Emerson welcomes 17 new faculty members

Emerson College welcomes 17 new faculty members for the 2014–2015 academic year as the College continues to expand its academic excellence in communication and the arts.

Nancy Allen, executive-in-residence, comes to Emerson’s Health Communication Graduate Program with more than 20 years of experience. She was previously the senior communication associate at Health Resources in Action, where she developed health-related social marketing campaigns. She received a Master of Public Health from Tufts University.

Kelly Farquharson, assistant professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders, is a speech-language pathologist who studies cognitive, linguistic, orthographic, and environmental factors that influence how children with speech and language disorders acquire literary skills. Farquharson is a member of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association and holds a PhD from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Owen Egan, MA ’97, executive-in-residence, Communication Studies, specializes in measuring and assessing strategic communications in business and political environments. Egan is a senior consultant for The Saint Consulting Group, a consulting firm that specializes in land use politics and advises mostly Fortune 500 companies on entitling controversial real estate project developments. Egan has also worked as a public relations and political consultant, and his political experience ranges from presidential to municipal campaigns. He holds a Master of Arts from Emerson College and a Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University.

Weiko Lin, assistant professor, Visual and Media Arts, is a television and film writer whose most recent work, 100 Days, was screened at the renowned Hundred Flowers Film Festival and Golden Rooster Awards in China. Lin has worked on several feature films and is co-founder of The Unison Company. In television, he was head writer for the 2014 Huading Global Film Awards, hosted by Lucy Liu. Previously, he taught screenwriting at Northwestern University, University of California Los Angeles, and Taipei National University of the Arts as a Fulbright Senior Specialist.

Shaun Clarke, MFA ’12, artist-in-residence, Visual and Media Arts, has worked as a cinematographer on numerous projects over the past 10 years. His work has ranged from short narrative films to commercial spots and feature-length documentaries. Clarke holds a Master of Fine Arts from Emerson College.

Amissa Miller, artist-in-residence, Performing Arts, is a dramaturg, writer, and educator. She is interested in explorations of identity and culture, questions of access and inclusion, and the fostering of creative and pedagogical spaces that allow participants to collaboratively construct knowledge. She is a trained Intergroup Dialogue facilitator and a member of the American Alliance for Theatre Education, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University.

Manuel Basanese ’82, assistant professor, Visual and Media Arts, has been a working television writer/producer and member of the Writers Guild of America since 1987. His credits include Wizards of Waverly Place, The Wayans Bros., Family Matters, and The Tracey Ullman Show, among many others. Basanese served as co-executive producer of The Steve Harvey Show and wrote 20 episodes for the series. Basanese has taught a variety of TV writing classes at University of Southern California Extension and has served three times as head of the school’s Sitcom Arts Camp. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Emerson College and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Vincent Raynauld, assistant professor, Communication Studies, is also a research fellow in Emerson’s Engagement Lab. His areas of research interest and publication include political communication, social media, research methods, e-politics, and journalism. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Montreal, a Master of Arts from the University of Laval, and a PhD from Carleton University.

Other new faculty members are: Elizabeth Fausak, assistant professor, Visual and Media Arts, BS, Texas A&M University, MM, New York University; Vinicius Navarro, assistant professor, Visual and Media Arts, BA, Universidade Federal Da Paraiba, PhD, New York University; Sarah Zaidan, assistant professor, Visual and Media Arts, BFA, Savannah College of Art & Design, MA and PhD, Kingston University, London; Jeremy Heflin, lecturer, Communication Studies, BA, University of New Hampshire, MA, University of Colorado, Boulder; Russell Newman, assistant professor, Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, BS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MS, Suffolk University, PhD, University of Southern California; Catherine D’Ignazio, assistant professor, Journalism, BA, Tufts University, MFA, Maine College of Art; Mneesha Gellman, assistant professor, Journalism, BA, Bard College, MA, University of Queensland, PhD, Northwestern University; Joseph Keener, artist-in-residence, Performing Arts, BFA, Florida State University, MFA, University of Connecticut; Merrily Murray-Walsh, artist-in-residence, Performing Arts, BA, Carnegie Mellon University, MFA, Mills College.