TCU College of Fine Arts is proud to welcome several new full-time faculty members in the 2019-20 academic year.
- Dan Jian, assistant professor, will lead the drawing program, helping to guide curriculum to further develop the program. She will teach Drawing I & II as well as beginning painting and foundation courses. She earned a BFA from Temple University and a MFA from Ohio State University.
- Kristine Ronan will be a full-time lecturer. Ronan’s areas of expertise include Native American and American art with a focus on the Northern Plains tribes and Mandan culture. In her new role, she will teach art history courses including Intro to Art History, New World Art seminar and Art History Methods. Ronan earned a BA in American studies from Yale University, a MA in art history from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Michigan.
- Claudia Butts will be a full-time instructor. Butts, who has previously taught part time in the Department of Design, has more than 30 years of experience as an award-winning designer and educator in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In her full-time role as instructor, her primary responsibilities will be teaching and coordinating the technological portion of the design degree programs. She earned a BFA in graphic design from TCU.
Department of Fashion Merchandising
- Nicole Bettinger will be a full-time lecturer. Bettinger’s areas of expertise include buying, planning, inventory analysis and production. She has been teaching as an adjunct professor at TCU since 2002. In her full-time lecturer role, she will teach Introduction to the Fashion Industry, Fashion Communications and Consumers in the Marketplace. She earned a BS in fashion merchandising from TCU and a MS in fashion merchandising from Texas Woman’s University.
- Leslie Browning-Samoni will be a full-time instructor. She has more than 15 years of experience in design and product development and 10 years of experience teaching. Since 2016, she has served as lecturer in the Department of Fashion Merchandising. In her full-time instructor role, she will teach Product Development, Digital Design and Textile Testing & Analysis. She earned a BA in fashion design and textile design from Syracuse University and a MA in visual culture and costume studies from New York University.
- Cecilia Lo-Chien Kao will be assistant professor of professional practice. She earned a DMA in collaborative piano from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a MM in collaborative piano from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied with the pioneer pedagogue, Anne Epperson. She was one of the first pianists to receive the MA in collaborative piano from National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, where she also earned her BM in piano performance. She has collaborated with many distinguished artists including Lynn Harrell, Stefan Jackiw, Robert McDuffie, Bion Tsang, Gerardo Riberio, David Coucheron, Jennifer Stumm, and many members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
- Hye-Jung Park holds the inaugural TCU Chancellor’s Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Music. A recent Ph.D. graduate in musicology from The Ohio State University, her research is situated among the disciplines of musicology, ethnomusicology, diplomatic history, African-American studies and East Asian studies. Her research has been supported by the Alvin H. Johnson AMS-50 Dissertation Fellowship and the Ora Frishberg Saloman Fund for Musicological Research from the American Musicological Society and the Margery Lowens Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Society for American Music, among other sources. She earned MA and BM degrees in musicology from Korea National University of the Arts in Seoul, South Korea.
- Corey Trahan will be a lecturer in voice. He joins the TCU faculty from Northwest Florida State College where he was assistant professor of voice and music theory. With over 85 roles in his repertoire, Trahan is an active performer, educator and stage director in opera, oratorio, music theatre, operetta and recital venues. He has been an apprentice with Lake George Opera, Central City Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Amarillo Opera, Shreveport Opera and the Seagle Music Colony. Trahan has also performed annual recital tours since 2002 funded by the National Endowment for the Arts’ Challenge America Grant and the Northeast Louisiana Arts Council where he serves as visiting artist and member of the organization’s resident touring ensembles. He is a current member of the American Guild of Music Artists, Actor’s Equity Association and National Association of Teachers of Singing. Trahan earned a DMA in vocal performance and stage direction from the University of North Texas, an MM from the University of Houston and a BM from Louisiana State University.
- Jessica Humphrey has been promoted to full-time instructor in after a successful first year of teaching in a one-year appointment at TCU in the 2018-19 academic year.Humphrey has a strong background in musical theatre with experience ranging from working as a professional actor, singer and dancer in regional productions across the country to being assistant to Tony nominees Charlotte d’Amboise and Terrence Mann. She earned a BM in musical theatre from Western Carolina University and a MFA in theatre arts from San Diego State University.
Arts Leadership & Entrepreneurship (ARLE) minor
- Candace Matelic is the full-time lecturer for the new ARLE minor. She will teach seven courses and coordinating a team of faculty and local experts for participation in the courses. She led a yearlong assessment of the previous arts administration minor program, making recommendations to create the new ARLE minor curriculum. In this role, she also advises students and supervises internships. She earned a BFA from the University of Michigan, a MA from SUNY Oneonta and Ph.D. from SUNY Albany.