructor for 3D Modeling, where students learn to digitally sculpt and create forms of all kinds.  Willow is a Delaware College of Art and Design and Pratt Institute alumnus, where she studied 3D Animation and Art History.  She also works as a freelance illustrator and designer from her home in Pittsburgh, PA.  She has worked for clients, such as Hachette Books, A-F Records, Gecko Robotics, and more. Instagram.

Amy Bryan is an artist and educator from New Orleans, Louisiana. She is an adjunct instructor at DCAD teaching Introduction to Non-Western Art in the Liberal Arts Area. Other college classes she has taught include Introduction to the Visual Arts, Art History Surveys, African American Art, Drawing, Design, and Printmaking. As an artist, she focuses on drawing, photography, and mixed media art.

She has a Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Howard University in Washington DC and a Bachelor of Arts from Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans.

Denise Tanyol received her BA from the Writing Seminars at the Johns Hopkins University and her MA in English and creative writing from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her doctoral dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania, “The Inconstant Machine: Photography and American Literature,” concerns American writers’ often conflicted encounters with the camera, in particular their responses to changes in technology and practice. She has published papers on Melville, Joyce, and Faulkner and has presented conference papers on various photo-textual topics, including “The Photographic Novel from Wright Morris to 9/11.” Most recently she has written on the 1940s photo-texts of the novelist and photographer Wright Morris (1910-1998). Her teaching and research interests include American literature; American social documentary photography; the impact of photography on American writing; and creative writing. Her recent teaching includes modern American literature and literature of the American South. At DCAD and the University of Pennsylvania, she developed a new creative writing class, “Making Photo-texts,” in which students make hybrid works of fiction and creative nonfiction that incorporate photographs. At DCAD, she teaches the history of film (Moving Pictures), the history of photography (Lenticular Vision), and Modern Lit and Creative Writing.

Chase Dougherty is the Gretchen Hupfel Curator of Contemporary Art at The Delaware Contemporary. She graduated with a BA in Art History from Sonoma State University and is currently completing her MFA in Museum Exhibition Planning + Design at UARTS in Philadelphia. She has held various roles in museums and galleries over the past decade and is a passionate reader and writer about art. Her work with exhibition design and curating is focused on increasing visitor engagement and interpretation in art museums through multisensory design.

Melissa Fitzgerald is an illustrator from Delaware. She got her BFA in painting from a very traditional fine arts program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Then attended grad school at the Savannah College of Art and Design and earned an MFA in illustration. She been teaching at the college level since 2009. As an illustrator Melissa has worked for The National Park service and Delaware State Parks. She has had work in galleries and museums. Designs and illustrations of her’s have sold across the country and internationally. With her art she works both traditionally and digitally with a focus on printmaking.

Casey Smith is the Area Coordinator for Liberal Arts at DCAD and runs the DCAD Writers Studio. He holds an AB in English literature from Kenyon College and an MA in English literature and language and a PhD in English with a minor in Victorian studies from Indiana University. Before coming to DCAD, he spent 20 years on the faculty of the Corcoran College of Art + Design/Corcoran School of the Arts & Design at The George Washington University, where he was founder and director of the Corcoran Writers Center. He also has taught at Indiana University and West Chester University. A frequent publisher and presenter of scholarly work on a range of topics, Casey most recently presented “Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market: 150 Years of Art & Illustration” at the Annual Symposium of the Fellowship of American Bibliophile Societies and “William Joseph Ibbett (1858-1934): Poet, Printer, Piquerist, Ripper Suspect?” at RipperCon18, the Biannual Conference on Jack the Ripper, the Whitechapel Murders, True Crime and Late Victorian Period History. He is an active member of the College Book Art Association; the American Printing History Association; the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals; the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing; and The William Morris Society of North America.

Lisa blends both her academic and studio training into innovative ways of teaching art history from a global perspective. She teaches Art History courses at both Philadelphia and New Jersey colleges along with current classes Art History I, II, III, and Writing for the Arts at DCAD. Lisa holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from Rutgers University-Camden and a graduate degree in Humanities and Art History from Arcadia University. She also studied drawing and sculpture for 8 years at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she served as a studio monitor for portrait and figure drawing and painting classes. Before and during her teaching career, Lisa worked in Medical and Educational publishing where she developed print and digital manuscripts and art programs.  Lisa continues to be inspired through the endless creativity of DCAD students.

Katy Ro serves as Academic Dean at the Delaware College of Art and Design. She is equally passionate about visual arts education and her studio practice as a bookmaker, printmaker and illustrator. Katy received her BFA degree in drawing and painting from Minnesota State University Moorhead; and later completed her MFA degree at The University of the Arts with emphasis in Book Arts and Printmaking. Upon graduation, Katy served in post-graduate residency as a conservation and housing technician at the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia’s rare oversized book archives. Katy actively exhibits work both nationally and internationally. Her artist books and prints can be found in various collections including the Salford Zine Library of Manchester and the University of West England of Bristol of the United Kingdom, the University of Pennsylvania’s rare artist book archive, the Borowsky Center for Publication Arts of the University of the Arts, and the Free Library of Pennsylvania print archive.

My relationship with DCAD began in 2005 when I enrolled as a full-time photography major. After I earned my associate of fine arts degree from DCAD and my bachelor of fine arts degree from Pratt Institute, I have held multiple positions at the college from Assistant Director of Student Services, part time faculty for the Continuing Education Department, to Director of Community Programs. As the Director of Admissions, I want to empower aspiring artists and designers with the opportunity to realize their potential of becoming an industry professional, no matter of race, gender identity, or economic background. I look forward to getting to know you and your work, apply today!

Tad Sare is the Program Chair for Animation at Delaware College of Art & Design where he instructs animation and foundation art courses. Tad is an experimental animator who exhibits work regionally and internationally. He also works commercially, creating online content, for businesses and organizations such as Delaware History Museum, The Maryland Coastal Bays Program, Greater Wilmington Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, and Camden County Community College. He continues to instruct public programs and workshops at Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and The Kennedy Center . Instagram

Rachel Bomze, a painter originally from Texas, received her bachelor of arts degree in studio art with an emphasis in painting at Brandeis University. She earned her master of fine arts degree in painting from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 2004 and was appointed area coordinator of Fine Arts and Foundations at DCAD in Fall 2016. Rachel’s own work centers on the in-between spaces. This occurs in the work where imagery hovers between the process of painting itself and a recollection of an image. In those in-between places, sometimes the work is reminiscent of weaving. Many times, the work recalls a landscape quality, like the light reflecting across the ripples in a body of water or the sensations of being enveloped by a landscape space as if in a field or underwater. Her work has been shown throughout the Pennsylvania and South Jersey region as well as in New York City.

Ellen Durkan grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, as the oldest of nine children. In addition to teaching at her alma mater, she travels around to teach blacksmith workshops. Her business, Iron Maiden Forge, has grown and evolved as she has worked on her “forged fashion” series and presented it through runway shows and performances pieces. Ellen also has a jewelry line to make her work more accessible to the public. After all, not everyone is in need of a metal corset.

Žaneta Zubkova, a native of Lithuania, is a formerly Brooklyn-based artist and an educator. At DCAD, she specializes in color and design courses. Previous teaching experiences include Pratt Institute and Adelphi University.

Aki Torii is a multidisciplinary artist whose artwork revolves around the theme of “home” as an endlessly transformative idea and entity. Her deep investigation of this idea manifests itself through various media such as painting, sculpture, photography, and video.

Torii has received her MFA degree from Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (2008), and her BFA Painting degree from Indiana University – Bloomington (2005). She has participated in the Reel Venus Film Festival (New York, 2008), group shows such as “Instance, Instants and Distance” at Skybox Gallery (Philadelphia, 2008) and Solitary Pleasure at Slought Foundation (Philadelphia, 2010).

Torii teaches foundation classes at DCAD. Instructing traditional and digital practices. In addition, she is a teaching artist at The Print Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts School and Museum in Philadelphia. She was selected as one of the “10 Philadelphia female artists you need to know” by online magazine PhillyVoice in April 2015.

John Breakey is the Program Chair for Graphic Design at DCAD. He is a member of the Type Director’s Club and the Philadelphia chapter of the AIGA. His design studio in New York City and, since 1998, in Wilmington, Delaware has created unique environmental design for clients seeking atypical visual solutions. JohnBreakeyStudio has completed icon through branding projects, editorial art, design and advertising for an extensive client list for over 40 years. A graduate of Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, John received his Master’s degree in Studio Arts from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He also maintains a thriving studio practice at The Delaware Contemporary on Wilmington’s Riverfront.

Jason is a native Delawarean. He received a BFA in film with a minor in animation from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. After college, he found work doing graphic design and honed his skills with Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. After the birth of his twin daughters, he decided to get the web certificate from DCAD. While taking these classes, he was asked to teach Photoshop, and then eventually Illustrator and InDesign for DCAD’s continuing education. In 2015, Jason started teaching graphic design as a regular faculty member. Jason is now a freelance graphic designer, illustrator, web designer, and general creative-for-hire.

Ron Brignac grew up in Seattle and serves as Area Coordinator of Photography at DCAD. A teacher and a working artist, Ron has received numerous grants, exhibited and lectured across the region. In 2009, Ron received a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts to continue with his project of photographing people in their environment.