Our faculty members are committed, caring, and creative
In addition to teaching and advising, they continue to develop their own aesthetic visions through personal and commercial projects. Many of our faculty members have shown their work in national and international exhibitions. In addition, several have published books and scholarly papers, and many have been featured in numerous publications, including Artists Magazine, Art in America, Fiber Arts, Ceramic Monthly, Metalsmith, American Craft, Print, Communication Arts, Photoshop User, Layers, AIGA Eye on Design, and Step by Step.
Steven Brower, Assistant Professor, Illustration Program Coordinator, and
Director for the Graphic Design/Illustration MFA Program for Working Professionals
Steven Brower is an award-winning graphic designer and author. He’s the director of the Marywood University “Get Your Master’s With the Masters” low-residency MFA program for designers and illustrators in Scranton, PA. His design writing appears regularly in national and international annuals, and other publications, and he has lectured nationally on the subject of design and creativity. He’s the author of several books, including Woody Guthrie Artworks; Satchmo: The Life and Art of Louis Armstrong; Breathless Homicidal Slime Mutants: The Art of the Paperback and From Shadow to Light: The Life and Art of Mort Meskin.
Dr. Ashley Hartman, Assistant Professor of Art
Ashley Hartman, PhD, ATR is an educator, registered art therapist, researcher, and artist. She earned her doctorate of philosophy with a specialization in art therapy from Florida State University where she also obtained a certificate in Museum Education and Exhibitions (MEX) and credentials required for Florida State licensure in mental health counseling (RMHCI). Dr. Hartman has experience with cognitive behavioral therapy, DBT, mindfulness-based, trauma-informed, psychoeducation, and person-centered therapy, and her scholarly endeavors focus on the areas of museum-based art therapy and medical art therapy.
Dr Christa Irwin, Associate Professor Art History, Art History Program Coordinator
Dr. Christa Irwin an art historian who specializes in art of the Renaissance and Baroque in both Europe and Latin America. Her current research involves intersections of Italian and South American art and culture in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in art history, including History of Art I and II, Aesthetics, and seminars in Renaissance and Baroque art.
Sue Jenkins, Associate Professor of Art, Foundation Year Coordinator
Sue Jenkins is a professional web and graphic designer, illustrator, fine art photographer, and owner/creative director of Luckychair.com, a full-service web and graphic design studio serving businesses across the U.S. since 1997. An award-winning Adobe Certified Expert and Adobe Certified Instructor, Sue is the instructor in over a dozen Adobe Software Training programs from the nationally renowned training providers Lynda.com & LinkedIn Learning. She is also the author of several instructional books on Web Design, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and Photoshop, including Smashing Photoshop: 100 Professional Techniques (Wiley/SmashingMagazine) and Web Design All-in-One For Dummies (Wiley), and her writing on design appears in several publications including Guild News, Photoshop User Magazine, and Layers Magazine.
Christine Medley, Associate Professor of Art, Graphic Design Program Coordinator, Printmaking Program Coordinator
Christine Medley is an assistant professor of graphic design at Marywood University in Scranton, PA, a graphic designer, and an exhibiting fine artist, photographer and printmaker. For over twenty years, she has been photographing windows, doors, old buildings and other architectural structures that reflect character and history. Her current focus is letterpress printing where she runs a small community studio, The Workshop, in Scranton, PA.
John Meza, Professor of Art
For the last twenty-two years John has taught an array of undergraduate and graduate level Fine Art and Applied Art courses at institutions throughout the United States. He holds a Master’s of Fine Art Degree in Painting from the University of Memphis, as well as a Master’s of Fine Art Degree in Visual Design with an emphasis in Computer Graphics from the University of Oregon. This formal training and widespread experience has given him ample opportunity to refine his teaching methodologies, as well as work with diverse populations of students and contemporaries. As an artist/designer, John’s work has been recognized, awarded, and published on regional and national levels.
Collier Parker, Professor of Art
Collier Parker is a Professor of Art at Marywood teaching foundation courses in Painting, Drawing, and Figure Drawing to undergraduates. holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi, and a Master of Fine Arts from Rosary Graduate School of Fine Arts, Villa Schifanoia in Florence, Italy (now the Dominican University).
Ryan Ward, Curator, The Maslow Collection, Adjunct Instructor
Ryan Ward is the Curator of The Maslow Collection at Marywood. He has curated “Make, Believe: The Maslow Collection and the Moving Image,” “Poetry in Structure: Selections from The Maslow Collection,” and “CO-OPTIC”, a group exhibition of Philadelphia-based painters at Shepherd University in West Virginia. As Exhibition Director of Test Pattern Gallery, he organized numerous exhibitions of local and international artists. Ward holds an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He has both studied and taught at Studio Arts College International in Florence, Italy. His own work explores the malleability of history through painting and installation. As the recipient of the 2014 Murray Dessner Memorial Travel Prize, he executed an in-depth investigation of curatorial methods employed at American historical sites. This research has led to various lectures as well as recent solo and group exhibitions in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, New Mexico, and Italy. Ward teaches as an adjunct professor of drawing and painting, and leads students on an annual European study tour.
Stephanie Wise, M.A., ATR-BC, LCAT, Associate Professor of Practice in Art, Art Therapy Program Coordinator
Stephanie Wise, M.A., ATR-BC, LCAT is a registered and Board Certified member of the American Art Therapy Association as well as a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist in New York State. She currently serves as the Director of the Graduate Art Therapy Program and Bachelor of Arts Degree in the Art Therapy Program. She is a member of the Art Therapy Credentials Board of Directors and an Editorial Advisory Board member of the American Psychotherapy Association. Stephanie received her BFA from The Cooper Union and her Master’s Degree from the Graduate Art Therapy Program at New York University where she also earned her certificate from the International Trauma Studies Program / International University for Mental Health and Human Rights, NYU & Copenhagen University. She has worked nationally and internationally in the field of traumatic stress and resiliency and has published and lectured extensively on this work.
