Five new faculty and staff members with strong and varied professional and educational backgrounds joined the ranks in the School of Communications in the Fall of 2009.
The five additions (along with new adjunct faculty) bring the school’s number of faculty and staff to 54.
New faculty and staff members, in alphabetical order, are:
Brad Berkner arrives at Elon as the Coordinator of Interactive Media Projects, a position in which he will work with faculty and students in the M.A. in Interactive Media program and coordinate any projects school-wide related to interactive media. Berkner most recently worked for Turner Sports and Entertainment in New York, where he designed multimedia elements for marketing presentations involving the NBA, PGA and NASCAR. As a freelance designer, he’s worked for the CBS network and most recently for CNN American Morning. Berkner also worked two years in Charlotte as an interactive graphic designer at CBS affiliate WBTV 3. He’s received a National Geographic broadcast design internship and was credited for his work on ‘On Assignment’ “Deadly Destiny: Remembering Photojournalist Dan Eldon.” He obtained his M.F.A. from the Savannah College of Art and Design, and while pursuing that degree, he studied in France at the Lacoste School for the Arts. He received his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh. He’s also studied in France at the Lacoste School for the Arts.
Naeemah Clark previously taught broadcasting at the University of Tennessee before joining the School of Communications here as an assistant professor. Clark has worked professionally as a reporter for WRUF-AM and a video editor for WUFT-TV in Gainseville, Fla. She has published in Journalism History, authored two book chapters and presented multiple papers at AEJMC, International Communication Association and the Southern States Communication Association. Clark won second place for faculty research in the Magazine Division of AEJMC in 2008, and she received the 2006 Distinguished Service Award in UT’s College of Communication and Information. Clark takes student groups every year on a week-long media tour of New York, and she has organized a Tennessee conference on new Latino immigration to the state. She is also the newsletter editor for the Research Division of BEA. At Elon, Clark will teach courses such as Communications in a Global Age, Broadcasting in the Public Interest, Writing for Electronic Media, and Media Management and Sales. She obtained her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Florida and her B.A. from Florida State University.
Daniel Haygood is also coming to Elon from the University of Tennessee as an assistant professor. Haygood won the Outstanding Teaching Award in the College of Communication and Information at UT in 2006-07. He also received a second-place award in AEJMC’s national Promising Professors competition in 2007. Haygood has more than 12 years of full-time professional experience, including five years with the D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles agency in New York as an account executive on Procter & Gamble) and seven years with DMB&B and Tokyo Agency International in Tokyo. He has published in the Journal of Advertising Research and Sports Marketing Quarterly. He has also presented refereed research at AEJMC, ICA and the American Academy of Advertising. At Elon, Haygood will teach courses such as Communications in a Global Age, Advertising in Society, Advertising Techniques, the Global Experience, and the Great Ideas capstone class. Haygood obtained his Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and his B.A. from North Carolina State University.
Phillip Motley will join the School’s faculty as an assistant professor teaching in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. Motley comes to Elon from the University of Wisconsin at Stout, a technology-intensive university in the Wisconsin System. He was a Wisconsin Teaching Fellow for the 2008-09 year and worked with colleagues in computer science to create a new degree program for in-game design and development. He worked professionally as a multimedia designer, animator, art director and design consultant for 10 years. He taught digital art and animation at the School of Communication Arts in Raleigh for three years before joining the Wisconsin System in 2005, where he was the co-director of the Serious Games Lab and a member of the Second Life research group. He has taught courses in digital imaging, digital narratives 2D and 3D animation and multimedia design. He has given exhibitions and presentations on social networking, teaching technology vs. teaching aesthetics in the digital arts and disruptive innovation in the classroom. At Elon, he will teach Digital Media Convergence and other classes in the Interactive Media program. Motley obtained his Master of Industrial Design degree (a terminal degree) from North Carolina State University and his B.F.A. from Davidson College.
Sang Nam will also join the School’s faculty as an assistant professor teaching in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. Nam comes to Elon from Wisconsin, where he teaches courses such as Principles of Interactivity, Multimedia Projects, Digital Imaging, Reactive Image & Sound, Digital Post-Production and 3D Animation. He was his university’s Teaching Fellow in the University of Wisconsin System and was a nominee last year for both the Teaching Excellence Award and the Outstanding Adviser Award in his college. He had four juried exhibitions in 2008, currently serves as research co-chair and Webmaster for AEJMC’s Visual Communication Division and participated in the Artist Residency Program at the Experimental Television Center in Owego, N.Y. Nam also has professional experience as a producer for Fossil Media in San Diego and for Sunflower Media in Los Angeles. Nam obtained his M.F.A. in Electronic Integrated Arts from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, his B.S. in molecular biology and interdisciplinary B.A. in computing arts from the University of California at San Diego.