Where Are They Now?

SCAD: Savannah, Atlanta and eLearning - 1987

Paula (Allen) Mortimer (M.F.A., historic preservation, 1987) lives in the Washington, D.C. area with her husband, David, and daughter, Giuliana, and works for the Department of Commerce in the patent/trademark office. As a design patent examiner, Mortimer reviews applications by individuals and corporations for specialty clothing.

Mary "Rebecca" Blais (B.F.A., illustration, 1987) is director of the John Stobart Gallery in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. She is married to Kimpton Burden (B.F.A., illustration, 1987).

John Brink (B.F.A., photography, 1987) lives in Decatur, Georgia, and is a self-employed painting contractor. He paints commercial and residential real estate and renovates historic structures through fine painting, finishing and stripping.

Kimpton Burden (B.F.A., illustration 1987) is president of Kimpton Blais custom artwork, sculpture and furniture in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

Mary Cannon (B.F.A., graphic design, 1987) lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and is the arts program coordinator for the Fulton County Arts Council, the county government department of Arts & Culture/Arts Agency.

Celia (Dekker) Cheney (B.F.A., graphic design, 1987) is self-employed doing custom interior and exterior murals, faux finishes, restoration painting, painted furniture and home décor. Cheney lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with her husband, Kevin, and their children, Shannon (1991), Tim (1994) and Zack (2003).

Robert Cox (B.F.A., historic preservation, 1987) wrote, "After a series of unexpected lifestyle changes, Suzanne and I are now enjoying living in Grand Haven, Michigan. It's just like Key West only colder." (updated 12/01/08)

Andrew Curry (B.F.A., photography, 1987) lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is a pre-press manager for Fast Printing and a freelance graphic designer.

Richard "Rich" Ellington, Jr. (B.F.A., illustration, 1987) lives in Savannah, Georgia, and is a freelance illustrator and artist.

Laura Lee (Fisher) Corbett (B.F.A., historic preservation and interior design, 1995; M.F.A., architectural history, 1997) lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with her husband, Leon, and son, Arran. She owns Laura Lee Corbett Consulting. Corbett offers a variety of of historic preservation services with an emphasis on community revitalization, not-for-profit development and cultural resource management. She provides technical assistance to Main Street programs, Community Redevelopment Agencies, not-for-profit organizations and government agencies on the local, state and federal levels. She is an approved consultant in the ares of organizational development, fundraising, business recruitment, property development, historic preservation, promotion, public relations and advertising by both the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Florida Department of State. (updated 08/2808)

Fredna Forbes-MacCormack (B.F.A, graphic design, 1987) has been married for twenty years to Lester Forbes (B.F.A., interior design, 1986). They have a daughter who is extremely talented and wants to go to SCAD herself. (updated 12/15/08)

Karen (Freedman) Sasine (B.F.A., interior design, 1987) lives in Moultrie, Georgia, and is a self-employed mosaic artist. Her Asian Garden mosaic was chosen as "Mosaic  of the Year" by Mosaicartists.org., a group of close to 4000 mosaic artists world wide. The piece was also selected to be in the 2008 Mosaic Arts International juried art show in Miami. She wrote, "I also received my Master di Mosaico certificate from Meistro Lucio Orsoni in Venice."

Christa (Fuchs) Schapka (B.F.A., interior design, 1987) lives in Michigan with her husband, John, and their children, Emily (1991) and Nathan (1994). Schapka is the quality manager for KUKA Robotics Corporation, the largest manufacturer of robots in Europe and the third largest manufacturer of robots worldwide.

Elaine (Gallagher) Adams (B.F.A., historic preservation, 1987) lives in Denver, Colo., with her husband Roger and her two girls, Carolina and Savannah. She works as an architect for David Owen Tryba Architects.

Peter Hemmer (B.F.A., historic preservation, 1987) and his wife, Krista (Wagner) Hemmer (B.F.A., illustration, 1990), now have triplets, Nate, Cate and Carly (January 2001), and live in Melbourne, Florida. Hemmer, who did some graduate coursework in graphic design, is an illustrator at the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute on the Patrick Airforce Base.

Don Holloway (B.F.A., graphic design, 1987) is owner/designer of Whimsey Studio, a company that specializes in designing decorative and functional art. Holloway lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, Donna, and their children, Amanda (April 1983) and Devin (November 1989).

Gwen Howard (B.F.A., historic preservation, 1987) lives in Buffalo, New York, and is the mother of twin boys, Sean and Robert (August 2003). She received an M.Arch from the University of Buffalo in 1995 and is an associate at Foit-Albert Associates, a full-service architecture, engineering and surveying firm that specializes in historic preservation projects. Among other projects, she has worked on the design of zoo exhibitions at the Buffalo Zoo. Howard serves on the Buffalo Preservation Board overseeing the future of the city's remarkable aging building stock. (updated 01/25/12)

Ann (Hubbard) Anderson (B.F.A., video/film, 1987) is the creative director for Connecting Images Inc., an interactive design and consulting company in St. Paul, Minnesota. She lives in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, with her husband Bill.

Denise (Lott) Luckey (B.F.A., graphic design, 1987) lives in Dallas, Texas, with her children, Sarah (June 1992) and Stephanie (March 1995). She is design director for The Texas Bicycle Coalition. She wrote, "In October of 2004, the Texas Bicycle Coalition was awarded a three year $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Carol M. White Physical Education Program to develop the National Safe Routes to School Program model. I consider it an honor to be selected as the design director of this grant to help strategize, develop and implement the program design manual. Childhood obesity and inactivity have become a national crisis. The Safe Routes to School program is being designed as a realistic and effective method of combating these disturbing trends and promotes safe, active and healthy lifestyles for our nation's youth. The program consists of five major components: education, encouragement, enforcement, engineering and evaluation."

Cynthia (Morgan) Swailes (B.F.A., interior design, 1987) wrote, "I previously worked with Terri Peacock at Peacock Cabinetry, Inc., in Bluffton, South Carolina. She is a SCAD graduate and is wonderful to work for. I took a job closer to home with a home builder as the Purchasing Agent.  Although interesting, I still preferred designing kitchens and baths. I am now retired and enjoy traveling with my husband, whose job takes him throughout the US. I recently attended my nephew's lacross game (SCAD Freshman) and think SCAD's team is awesome. SCAD has certainly changed since I graduated. I am amazed at the growth and accomplishements! (posted 07/08/08)

Michael Murphy (B.F.A., illustration, 1987) lives in Peekskill, N.Y., with his wife, Elizabeth, and son, Birch (September 1999). He wrote, "Recently completed landscaping foreman position for 'Riding in Cars with Boys' then joining an effects crew for the same film, which led to F/X work for 'Changing Lanes.' I'm with Lucy, Spiderman and Deeds, along with various commercial decorating jobs. I have started construction on a studio workshop after losing a lease in Manhattan. The space will be for work interests but primarily for projects for more personal interests."

J. Michael Myers (B.F.A., photography, 1987) is a freelance fashion and beauty photographer. Myers lives in New York City with his wife, Erin, and their children, Tristan (April 1996) and Brendan (September 1997). He wrote, "I just had a solo show in New York City at the Kristen Frederickson Contemporary Art Gallery in the Project Room."

David Overholt (B.F.A., historic preservation, 1987) is preservation projects director at the President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument in Washington, D.C.

Rebecca (Pierce) Latino (B.F.A., historic preservation, 1987) is a police dispatcher for Worcester Polytechnical Institute. She is also a part-time public safety dispatcher out of Paxton, Massachusetts, where she lives with her husband, Stephen, and sons, Sebastian (September 1994) and Victor (April 1998).

Scott Power (M.F.A., historic preservation, 1987) is the regional supervisor for the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources in the division of archives and history. Power administers state and federal historic preservation programs, including the National Register of Historic Places, statewide historic resource surveys, grants-in-aid and environmental compliance laws as well as educational programs on historic preservation. Power and his wife Jane have one child, Charlie.

Dean Quigley (B.F.A., illustration, 1987) wrote, "I am currently an artist in residence for several art galleries in the historic downtown district of St. Augustine, Florida." Visit (www.artifactsetc.com).

Charles Ribbens (B.F.A., photography, 1987) is owner of Charles Ribbens Photography. He worked in the medical photography field for the past 13 years with the St. Joseph's/Candler Health System in Savannah, Georgia. His duties included surgery documentation, gross specimen photos, autopsy documentation, patient wound and injury photos, publication photos, billboards, presentation creation and graphics, portraits, and newsletter grin-n-grab shots. He wrote, "It was an area that just opened up and it's a wonderful field." Ribbens has two boys, Pieter (January 1990) and Lucas (April 1994). The older son plans on SCAD in his future, as he is now at the Savannah Arts Academy studying communications. Ribbens says he is a "chip off the old block."

Matthew Ribble (B.F.A., video/film, 1987) lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, with his wife Rachel. He is the senior director for WBIR-TV, the NBC affiliate in Knoxville.

Karen (Saunders) Raftery (B.F.A., video, 1987) earned an M.F.A. in film and video from Bard College and now is an associate professor at Western Connecticut State University. Raftery lives in Danbury, Connecticut, with her husband, Timothy, and their son, Liam (July 1995).

James Scheibel (B.F.A., illustration, 1987) is a graphic artist for the May Merchandising Co., a leading national retail store. He lives in O'Fallon, Illinois, with his wife, Julie, and their two children, Fallon and Ryan.

Philip Schweier (B.F.A., illustration, 1987) wrote, "Got married in 2003. Currently working as graphic designer/production manager for Coastal Empire News in Savannah, Georgia, while also contributing articles to BACK ISSUE magazine and assorted web sites." (updated 04/24/09)

Monroe Tarver (B.F.A., graphic design, 1987) lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and owns his own publishing company. He wrote, "I have written four children's books and an African-American fiction novel. All of the books were illustrated by me and self-published. This year I formed my publishing company, 'The Imaginary Worlds of Monroe Tarver,' based in Charlotte."

Beth Thompson (B.F.A., graphic design, 1987) lives in Stamford, Connecticut, with her husband, David Pollard (B.F.A., illustration, 1988), and their children, Zoe (March 1998) and Owen (April 2001). She is a freelance art director with clients that include the Wildlife Conservation Society, iVillage Parenting, Consumer Reports, Lifetime Learning Systems and March of Dimes.

Laura Trieschmann (B.F.A., historic preservation and interior design) lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and is director of survey and documentation for EHT Traceries Inc., a firm of architectural historians and historic preservationists devoted to the documentation and preservation of historic properties.

Michael Wikan (B.F.A., illustration, 1987) is a lead game designer at id Software in Richardson, Texas, and has been involved in the design of a variety of successful games over the years including "Donkey Kong Country Returns," the "Metroid Prime" series, "Duke Nukem: Time to Kill" and "Slave Zero" to name a few. Recently he was inducted into the American Art Museum at the Smithsonian as part of their new "The Art of Video Games" exhibit. Wikan is currently lead game designer for "Doom 4". (updated 11/15/11)

Ned Williams (B.F.A., illustration, 1987), now known as the clothing designer Edgar Pomeroy, is president of Edgar Pomeroy Ltd., based in Atlanta, Georgia, and continues to produce couture clothing for men and women. He and his wife, Patti, are parents to Katherine, Neddy and Jack.