The College of Fine Arts recognizes and thanks the following faculty and staff for their contributions to TCU.
School for Classical & Contemporary Dance
Susan Douglas Roberts
Professor of Dance
Douglas Roberts retired at the end of August 2022 after 38 years in the SCCDance. An artist-educator teaching contemporary/modern dance technique, choreography and teaching methods, she led the Pilates Teacher Training Program. During her career, Douglas Roberts received Fulbright Specialist awards to Taipei National University of the Arts (Taiwan) and Universidad Rafael Landívar (Guatemala). In addition to her teaching and creative activities, Douglas Roberts spent years connecting students to the Fort Worth community and beyond, including helping to develop a partnership between TCU and SEVOTA, a nonprofit that promotes healing, peace and reconciliation for all Rwandans affected by the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
Department of Design
Gayla Shannon
Professor of Professional Practice
Shannon retired at the end of May 2022.
School of Music
J. David Brock
Professor of Voice
Brock retired in September 2022 after 20 years in the School of Music. His teaching career spans more than 40 years at TCU, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Abilene Christian University and the University of the Pacific. He also taught at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria and served as the coordinator of voice faculty there for more than 10 years. Among his many contributions to TCU, Brock helped build the voice and opera programs and served as chair of the voice division for many years. During his career, he performed in Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, taught numerous students who performed around the world and was active in local arts organizations.
Richard C. Gipson, D.Ed.
Dean of the College of Fine Arts
Gipson retired at the end of the 2021-22 academic year. He joined the TCU School of Music as director and professor of music in 2002 and was later appointed dean of the College of Fine Arts in August 2018. He came to TCU from the University of Oklahoma, where he served as a professor of percussion for 26 years and also held several administrative positions, including director of the School of Music.
Under Gipson’s leadership, the TCU School of Music increased its student enrollment and faculty and staff size. As dean, Gipson shepherded TCU’s fine arts programs through the COVID-19 pandemic and oversaw the opening of the new $53 million TCU Music Center and Van Cliburn Concert Hall at TCU. He helped the College of Fine Arts cultivate relationships across the TCU campus and with Dallas-Fort Worth arts organizations.
A timpanist and percussionist, Gipson performed for more than 30 years with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Oklahoma Symphony and the Austin and Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestras. His more than 30 original compositions and special arrangements for marimba and percussion ensemble are published by Southern Music Company, Studio 4 Productions, Columbia Pictures Publications, Keyboard Percussion Publications and the OU Percussion Press. His four commercial CD recordings with the OU Percussion Orchestra helped set the standard for performance and recording in that genre.
In 2017, Gipson received the Lifetime Achievement in Education Award from the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) and was named Music Administrator of the Year by the College Orchestra Directors Association (CODA).
Sheri Neill
Professor and Division Chair of Music Education
Neill retired in September 2022 after 21 years in the School of Music. Among her proudest moments are teaching the best and brightest choral singers and instrumentalists to become extraordinary music educators as well as starting a TCU men’s choir—now known as Frog Corps—and a women’s ensemble, known as Cantiamo. During her TCU career, she served as Faculty Senate chair, oversaw the All-State Choir Champ and launched the Adopt-A-Choir program to engage local high school singing groups. Neill’s retirement plans include teaching English as a foreign language, learning the Italian language and traveling the world.
James Williams
Chief Piano Technician
Williams retired at the end of March 2022.