Core Faculty
Kirk A. Domer
Program Director, Arts, Cultural Management, & Museum Studies Program, Professor, Department of Theatre
Kirk Domer assumed the Program Director for ACM&MS in January 2023, following a 6-month appointment as Acting Associate Dean for Personnel & Administration in the College of Arts & Letters. He teaches in the ACM&MS program and is part of the faculty in the Department of Theatre, where he is a Professor of Scene Design, Graduate Program Director, and regularly teaches professional aspects for career preparation in the arts. He recently served as the Department of Theatre Chairperson for ten years and is a member of United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829.
Devon Akmon
Director, MSU Museum & CoLab Studio
Devon Akmon is director of the MSU Museum and CoLab Studio. Previously, Devon served as a Senior Consultant with the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland. His work included providing organizational guidance and support on artistic and strategic planning, community engagement, institutional and programmatic marketing, fundraising, and board development for a wide-range of cultural institutions from across the United States. Prior to that, Devon served as the second director of the Arab American National Museum (AANM). Devon currently serves on the boards of the American Alliance of Museums and Artspace.
Max Evjen
Academic Specialist, Arts, Cultural Management & Museum Studies Program
Max Evjen is Faculty in the Department of Theatre, where he teaches Site-Specific Performance and is core faculty in Arts, Cultural Management, and Museum Studies, where he teaches Introduction to Arts & Cultural Management and Learning in Museums. He is also Digital Humanities Coordinator in the Digital Humanities program at MSU. He has more than 15 years of experience in arts & cultural management and informal science learning.
Tina Newhauser
Academic Specialist, Department of Theatre
Dionne O’Dell
Faculty, ACM&MS & Department of Theatre
Mary Worrall
Curator, Textiles and Social Justice Michigan State University Museum
Mary Worrall is Curator of Textiles and Social Justice at the Michigan State University Museum. Her research interests include quilts and quiltmakers, dress, women’s history, and craftivism. Worrall works with developing and managing exhibition, research, collections, and educational programs. Her work includes addressing social justice issues through exhibition, collections, and community co-curation.
Barb Whitney
Artist. Educator. Administrator.
Barb believes the arts are a public good and that arts education is a fundamental right. Whether teaching, leading an arts nonprofit, coordinating Michigan’s statewide partners, or conducting national research, her career’s common threads are to uplift and inspire through the arts. Her academic research is focused on equitable arts education for youth in the U.S. from a sociological perspective, outlining the injustice perpetrated by withholding the rights to arts education from particular populations.
Barb earned a BA in Art and Art History from Kalamazoo College and an MA in Arts Administration from the University of Michigan – Flint. A fundraiser and community coordinator, she currently serves as the Partners Coordinator and Advocacy Consultant for the Michigan Arts Education Instruction & Assessment project and as the Associate Director of Development, Cultural Arts, Michigan State University.
Affiliate Faculty
Eugene Dillenburg
Writer and Exhibit Designer
Eugene Dillenburg was born in Chicago in 1960 and makes no apologies for either. Over the past 30-odd years – some of them very odd indeed – he has worked for the Field Museum of Natural History, the Shedd Aquarium, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and a museum on a campus down in Ann Arbor which shall not be named. He has also contributed to a wide variety of projects as a consultant, including work at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the National Canal Museum, and the Science Center of Kuwait. He currently feeds eight cats, not all of them his.
Ryan Duda
Arts Administrator, Educator & Performing Artist
Suzanne Fischer
Exhibit Developer and Public Historian
Dr. Suzanne Fischer is the founder of Exhibit Coach, a consulting firm focusing on interpretive planning and exhibit development, with clients ranging from small historical societies to the National Park Service. She spent 15 years in museum director and curator roles, including at the Michigan History Center, the Oakland Museum of California, and The Henry Ford. Her blend of executive experience, collaborative work style, and academic expertise (her Ph.D. is in the history of science and technology from the University of Minnesota) gives her a unique perspective on museum work.
Christian Gerstheimer
Artist, Curator, and Educator
Christian earned a BA in Humanities Interdisciplinary and an MA in the History of Art from Michigan State University, a BFA in Photography from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a MFA in Creative Practice from the University of Plymouth with Transart Institute.
Christian has worked in museums for more than 25 years. He began his career as an exhibit preparator at the MSU Museum, worked as an exhibit technician at The Field Museum in Chicago, as a graduate assistant at the Kresge Art Museum, and as a conservation assistant at the Henry Ford Museum. Upon graduation from MSU Christian worked as a exhibition preparator in the Collections Department of the Detroit Institute of Arts. From 2003 until 2017 Christian served as a Curator at the El Paso Museum of Art.
In 2009 he received the Exhibition Catalog of the Year award from the Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art (C.A.S.E.T.A.) for Manuel Gregorio Acosta: A Retrospective. In 2010 he received the Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association, and the Exhibition of the Year award from (C.A.S.E.T.A.) for the catalog and exhibition for Into the Desert Light: Early El Paso Art 1850 —1960. Professionally he has served as a Grant Reviewer for the Texas Commission on the Arts, Visual Arts Panel (2008), a portfolio Reviewer for Critical Mass, Photolucida, Portland, OR (2007 — 2013), and as a guest juror for the Texas Biennial (2013).
A selection of Christian’s numerous publications includes the essays and papers: “Chargesheimer,” “Kenneth Josephson,” “Arnulf Rainer,” “Lorna Simpson,” and “Doug and Mike Starn” The Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Photography, 2005, “La pasada prohibida de…”: Organizing Exhibitions Borrowed from Museums and Collections in Mexico,” Texas Association of Museums Annual Conference, 2009, “Flemish School,” “Francesco Zuccarelli,” “Gustave Jean Jacquet,” and “Vincenzo G. Steipevich,” European Treasures: International Gothic Through Realism, 2010, “When Attitudes Become Art,” Gaspar Enriquez Metaphors of El Barrio, 2014, “An Artist from a Southern Country Who Happens to be from the North,” KNOT: The Art of Sebastian, 2016, and “Questioning Images: Emojis and GIFs as Art,” The 13th International Conference on the Image, 2022.
Christian’s research interests include: contemporary art, the history of photography, and the physical and virtual as art objects. He has taught a variety of art, art history, and exhibition practices classes at the University of Texas at El Paso and El Paso Community College since 2003. Currently, Christian teaches for: the University of Michigan-Flint, and Delta College.
Katharine M. Hude
Owner/Attorney of Hude Legal Services PLLC, Professor of Law and Policy
Kate has a JD from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, a MS in Nonprofit Arts Administration from Boston University, and a BFA in Theatre Design & Production from the University of Michigan. Kate practices in the areas of nonprofit and business law, contracts, copyright and trademark, probate and estate planning, and real property. She also provides nonprofit consulting, association management, and advocacy services to nonprofits. A resident of Lansing, Kate is active in the community, serving as the Fund Development Committee Chair of the Lansing Art Gallery & Education Center, the Junior League of Lansing Endowment Board Chair, and as a member of the City of Lansing Mayor’s Arts and Culture Commission.
Heather-Marie Montilla
Consultant
Heather-Marie Montilla, a dynamic integrative leader, has worked in arts, cultural, educational, and community building arenas for nearly 20 years. Having been an Executive Director for 8 years, Heather has a wide range of experience in management, finance, strategic planning, marketing and fundraising, as well as designing and implementing resource development and management plans that motivate staff and increase community engagement. Heather holds an MPA From Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs with an Advanced Management Technique and Finance and a BA from Duke University with a double major in Public Policy and Art History, as well as a Markets and Management certificate. In addition, Heather participated in the DeVos Institute of Arts Management programs focused on Capacity Building, Strategic Planning and Strategic Planning Implementation.
Shannon Schmoll
Director of the Abrams Planetarium
Dr. Shannon Schmoll is the director of the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University. She has worked on expanding the planetarium audience by finding new ways if utilizing their immersive planetarium theater to engage folks in learning about everything in the universe, which is everything we know about. She has a PhD in astronomy and science education. Her dissertation was titled “Toward a Framework for Integrating Planetarium and Classroom Learning” and was aimed at better understanding how planetarium field trips can effectively fit into formal astronomy curriculum. She also has completed a certificate in Museum Studies. She participated in the Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador Program’s first cohort that took astronomy educators to Chile to visit major observatories first hand as well as the first cohort of Mission Patagonia which taught educators about climate change and conservation efforts in the south of Chile. She is currently the research lead on the Big Astronomy Project, studying how virtual programming during the pandemic compares to in person visits to a planetarium.
Emily Sutton-Smith
Actress, Arts Administrator & Executive Director
Emily Sutton-Smith is an actress, arts administrator, and Executive Director of the Williamston Theatre, which she helped to found in 2006. In addition her administrative work at the Williamston Theatre, she was on staff at Ann Arbor’s history Michigan Theater and was instrumental in producing a concert version of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies that reunited original Broadway cast members. Her work is not limited to the nonprofit world, having worked at Dodger Theatricals in New York City during a time of tremendous growth in the 1990s. As an actress, her appearances on the WT stage include Tracy Jones, These Mortal Hosts (streaming presentation in April 2020), Out of Orbit, Doublewide, Summer Retreat, Too Much, Too Much, Too Many, Miracle on South Division Street (2015 Wilde Award, Best Actress in a Comedy), End Days, The Usual: A Musical Love Story (with music by her late brother Mark Sutton-Smith), The Smell of the Kill, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds (2009 Best Actress Thespie Award, Lansing State Journal), Maidens, Mothers and Crones and Additional Particulars. A New York City native, she has worked onstage at almost all the Equity Theatres in Michigan, including the Purple Rose Theatre, Performance Network Theatre, Tipping Point Theatre, the Detroit Rep, Boarshead Theatre, the Jewish Ensemble Theatre, and MeadowBrook Theatre. Emily is a proud member of the Actors’ Equity Association and SAG/AFTRA. Film and TV credits include: The Funeral Guest, Gifted Hands, Butterfly Effect: Revelation, The Prince of Motor City and Nevermore. Emily is the narrator of over 200 audio books (available on Audible.com), studied acting at the Atlantic Theatre Company in New York City, and holds a Grande Diploma in Pastry Arts from the French Culinary Institute. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from Michigan State University.
OTHER MSU FACULTY
Donna Braden
Senior Curator at The Henry Ford
Donna R. Braden has had 43 years of experience as a curator at The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Michigan, beginning as a curatorial assistant and moving up, most recently, to Senior Curator. She has a B.A. in anthropology, with distinction in American History, from Ohio State University and M.A. degrees in Museum Studies from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture, Winterthur, Delaware, and in Liberal Studies from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She has published many blogs, as well as numerous articles and books, including Spaces That Tell Stories: Recreating Historical Environments (2019), The Henry Ford Official Guidebook (2017), and Leisure and Entertainment in America: Based on the Collections of Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village (1988).
Kelly Hansen
Graphic Designer & Museum Exhibit Designer for MSU Outreach and Engagement
Kelly Hansen is an award-winning graphic designer and museum exhibit designer for Michigan State University Outreach and Engagement. Prior to this she honed her design and marketing skills for over a decade working as the creative director at a local advertising agency. She has an M.A. in Arts and Cultural Management, and a B.A. in Advertising from Michigan State University. Kelly is also an artist whose paintings have been featured in shows at the Scarab Club in Detroit, the Ann Arbor Art Center, and the South Haven Center for the Arts, among others. She teaches Introduction to Arts and Cultural Management.
William Matt
Executive Director, Meadow Brook Estate, Oakland UniversitY
William Matt is the Executive Director of Meadow Brook Estate at Oakland University. Meadow Brook Estate consists of the original 1,400 acres donated by Matilda Dodge Wilson to create Oakland University, which includes many historic buildings with the centerpiece being Meadow Brook Hall. The Executive Director is responsible for financial, operational, education, development, collections, marketing and property preservation functions for the estate and hall. Formerly the Deputy Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, his career at MSU began at the MSU Museum assisting with projects involving environmental upgrades for collections care and helping to launch the Great Lakes Folk Festival. Bill worked for MSU Residential & Hospitality Services with a business and project management focus before joining MSU Broad in 2014. He was instrumental in leading the creation of the MSU Broad Art Lab, an auxiliary gallery and activity space adjacent the museum. He has a bachelor’s degree in business and master’s degree in education administration both from MSU. He has been a presenter at AAMG, and works with AAM as a peer site reviewer for museum accreditation.
EMERTI
Susan J. Bandes
Professor Emerita, Department of Art, Art History, and Design
Susan J. Bandes is Professor of Art History and Director of Museum Studies. She received her MA and PhD degrees from Bryn Mawr College, specializing in Roman Baroque painting. She served as Director of MSU’s Kresge Art Museum (now the Broad Art Museum) from 1986 until 2010 where she curated numerous exhibitions and wrote many catalogues. Among these are: Affordable Dreams: The Goetsch-Winkler House and Frank Lloyd Wright, an exhibition and subsequent edited book on the local Usonian house’s 50th anniversary in 1990; WPA in Michigan, and American Modernism. She teaches Renaissance and Baroque Art, Modern Architecture and Curatorial Practices. She is a member of the Print Council of America and is a frequent assessor and accreditor for the American Alliance of Museums.
Staff
Erica Hooker
Academic Specialist – Advising
Erica Hooker is an Academic Advising Specialist with the College of Arts & Letters. She advises undergraduate students in Art, Art History, and Design (AAHD) and Arts, Cultural Management, & Museum Studies.
Make an appointment with Erica Hooker.
C113 Kresge Art Center
600 Auditorium Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
LouAnne T. Snider, CHRS
Academic Operations
LouAnne Snider is the Academic Operations Coordinator for the Arts, Cultural Management, & Museum Studies program. In her role, she supports MA and Graduate Certificate students from application to graduation.
Ann Crain
Academic Specialist – Advising
Ann Crain is an Academic Advising Specialist with the College of Arts & Letters. She advises undergraduate students in Art, Art History, and Design (AAHD), Experience Architecture (XA), and Arts, Cultural Management, & Museum Studies.
Graduate Students
Scott Arbour
arboursc@msu.edu
Morgan Braswell
Morgan is a graduate student in the Arts, Cultural Management, and Museum Studies Program at Michigan State University. She holds dual degrees in Psychology and African American and African Studies, having been the first student to major in African American and African Studies at MSU. Morgan’s interests include the archival of Black stories and the management of art and cultural nonprofits, with a commitment to preserving and promoting cultural narratives.
Gene Garcia
Gene Garcia is a graduate student in the Arts, Cultural Management, and Museum Studies Program at Michigan State University. Originally from Sacramento, California, Gene received a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Oregon. His academic interest includes, but are not limited to, Chicano History, Societal Pastimes, Labor History, the US-Mexico Border, and Cultural and Expressive Arts. These interests stem from his decade long career as a Mexican Ballet Folklorico dancer with Ballet Folklorico Nube de Oro in Sacramento. Artistically, his dance career motivated him to co-found and teach Ballet Folklorico Colibrí in Eugene, Oregon. These experiences directly inspired his Experiential Learning Fellowship paper, “Recollections on the Historical and Current State of Mexican Ballet Folklórico in Oregon” which was given the Latinx Studies award. Gene strives to foster access to cultural and expressive arts and highlight art as a lens for community, history, identity, and academic engagement.
Safiah Hakami
Safiah, is graduate student in the Arts, Cultural Management, and Museum Studies Program at Michigan State University, originates from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Islamic arts in 2015 and established an educational art studio in 2018. Through this initiative, she has successfully trained a multitude of students in the field of visual arts.
With a rich background in art spanning several years, Safiah specializes in the programs management and educational endeavors.
Safiah ambition is to play a significant role in showcasing the cultural image and heritage of her country to the international community. Her goal is to effectively present and disseminate the rich traditions, artistic expressions, and unique societal customs of her homeland.
Safiah aims to enhance the cultural representation of her country by fostering a greater appreciation and understanding of its distinctive identity among global audiences.she aspires to bridge the gap between her nation and the international community, facilitating cross-cultural dialogue and exchange.
hakamisa@msu.edu
Bill Hodgkins
William Hodgkins is a graduate student in the Art & Cultural Management and Museum Studies program at Michigan State University. He graduated from Michigan State University in 2023, majoring in history and minoring in museum studies and environmental studies.
Bill worked as a history scholar at the Beal Botanical Garden, where gained hands-on experience in research, interpretation, and leading tours. Bill developed interpretive signage for the garden, like the “Then and Now” series and “A-maizing Omissions”. Using his research, Bill was able to lead multiple history tours for visitors and updated the garden’s website by adding the latest information and images to the history section.
Bill most recently worked at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park as a museum collections intern. In the first two months, Bill completed a one hundred percent inventory of an archeology collection from 2011, then prepared and rehoused the collection for permanent storage. Bill also created a new Integrated Pest Management system, consistently monitoring over 30 traps biweekly, and taught other technicians the IPM system. Other large tasks he has undertaken are cataloging and digitizing glass plate negatives, digitizing oversized maps and housing them in the NHP Archives, and organizing and rehousing an archeology archive.
His aspiration is to become a museum curator and provide high-quality research for the institution and a positive learning environment for the visitors.hodgki12@msu.edu
Katie Huard
huardkat@msu.edu
Katie Mielens
mielensk@msu.edu
Nevaeh Ramon
ramonnev@msu.edu
Abbygale Taylor
tayl1773@msu.edu
Bethany Thies
thiesbet@msu.edu
Julia Vogt
vogtjuli@msu.edu
Recent MA Graduates
Maileen Bugnaski (Spring 2024)
bugnaski@msu.edu
Katherine Hagman (Spring 2022)
hagmanka@msu.edu
Jennifer Junkermeier-Khan (Spring 2022)
junkerme@msu.edu
Ben Lash (Spring 2024)
lashbenj@msu.edu
Olivia Morea (Spring 2024)
Olivia is a current graduate student in the ACM&MS program. Originally from New Hampshire, Olivia moved to Michigan to pursue her undergraduate degree in Studio Art at MSU. During her time as an undergraduate student, she worked as at the Broad Art Museum where had the opportunity to work across departments as a Gallery Guide, Events Intern, Student Preparator, and Student Assistant to the Registrar. Through her work with the Registrar, Olivia discovered a passion for collections keeping and will continue to cultivate her knowledge in the area through her role as Graduate Assistant to the Registrar with a focus on the care and documentation of the MSU Broad permanent collection. Olivia also enjoys working with the Art History Association to bring museum experiences to the MSU community.moreaoli@msu.edu
Caitlyn Tanner (Spring 2024)
Caitlyn is a current graduate student focusing on Museum Studies. Prior to attending Michigan State University, she received a bachelor’s degree from Olivet College with a major in History and a minor in Anthropology/Sociology. Caitlyn worked as a Student Researcher at the Hosford History Center and Lawrence Archives during her undergraduate years, before going on to serve as a Scholar in Residence. She currently works as a Library Services Assistant at the Charlotte Community Library, where she is able to combine her academic and professional interests to enrich the community around her.tannerc6@msu.edu
C Widmann (Spring 2024)
C Widmann (they/them/theirs) is a person who wears many hats in the creative and academic world. They have BA’s from MSU in English Literature and Theatre, and continued a minor in Arts & Cultural Management into an M.A. Their areas of interest include publication management, writing center management, and video game community management. They are the Graduate Assistant at The Cube, and a seasoned writer for both The Current and HerCampus MSU. C works as a consultant in the MSU Writing Center as well as on the communications team for Creativity In The Time Of COVID-19, a grant funded by the Mellon Foundation. C is putting ACM coursework to practical use as a part of MSU Club Fencing, where they are the head of recruitment and a dedicated fencer. They are also the PR and Community Manager for the Planetside 2 gaming outfit 2RAF, follow on Twitch @darkknightsrevenge. Connect on social media: IG@c.rosewidmann Twitter@ceilirw97widmannc@msu.edu