Our Faculty & Staff

David Christiana

David teaches illustration at the University of Arizona School of Art. He is a New York Times Best Selling illustrator of more than twenty picture books (four of which he also authored) for a variety of international publishers including Scholastic; Little, Brown; Simon and Schuster; and Disney Publishing Worldwide. His work has been recognized by the Societies of Illustrators (New York and Los Angeles), Communication Arts, American Illustration, Applied Arts Magazine and Spectrum and has been exhibited across the globe. Reviews of his books can be found in The Horn Book Magazine, Book Links, Publishers Weekly, The New York Times Book Review, People Magazine and others.

Karen Zimmermann

has specialized in the digital arts since the mid 1980s. She has worked in animation, design, and art using predominantly digital process. She has published and lectured extensively about the combination of art and technology and new media. She has recently developed a seminar in New Media theory and is actively involved with the College Art Association, serving on the Student Emerging Professional Committee. She is also on the Board of Advisors for the Phoenix Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Her work has been seen in AIGA Loop, The Education of a E Designer, Adobe Magazine, FATE, SIGGRAPH, and Zed.

Philip Zimmermann

Phil's creative work involves visual narrative and the time-based use of text and image. He has been creating artists’ books for more than 30 years. He says: “In addition to being a great vehicle for communicating directly to an audience, artists’ books have the wonderful advantage of being time-based like video, animation and film. Static pictures on a wall seem an impoverished way of making an artistic statement after one works with sequence, rhythm, movement, translucency, and the narrative arc.” He has shown extensively nationally and internationally, and among other awards, has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships.

Kelly Leslie

Kelly works in both print and digital media. Her current work deals with cultural, social and personal perspectives on aging. She is the Art Director for "Studio A", an in-house design studio serving clients of the School of Art and College of Fine Arts as well as the Faculty Advisor to the UA student chapter of AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts. She is the recipient of the College of Fine Arts 2003/2004 Undergraduate Advising/Mentoring Award.

Ellen McMahon

Ellen teaches design and illustration in the visual communications program and concept development in the School of Art graduate program. She has a BS in Scientific Illustration from the University of Arizona and an MFA in Visual Art and Culture for Vermont College. Her concept driven work, inspired by daily domestic life and popular culture, takes many forms including photography, drawing, writing, book arts and video. Her work has been exhibited widely and is in the artist book collections of the New York Public Library, The Boston Public Library and the Center for Creative Photography. Her writing is published in Clean New World: Culture, Politics and Graphic Design, Mother Reader: Essential Writings in Motherhood, n.paradoxa and an upcoming anthology from the University of Arizona press.

Cerese Vaden

Cerese joined the UA faculty in 2000, and took a hiatus in 2001 to serve as Director of Landfall Press in Chicago, IL. Returning in 2002, her teaching responsibilities include printmaking, watercolor, mixed media books, and drawing. A member of the Southern Graphics Council and the Mid-America Print Association, Vaden works in etching, relief, watercolor, and mixed media assemblages. Her works have been exhibited across the United States and abroad. At the University of Arizona, Cerese Vaden is responsible for the Intaglio Program.

Dr. Claudio Bizzari

Claudio has a long record of achievements as director and collaborator on numerous Etruscan and Roman archaeological excavations, as an author of articles on classical archaeology; he was the American Institute of Archaeology Kress Foundation Lecturer for 2001-2002 and he is contract researcher at the University of Macerata. He received his doctorate from the University of Perugia. With Alba, Claudio coordinates the various trips for the program, leading many of the tours himself and teaching archeological classes during the year.

Dr. Alba Frascarelli

Alba is the Institute's bilingual administrative and program coordinator. She handles daily inquiries from students as well as faculty, coordinates all of the field trips, tours and activities, in addition to teaching classes of her own. Alba also acts as a knowledgeable and informative guide on many of the trips. She has extensive experience as a classical archaeologist on numerous Italian excavations in the Orvieto area.