We have had several new awesome people join the School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design team recently, so let’s get to know them a bit better!
Laura Kittner: Laura is a seasoned college faculty member with over 15 years of experience teaching Advertising, Marketing Communications, and Digital Marketing courses. She has held part-time, partial-load, and full-time faculty roles and has recently taken on the position of program coordinator for a Digital Marketing Communications graduate certificate program. Under her leadership, the program has experienced tremendous growth, with three intakes and an 800 per cent increase in enrolment.
Laura is a passionate entrepreneur and has launched various entrepreneurial and innovation-centred initiatives within the college sector. She developed a Global Skills Opportunity study abroad course called "Entrepreneurial Thinking in a Global Context" in partnership with a university in Dublin, Ireland. Laura has also held senior leadership positions, including Vice President of Marketing and Global Business Development at PrintFleet Inc. in Kingston, Ontario, and founding Publisher and Editorial Director of The Imaging Channel from 1105 Media Inc in Los Angeles, California. She has also led successful start-ups, including her international marketing agency, Tangent MTW Inc., and the web development firm, MPSToolbox, where she worked with clients such as Canon USA, Xerox, Lexmark, and Kyocera.
Laura holds a master's degree in Management Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the Smith School of Business, Queen's University, and an advanced diploma in Advertising – Integrated Marketing Communications from St. Lawrence College.
Laura believes that faculty and support staff play a crucial role in inspiring and guiding learners. Her teaching and leadership philosophies are centred around fostering deep, collaborative relationships between faculty and industry to meet the changing needs of learners. In her new role as Chair of Communications and Media, Laura is committed to incorporating innovative, entrepreneurial-minded teaching and learning strategies within her portfolio and looks forward to working with faculty and support staff to achieve this goal.
Lauren Acton is faculty and founding program coordinator for the Performing Arts Fundamentals program at Centennial College in Toronto, Canada. She has additionally taught in Centennial’s Music Industry Arts and Performance program since its inception in 2013. She is a musicologist, cultural theorist, and performer who received her Ph.D. in musicology at York University, Toronto, her Masters in music from Newcastle University, UK, and her Bachelor of Music from Western University, London, Canada. Her research and teaching interests embrace a range of topics: musicology, popular music studies, theatre studies, acting, performance studies, cultural theory, and aesthetic philosophy. Her research has been published on subjects as diverse as the exploration of violence in Canadian musicals, the intersection between tourism and musicals at the Stratford Festival, and how children’s and community musicals relate to curricular and pedagogical trends in North America. She is currently co-writing a novel.
The core of Lauren’s teaching philosophy is a learner-centred approach, mentoring students to pursue their learning goals. She strives to make learning accessible for all, committed to an antiracist approach in decolonizing curricula and classrooms, thus creating safe and brave spaces for students to build skills and community. She serves on the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) advisory group at Centennial College.
A classically trained mezzo-soprano, Lauren has worked with indie rock bands such as Toronto’s Bruce Peninsula and choral groups such as Penthelia Singers. Her first love, however, was musical theatre, and favourite roles include Annabel Glick in Ahrens & Flaherty’s Lucky Stiff, Bricktop in Red Hot and Cole, the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers, and Constance Ledbelly in Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). She is a member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), and the Society for American Music (SAM).
Jason Colthrust is a professional 3D Artist in the entertainment industry. He has created computer generated characters and environments for several blockbuster television, game and film franchises including properties owned by Disney, Netflix, Capcom, Microsoft, Warner Bros. and Lionsgate to name a few. He is among the first group of graduates to receive a Game Design & Development Diploma from a publicly funded college in Canada (at Centennial College), was offered an instructor position immediately after graduation and has been teaching in the program ever since for the past 15 years. He also obtained a post graduate Visual Effects certificate from Seneca College.
As an educator, Jason prioritizes equipping his students with employability skills. His teaching philosophy emphasizes on the development of a well-rounded technical and practical skill set which will enable students to thrive as 3D Artists in a in industry that changes at an increasingly rapid pace. Jason ensures that he explains the "why" to every method taught in his classes as it enables learners to grasp new concepts easier and helps them retain the information. Although it is imperative for students to learn the basics, his classes also encourage students to "think outside the box" as he is aware that adaptability and transferable skills will not only appease their future employers, but will aid in their personal growth as digital artists and in general.
Aside from his expertise in 3D art, Jason has also freelanced as a 2D graphic designer creating marketing graphics for local clients in his immediate community as well as abroad. As a former night club DJ and music lover, Jason likes to spend his spare time performing DJ sets at private gatherings and events whenever the opportunity arises.
Rebecca Peirson is a seasoned arts marketing professional. She managed Mongrel Media’s Theatrical, Video Marketing and Sales departments, was the Marketing Manager at the National Film Board of Canada, the Marketing and Communications Director at Nightwood Theatre, the Associate Director of Marketing and Audience Development at Luminato Festival as well as the Marketing Manager at Crow’s Theatre. Rebecca currently sits on the Board of the Association of Arts Administration Educators.
As Program Coordinator of the Arts Management program at Centennial College, Rebecca brings a wealth of organizational and administrative experience to her lead role as well as solid post-secondary teaching experience – Centennial’s Arts Management and Museums and Cultural Management programs as well as Seneca College’s Event Marketing program. From January 2019 to January 2020, she was hired as the interim Chair of the Arts and Design department at Centennial’s School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design as well as continuing her role as the Arts Management Coordinator.
Rebecca's teaching philosophy focuses on her responsibility to create an open and inviting ‘playground’ of sorts for students to think critically, to challenge the status quo, to collaborate with their peers and to explore different ways of thinking and doing – all within the classroom setting. She strives to create a dynamic classroom environment where students feel comfortable sharing their unformed ideas, sharing their process and contributing to others’ processes. It is of utmost priority to her to ensure each student feels at home in the classroom. She believes learning is a two-way street – she is alongside her students guiding and supporting them and helping them reach their goals. They are equal participants in their learning journey and she believes, because of this, feel empowered to do their best.
Karen Shopsowitz is a Peabody-award-winning producer, director, editor, writer, and cameraperson whose work has been screened nationally and internationally. Her most recent credit is as director and writer of Magic Shadows: Elwy Yost, A Life in Movies, produced by Firestarter Productions and airing on TVO, for which she was nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards (for director and writer). She also recently co-produced and edited Mudder’s Hands. This short documentary is currently on a festival run that has included FIN Atlantic International Film Festival, the Montreal Independent Film Festival, and the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, Vermont.
Karen is also the producer/director/editor and second camera person of The Other Side of the Hero, a documentary about first responders and PTSD (co-produced with Enrico Colantoni and Diana Warme)́ which aired on CBC’s documentary channel and has been screened across North America at several festivals and events.
Other documentary highlights include director/editor and co-writer of My Father's Camera, (produced by the NFB and winner of the prestigious Peabody Award) and series producer, director/co-editor of Canada's War in Colour (YAP Films, for CBC and SRC); producer, director and editor of GrandParenting (TVO); One Summer at Camp Winston (CBC documentary), and producer, director, writer, editor of the award-winning My Grandparents Had a Hotel, which has screened globally.
Karen has worked as a director and editor on dozens of productions, ranging from stand-alone documentaries to documentary series for television, fiction (including Angel Light, starring Sheila McCarthy and screened at the Montreal World Film Festival), educational works, and music videos.
As a journalist, Karen has freelanced for several publications, including the Toronto Star, Eye Weekly, Canadian Runner, Bravo, Performance, and T.O. magazines.
She has been teaching in Centennial College’s Broadcasting - Film, Television, Digital Media and Radio program since 2014 and has guest lectured at several colleges and universities. She has created film and video programs for young people, including weekend workshops for neuro-diverse teens at Camp Winston, Ontario and for young people with facial differences in a program with Holland Bloorview and Sick Kids Hospital.
Karen has a Masters of Fine Arts in Film and Video from York University, a Bachelor of Journalism (Honours) from Carleton University, and a Certificate in Feature Film Writing from UCLA Extension, Writer’s Studio. She was also a participant in the Women in the Director’s Chair program (2012).
Wanda Taylor is a sixth generation Canadian originally from Nova Scotia. She is a multidisciplinary artist, and award-winning writer, filmmaker, journalist, and educator. As an author of both fiction and non-fiction, Wanda writes across children’s middle grade, teen, and adult markets. Her recently released middle grade novel; The Grover School Pledge is currently listed by Kobo as one of the top middle grade books for young readers. And her middle grade “non-fiction” book; Birchtown and the Black Loyalists is listed as one of the top Black History Month books for kids by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre.
Wanda is a former CBC Television Producer, and has written and produced content for documentary, television, film. Her documentary; Still Here: A Journey to Triumph – a retracing of the path of the first major migration of Blacks to Nova Scotia was recently re-aired as part of Eastlink Television’s Films That Teach series, and on Tenk, Quebec’s streaming platform as part of their Docs From The Vault series.
Wanda’s freelance work, magazine features, and essays appear in publications across Canada, the US, and the UK. As a former Acquisitions Editor, Wanda acquired titles from many notable writers. Her love of teaching and mentoring goes back decades.
During the 2011 Canada Winter Games’ National Artist Program, Wanda was provincial manager, where she led and mentored 39 emerging youth artists representing every Canadian province, territory, and arts discipline - for the opening and closing ceremonies of the game. At Centennial, Wanda teaches courses in Journalism and Story Writing for Media. Her awards include a Canadian Association of Journalism award and the prestigious Women of Excellence Award for Arts and Culture.
Veronika Ticha is many things. She is an artist, designer and educator, she loves to write poetry. She is equally passionate about the creative process and art making and engaging her students in learning and art exploration. Her designs of jewelry, visual displays, fashion rooms and trade show booths explore the aesthetics and function of 3D objects in the environment, and use of recycled materials.
Her varied and vast experience with many charity organizations and clients includes designing Event and exhibitions for Canadian Special Events & Meeting Exposition (2010), Look Good Feel Better Gala, Royal York Hotel (2009), designing entire booth (budget, logistics, critical path, installation, promotional materials) for the International Special Events Society (Live Events Association) at the largest national gathering of events professionals with 1,000+ attendees. She designed Signage for Bloor Street Entertains | CANFAR and Royal Ontario Museum (2009) and designed as well as installed five-marquee entrance-area signage for Canada’s largest fundraising gala in support of HIV research with 2,000+ attendees. She designed and implemented set-up and décor for silent auction with 1,000+ attendees.
Last year, Veronika was a nominee for Wicken Award for Teaching Excellence. She has been teaching in Art and Design Fundamentals for thirteen years and summer coordinating for nine years, supporting summer intakes.