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  Two
new faculty members will be added at the School of Communications
this fall: photojournalist Randy Piland and veteran film-production
professional Peter Kiwitt.
Piland was
picture editor and senior staff photographer for 13 years at The
Tennessean, the daily newspaper in Nashville, where he oversaw a
14-person photo department and implemented the digital transition.
Before that, he was a photographer at newspapers in Georgia and
Massachusetts and served eight years as an Army photojournalist,
including participation in Operation Desert Storm with the U.S.
Army VII Corps.
His work has
taken first places for feature photo and spot news from The Associated
Press and a second place nationally in the 1998 Best of Gannett
competition.
Piland earned
a bachelor's degree in communications and digital media from Middle
Tennessee State University and is completing an M.A. in visual communication/multimedia
at Ohio University, where he also taught courses. He is a national
presenter, speaking on photojournalism at conferences for the American
Press Institute, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society
of Newspaper Design, and at Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky and the
University of Missouri.
He will be
teaching photojournalism and related visual communications classes,
serving as the writer/photographer for the Connections Web site,
and assuming duties as faculty adviser for the students who produce
Elon University's yearbook.
Piland has
completed five marathons, including the Boston Marathon twice, and
he is the national contract photographer for the Boy Scouts of America,
which allows him to spend time at the annual Jamboree in addition
to doing things such as accompanying Scout groups on visits to places
such as the White House.
Kiwitt has
been living and working in Los Angeles, where he was director of
production and then director of creative affairs at MGM Television
from 1997-2000 and most recently worked as a producer for an independent
film company. He is spending the fall term investigating the establishment
of an Elon program in Los Angeles, and he will co-teach a winter-term
course for sophomore JCM Fellows in Los Angeles with Gerald Gibson.
Kiwitt will begin teaching courses at Elon's main campus in spring
2006.
He has taught
in Emerson College's LA Program since 1994, and he designed its
Director's Workshop class. His screen credits include "Red America"
and "Baywatch" (script writer) and "Silent Lies" and the police
drama "Hunter" (directing). Most recently, he has worked as an editor
on "The Moguls," an upcoming film starring Jeff Bridges and Ted
Danson.
Kiwitt earned
his BFA in Film from Emerson College in Boston and earned his MFA
in Directing from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. His
thesis "Belle" (25 minutes, 16 mm) won the Bronze Award at the Houston
International Film Festival.
In his spare
time, Kiwitt taught a weekend digital-cinema class for inner-city
children through a program sponsored by the LA school system. He
is a member of the Directors Guild of America. At Elon, Kiwitt will
teach Screenwriting, Film Production and Film Aesthetics.
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