Ida Kumoji-Ankrah is a Professor of Art and Design, Executive Director of The Institute for Creative and Collaborative Arts: Art, Communication, Music, and Design, and the Director of School of Art and Design at Eastern Kentucky University. She earned a BA in Studio Art from St. Catherine University, MFA in Graphic Design from University of Minnesota, and an MBA from Eastern Kentucky University. Kumoji-Ankrah’s work is based on Cross Cultural Design, Visual Culture, Typography, Digital Storytelling, Art and Textiles of Africa. Kumoji-Ankrah has publications in books, journals, and magazines and presented at national and international conferences. Kumoji-Ankrah actively exhibits work in galleries and museums, and works with clients on commissioned design projects globally, and has her creative work in public and private collections.

Charlie C Campbell is a multidisciplinary Appalachian artist and graphic designer originally from Hazard, Kentucky. He attended Transylvania University for his Bachelor of Arts and Rochester Institute of Technology for his Master of Fine Arts degrees. His commercial work includes award-winning design, photography, and illustration for clients across multiple industries. His fine art has been exhibited in a variety of local and national venues. His scholarly work explores the intersection of traditional arts media with technology; how it subverts and rewrites our expectations of art and our ways of seeing and interpreting images. Charlie joined Eastern Kentucky in the Fall of 2023 as an Assistant Professor in Design. He currently lives in Berea, Kentucky with his partner and his son. Visit Charlie Campbell’s website!

Crimson Duvall is a Kentucky based artist who has been working as a professional artist since 2004; focusing mainly on ceramic sculpture, painting, functional pottery, and mixed media. After receiving her BFA in Painting and Ceramics from Eastern Kentucky University, she continued on to complete her MFA in Studio Arts with emphasis in Ceramic Sculpture and Painting. Interpersonal relationships, mental health, and human dynamics are some of the topics she likes to research and explore for the visual narrative of her work. Studio work, gallery exhibitions, and art festivals are in addition to teaching in the college setting as well as in the community through workshops, classes, and online videos. She has shown her artwork across the country and done art workshops/demos in the U.S. and internationally. In addition to currently teaching at EKU as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, she works a Senior Content Artist for DecoArt, where she is responsible for making artistic content such as: projects with product, testing/development of new products, educational videos/demos/workshops, content for EComm and Social Media, and implementing marketing strategies.

Kelly has a BA of psychology from California State University of Sacramento, where she developed a love for organizational psychology. Most recently, she has been working in the finance industry as a branch supervisory for two community development credit union offices in Kentucky, where she helped with their financial literacy programs. She worked in finance for about 10 years. Kelly is a vocalist and performs locally with her church congregation.

An Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Eastern Kentucky University Professor McCarthy completed her MFA at Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2013. Since, she has become an award winning designer and highly involved in the design community having served as Programming Director of AIGA Lou and Co-Education Chair of AAF Lex. In 2022, Professor McCarthy wrote and illustrated her first children’s book, Some Days Feel Stormy, geared towards 4–7 year olds. Her creative scholarship centers on BIG emotions within children through storytelling, illustrations, and with the help of psychology.  When Shannon isn’t designing you can find her walking a trail, snuggling her cats Sans and Serif, her nose deep in a book, or learning German and Spanish.

Rachel Moser is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in central Kentucky. Her works feature an array of natural and manufactured materials presented through sculpture, video, installation, and sound. Moser graduated from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle with a BFA in Motion and Graphic Design, and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Kentucky. Influences and inspiration come from Moser’s years of immersion in movement practice and performing as a ballet dancer prior to moving into the field of visual arts. In 2019 Moser received a grant for the Great Meadows Foundation to fund her travel to Svalbard for the Arctic Circle Residency, providing the foundation for her current exhibition. Her work has been shown throughout Kentucky, at places such as the Morlan Gallery at Translyvania University, Georgetown College, Lexington Art League, and the Parachute Factory. It has also been shown nationally at Waldemer A. Schmidt Art Gallery at Wartbug College in Iowa, and San Luis Obispo Museum of Art in California. The work has also been shown internationally in Svalbard, Norway as part of the Arctic Circle Residency. Her work is an ongoing study of climate change and human impact on the planet.  Moser is currently Professor of Digital Art at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky.

Nedim Slijecpevic is an assistant professor of Instructional Design at the Institute for Creative and Collaborative Arts at Eastern Kentucky University. Nedim grew up in Bosnia and Herzegovina and immigrated to the United States at 24, where he obtained BA in Computer Information Systems, and MS in Multidisciplinary Studies at Buffalo State University. He started working at EKU in 2006, and during that time, he completed his doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Kentucky. His passions are family, nature, teaching, training, learning development, photography, and traveling. Visit his website!

Amanda Strasik is the Associate Professor of Art History in the School of Art and Design at Eastern Kentucky University, where she teaches courses on the history of the visual arts across global cultures and the roles of women in the arts in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe. Her scholarship focuses on representations of queenship, women artists and patrons, and issues of gender in eighteenth-century French art. Dr. Strasik has received numerous fellowships to conduct research in Paris at the musée du Louvre and the musée des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Rouen’s Museum of the History of Education in France, and The Frick Collection in New York City. She has presented her work at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, and conferences for the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, SECAC, and Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture, where she served on the executive board as the organization’s first secretary (2019-2022). Her publications explore notions of female agency in eighteenth-century French genre painting and portraiture and have appeared in major peer-reviewed journals: Women in French Studies, New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century, Art Inquiries, and Eighteenth-Century Life with Duke University Press. Her edited volume, The Enlightened Mind: Education in the Long Eighteenth Century, was published with Vernon Press in Fall 2022. In 2023, Dr. Strasik received the EKU College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) Excellence in Research Award and the John D. Rowlett Endowed Fund for Faculty Scholarship, Research, or Professional Development. These awards will support her forthcoming book on artistic communities of women that existed in Napoleonic France.

For over two decades, Dr. Ilona Szekely has shared her love of art with others. A career in art education has allowed her to share this enthusiasm in varied settings. She has taught students in universities, public schools, and urban and rural museums. Szekely has published numerous articles, prepared art exhibits, and participated in invited lectures throughout the U.S. and abroad. Most recently, Professor Szekely wrote a book published by Bloomsbury Publishing, London, entitled; The Secondary Art Teachers Guide to Examining Art and Design in The Community. Dr. Szekely is the former president of the Kentucky Art Education Association and the co-founder of the International Association of Play and Art. Her favorite experiences have been leading tours of EKU art students throughout the United States, Spain, Italy, and New Zealand. Dr. Ilona Szekely earned her B.A. from the University of Kentucky, an M.A. from Teachers College Columbia University in New York City, and her Ph.D. in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Szekely has taught Art Education at Eastern Kentucky University for over a decade.

Felicia Szorad earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and her Master of Fine Arts degree from East Carolina University in North Carolina. She is a Professor of Art and head of the Jewelry and Metals area at Eastern Kentucky University. Her creative work is exhibited nationally and has been published in Metalsmith, The Art of Enameling, and 500 Enameled Objects. She has taught numerous workshops at a variety of craft centers and university art programs. She is the recipient of a Kentucky Foundation for Women artist enrichment grant, a Kentucky Arts Council professional development grant, a Chenven Foundation grant, and an Al Smith Fellowship.

Born and educated in Detroit, Professor Vandenberg is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and curator. She joined the art and design faculty at Eastern in the fall of 2009. Her creative scholarship surveys a devolving socio-political landscape using myths surrounding patriotism, pride, and partisanship as points of departure. Narrowing world views and false perceptions of a “homeland” prompts creative projects that respond to bodies, prejudice, violence, and unrest. The physical works employ commonplace media—matches, fabric, handkerchiefs, flags, hangers, vases, and other familiar and domicile materials. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, and internationally in Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Iceland, and Sweden. Vandenberg received a BFA in 1999 from Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan and a MFA in 2005 from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She has been the recipient of numerous grants including a Kentucky Foundation for Women Artist Enrichment Grant, the Al Smith Fellowship, Great Meadows Foundation Travel Grant, and was shortlisted for the Luxembourg Art Prize in 2016. Her work is in the collections of the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama, Gummifabriken in Värnamo, Sweden, 21c Museum in Louisville, KY, and the Rockwell Museum in Corning, NY. She is an Associate Professor of Art at Eastern Kentucky University and Director of the EKU Giles Gallery.
Melissa Vandenberg is represented by Maus Contemporary in Birmingham, AL.