Details

Created: 23 July 2011

Andrew E. Honeycutt, DBA

President, Anaheim University
Professor

Dr. Andrew E. Honeycutt, President of Anaheim University, is the recipient of a Harvard University Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree in Marketing and a Boston University Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in Organizational Behavior. Dr. Honeycutt has served as Dean of the School of Business and Management and Director of the Economic Research and Development Center at the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff, Dean of the College of Business and Technology of Argosy Univ...

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Robert Robertson, Ph.D.

Dean, Akio Morita School of Business

Dr. Robert Robertson holds a Ph.D. in Management and Organization (Stirling University, Scotland); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management Executive Certificate in Innovation and Strategy, Post-Doctoral Professional Certificate, International Business and Leadership (Argosy University); Post Graduate Diploma in International Management-China (University of London); Master of Studies in Law (Vermont Law School); Master of Public Administration (Dalhousie University, Canada); a Master of Arts (Eastern Kentucky University) and a Bachelor of Science (East Tennesse...

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Kwok Shum, Ph.D.

Associate Dean, Akio Morita School of Business
Director, Kisho Kurokawa Green Institute
Professor

After earning a Stanford University Master of Science in Engineering degree, Dr. Kwok Shum received his Ph.D. in Management of Technology from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Dr. Shum’s research and teaching interests lie in new technologies, renewable energy industry and deployment, the business of renewable energy and clean technologies. Dr. Shum has taught at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and conducted workshops for the Clinton Foundation’s C40 Large Cities Climate Summit, Tokyo Institute of Technology and Hong Kong Baptist University. He has served as a Reviewer for...

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Carlos Aquino, Ph.D.

Professor

Holding a George Washington University MS in Structural Engineering and a University of Sao Paolo Ph.D. in Sciences and Technology, Dr. Carlos Tasso Eira De Aquino is an accomplished senior executive and educator combining over 25 years of experience in leadership and scholarship in Business, Education, IT, and Engineering. In his executive career, he has been strategically building, managing and guiding diverse teams to solve complex, systemic problems. As an educator, he has taught, developed and supervised, and published relevant research and scholarship. In that area, he is adept at dev...

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Vince Carter, Ph.D.

Professor

Dr. E. Vince Carter is a Professor at the Anaheim University Akio Morita School of Business and Kisho Kurokawa Green Institute. Vince’s teaching approach develops learning blueprints to align structured Green Marketing skills with creative knowledge discovery. This dialectical dynamic embraces the spirit of Kisho Kurokawa’s design philosophy of symbiosis for The Age of Life. Dr. Carter is a nationally recognized marketing educator, as well as an experienced researcher, consultant, and community volunteer. After graduating with Dean’s List Honors from the Columbia Business School MBA program...

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Robert Diotalevi, J.D.

Professor

Dr. Robert Diotalevi, Esq., LL.M., is serving in his 17th year as Associate Professor of Legal Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida. He was the founding Legal Studies Program coordinator. He has been a lawyer for 33 years as a member of the Massachusetts and Florida bars. He possesses 4 degrees and has been internationally published with over 80 manuscripts in print. In 2009 Dr. Diotalevi had a book published by Cengage. It is entitled “The Florida Paralegal.” As an academician since 1985 he has instructed over 400 courses. Dr. Diotalevi was a professional broadca...

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Mariah Jeffery, Ph.D., CSCP

Professor

Dr. Mariah Jeffery holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research and a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Central Florida, and is an APICS Certified Supply Chain Practitioner. She has extensive industry experience, consulting on supply chain management and data analytics for Fortune 500 clients, including IBM, Coca-Cola, General Motors, and the United States Postal Service. Dr. Jeffery has expertise in decision analysis, inventory management, predictive analytics, supply chain management and design, logistics, data analytics, operational research and forecasting, stat...

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Tamara Myatt, Ph.D.

Professor

Holding a Ph.D. and Masters in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University, Tamara Myatt has spent more than a decade transforming the professional and educational lives of young and disadvantaged people in some of the poorest and most dangerous regions of the world, championing the causes of women, and orchestrating locally and globally scaled initiatives in the business sphere. The specialized focus of her Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Development was in in women’s entrepreneurship in regions of war. She is currently pursuing advanced studies/research in entrepr...

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Chris Raymond, Ph.D.

Professor

Dr. Christopher Raymond earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and later completed an international MBA from École National des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, France. After earning his MBA, Dr. Raymond became an economics lecturer in the Management School at Imperial College, London. While there, he also served as Deputy Director of their Executive MBA program.

In 1996, after five years in London, Dr. Raymond moved to Bangkok, Thailand, where he worked as a senior financial analyst and chief economist. In 2009, Dr. Raymond left the private sector and returned to academics, first in Thailand, and later in Cambodia. Dr. Raymond has been at the American University of Phnom Penh (AUPP) since 2015, teaching courses in finance, accounting, economics and statistics.

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Stavros Sindakis, Ph.D.

Professor

With both a Ph.D. and MBA in Strategy, Enterprise & Innovation from the University of Portsmouth, Dr. Stavros Sindakis has made significant contributions to these fields through his research and publications on entrepreneurship and business innovation including his books Entrepreneurial Rise in Southeast Asia, and Analytics, Innovation and Excellence-Driven Enterprise Sustainability, with his third in progress. Dr. Stavros Sindakis is an educator, advisor, mentor and innovator in the fields of business innovation, management, entrepreneurship, and service design and development. As an educator, he has taught in several different countries at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and held a variety of advisory and mentoring positions for students and faculty at numerous schools including the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs and Laureate Online Education. 

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Barbara Son, Ph.D.

Professor

Holding a Ph.D. in Urban Business Economics from Portland State University, and a Masters in Urban Affairs with a concentration in Technology, Business, Economics, and Public Administration from Boston University, Dr. Barbara Son is well-experienced in the field of online education and has taught global management at Boeing in Long Beach, DBA at University of Sarasota/Argosy University, MBA at Pepperdine University, operations management at California State University, Northridge, and entrepreneurship and economics at California State University, Los Angeles, as well as served as a site rev...

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John Wang, Ph.D.

Chair of the Institutional Review Board (IRB)
Professor

Dr. John Wang is Chair of the Anaheim University Institutional Review Board and a Professor for the Anaheim University Akio Morita School of Business. He received a scholarship award to complete his Ph.D. in Business Administration at Temple University in 1990, after earning his M.S. in Systems Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology. In addition to his roles at the Anaheim University Akio Morita School of Business, Dr. John Wang is a professor in the Department of Information and Decision Sciences at Montclair State University. Dr. Wang received his tenure in 1997 and was promoted...

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William Hartley Ph.D.

President Emeritus
Professor

Dr. Hartley's background is a combination of education, private sector work, teaching and consulting. Holding a bachelor's degree, three master's degrees, and a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, University of California at Berkeley and University of Wisconsin respectively, Dr. Hartley has had a variety of jobs from administrative manager of the R&D division of a Fortune 500 company to the executive training program of Ford Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan, in addition to owning and operating an art gallery. Dr. Hartley has had an extensive career in higher education, teaching in...

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Caryn Callahan, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Holding a Harvard University Ph.D. in East Asian Languages in Civilizations with a specialization in Japan and an MBA specializing in Finance-Accounting from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Dr. Caryn Callahan is a former Vice President and International Equity Analyst for Merrill Lynch Japan as well as Financial Analyst for W.R. Grace & Co.. A professor of Anaheim University's Akio Morita School of Business, Dr. Callahan has also taught courses in Corporate Finance, International Business, Organizational Behavior, and Management at Chaminade University in Hawaii. Dr. Ca...

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Details

Created: 23 July 2011

 

Experience AU's TESOL Faculty

 

Rod Ellis, Ph.D.

Vice President of Academic Affairs
Doctor of Education in TESOL Program Designer
Senior Professor: TESOL

Dr. Rod Ellis is Vice President of Academic Affairs, Senior TESOL Professor and the designer of the Doctor of Education in TESOL degree program at Anaheim University. A distinguished thought leader in the field of Second Language Acquisition, Prof. Ellis received his Doctorate from the University of London and his Master of Education from the University of Bristol. A former professor at Temple University both in Japan and the US, Prof. Ellis has served as the Director of the Institute of Language Teaching and Learning at the University of Auckland, a John Curtin Distinguished Professor at C...

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David Nunan, Ph.D

Master of Arts in TESOL Designer 
Senior Professor: TESOL

Dr. David Nunan is the Director of the Anaheim University David Nunan TESOL Institute and Senior Professor of TESOL for the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education. He was the founding Dean of the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education and previously served as President of Anaheim University from 2006 to 2008 and as Vice-President for Academic Affairs from 2008 to 2013. Dr. David Nunan is former president of TESOL, the world's largest language-teaching organization. Dr. Nunan is an applied linguist and author of English Language Teaching textbooks for Cambridge University P...

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Hayo Reinders, Ph.D.

Graduate School of Education Chair of Research
TESOL Professor, Graduate School of Education 

Dr. Hayo Reinders is Chair of Research and TESOL Professor for the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education. Holding a Ph.D. in Language Teaching and Learning from the University of Auckland, Dr. Reinders is also Professor of Education and Head of Department at Unitec in Auckland, New Zealand. His previous positions include Head of Learner Development at Middlesex University in London, Director of the English Language Self Access Centre at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and associate professor at RELC in Singapore. He has worked with teachers from a large number of countri...

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MaryAnn Christison, Ph.D.

Professor: TESOL

Dr. MaryAnn Christison is a TESOL Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education. A past President of TESOL (1997-1998), MaryAnn Christison serves on the Board of Trustees for The International Research Foundation (TIRF). Holding a Ph.D. in English/Linguistics from the University of Utah, Dr. Christison has been teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in applied linguistics for over 30 years. She is the author of over 80 refereed articles in journals on language teaching and second language research and 18 books including Leadership in English Language Education: Theor...

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Andy Curtis, Ph.D.

Professor: TESOL

Dr. Andy Curtis is a TESOL Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education. From 2015 to 2016, he served as the 50th President of TESOL International Association, the largest association of its kind in the world, as the first Association President of Indian origin, and the first from the Afro-Caribbean Pacific (ACP). As one of the very few presidents of color, in the 55-year history of the Association, much of his work has focused on the intersectionality of Race, Color and English Language Teaching (Curtis & Romney, 2006). After some years of working in UK hospitals, a...

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Ken Beatty, Ph.D.

Professor: TESOL

Dr. Ken Beatty is a TESOL Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education. A specialist in the area of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), Dr. Beatty is the author/co-author of more than 140 textbooks and readers from the primary through university levels. Although most of these focus on various aspects of English as a Second Language, he also writes and reviews on the topic of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Dr. Beatty has worked at universities in Asia, North and South America, and the Middle East. He holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies from the Univer...

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Martha Cummings, Ph.D

Professor: TESOL

Dr. Martha Cummings is a TESOL Professor at Anaheim University. She received her doctorate from Columbia University Teachers College. She has served on the Nominating Committee of TESOL and is currently a member of the Standing Committee on Diversity. Dr. Cummings has taught for The Monterey Institute of International Studies and the New School Online University, as well as ESL courses for the University of Aizu in Aizuwakamatsu, Japan, where she lived from 2002-2006. She has also lived and worked in New York City; Paris, France; Bratislava, (the former Czechoslovakia); Monterey, California...

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Thom Hudson, Ph.D.

Professor: TESOL

Dr. Thom Hudson is a TESOL Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education. He received his BS degree in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, and his MA degree in TESOL and Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the University of California at Los Angeles. Dr. Hudson is professor of Second Language Studies (SLS) at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, and co-editor of the electronic journal Reading in a Foreign Language. He has been on the Department of SLS faculty at UHM since 1989. Prior to coming to Hawai’i, he taught three years in Cairo, Egypt, numerous y...

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John Macalister, Ph.D.

Professor: TESOL

John Macalister is a TESOL Professor at Anaheim University and Head of the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and immediate past president of the Applied Linguistics Association of New Zealand. His work in language curriculum design and language teaching methodology have been highlighted in two books published by Routledge and co-authored with Professor Paul Nation. One of the defining characteristics of John’s work is the link between research and practice with a recent example being the design of an English curriculum for...

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In remembrance: Sandra McKay, Ph.D. (1945-2023)

Professor: TESOL

Dr. Sandra McKay was a TESOL Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education, Professor Emeritus of English at San Francisco State University and an affiliate faculty member in the Second Language Studies program at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. She received her doctorate from the college of education at the University of Minnesota in applied linguistics. Her main areas of work and research were second language teacher education, sociolinguistics (with a focus on English as an international English) and research methods. She also published and presented on topics related...

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Jo Mynard, Ph.D

Professor: TESOL

Dr. Jo Mynard is a Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education, Professor in the English Department, Director of the Self-Access Learning Center (SALC), and Director of the Research Institute for Learner Autonomy Education (RILAE) at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) in Chiba, Japan. She completed her Ed.D. in TEFL from the University of Exeter, UK in 2003 and an M.Phil. in Applied Linguistics from Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland in 1997.  She has lived in Japan since 2015, but has also worked in the United Arab Emirates, France, Spain, Germany, Australia, the USA and Ireland and has been involved in language education since 1993. She is the founding editor of SiSAL Journal (Studies in Self-Access Learning), has been a committee member of the IATEFL Learner Autonomy Special Interest Group since 2001, and is an executive officer for the International Association for the Psychology of Language Learning. Her professional interests are learner autonomy, advising in language learning, affect, and learning beyond the classroom/self...

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Brian Tomlinson, Ph.D.

Professor: TESOL

Dr. Brian Tomlinson is a TESOL Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education. He is considered to be one of the world's leading experts on materials development for language learning. In 1993 he established the world's first MA dedicated to the study of materials development for language learning (at the University of Luton in the UK) and he founded MATSDA (Materials Development Association). He has been Chair and then President of MATSDA ever since 1993 and, as such, he launched the journal Folio and ran (with Hitomi Masuhara) a number of materials writing workshops in t...

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Alessandro Benati, Ph.D.

Professor: TESOL

Alessandro Benati is a professor at University College Dublin (Ireland). He has held positions in several British and overseas institutions. He is known for his work in second language acquisition, and he published ground-breaking research on the pedagogical framework called processing instruction. His research on processing instruction has been recently driven by the use of new online measurements (e.g., eye tracking, self-paced reading). Alessandro has coordinated national and international high-impact research projects which have been influential in determining educational policy and had...

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Talia Isaacs, Ph.D.

Associate Professor: TESOL

Dr. Talia Isaacs is a TESOL Associate Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education. She holds a Ph.D. in Second Language Education from McGill University and serves as Associate Professor of TESOL and Applied Linguistics at the UCL Institute of Education, University College London. She has designed and taught a wide range of courses in applied linguistics and TESOL at four UK and Canadian universities, including in language testing, aural/oral communication, TESOL pedagogy and curriculum, second language acquisition, and research methods. Her work on assessing second lan...

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Casey Keck, Ph.D.

Associate Professor: TESOL

Dr. Casey Keck is a TESOL Associate Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education and Associate Professor of Linguistics and Associate Chair of the English Department at Boise State University. She has over 20 years of experience teaching English as a second language to immigrants, refugees, and international students. She holds an MA in TESL and a PhD in Applied Linguistics from Northern Arizona University. Her research focuses on best practices in teaching English to adults in both community and university contexts, and her book, Pedagogical Grammar, is used in graduate...

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Masatoshi Sato, Ph.D.

Associate Professor: TESOL

Dr. Masatoshi Sato is a TESOL Associate Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education. Dr.  Sato earned his Ph.D. in Educational Studies, Language Acquisition and a Master of Arts in Second Language Education from McGill University, as well as a Graduate Certificate in TESOL from the University of New Mexico and a Bachelor of Arts in International and Intercultural Communication from Kobe University. In addition to serving as Associate Professor in TESOL at Anaheim University, Dr. Sato is a Professor in the Department of English at Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile. His res...

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Natsuko Shintani, Ph.D.

Associate Professor: TESOL

Dr. Natsuko Shintani is a TESOL Associate Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Auckland in 2011. She has worked as a language teacher in Japan and New Zealand, including in her own private language school for children. Her research interests include task-based language instruction, the role of interaction in second language acquisition and written corrective feedback. She has also worked on several meta-analysis studies of form-focused instruction. She has published widely in leading journals and is currently working...

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Scott Aubrey, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor: TESOL

Dr. Scott Aubrey is a TESOL Assistant Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education. Scott Aubrey received his Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Auckland in 2016. He has taught at language schools and universities in Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong.  Scott’s research and teaching interests include L2 motivation, the role of inter-cultural contact (inside and outside the classroom) in language learning, task-based language teaching, and L2 writing instruction. His published work includes articles in leading journals such as TESOL Quarterly, Language Teaching...

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Vivian Bussinguer-Khavari, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor: TESOL

Dr. Vivian Bussinguer-Khavari is a TESOL Assistant Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education. Originally from Brasilia, Brazil, she was raised bilingually, acquiring both Portuguese and English simultaneously, while attending an international school from age 3 to 18. Upon high school completion, she was granted a full scholarship by the Japanese government, offered directly by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. She took up the challenge of studying in a brand-new environment and pursued higher education in Japan. After studying the Jap...

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Stephen Ryan, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor: TESOL

Dr. Stephen Ryan is a TESOL Assistant Professor in the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education and a professor in the School of Culture, Media, and Society at Waseda University in Tokyo. Stephen Ryan has been involved in language education for over 25 years, and for most of that time, he has been based in Japan. His research and publications cover various aspects of psychology in language learning, including the award-winning Exploring Psychology in Language Learning and Teaching, co-authored with Marion Williams and Sarah Mercer, and The Psychology of the Language Learner Revisited...

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Details

Created: 23 July 2011

David Desser, Ph.D.

Dean of the Akira Kurosawa School of Film

Dr. David Desser has taught at the University of Southern California (USC), University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Kansai University in Japan, Hong Kong Baptist University and the University of Illinois where he is Professor Emeritus of Cinema Studies. He received his Ph.D. from USC in the Cinema program with a minor in Japanese. As Dean of the Anaheim University Akira Kurosawa School of Film, Dr. Desser oversees the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Digital Filmmaking.

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Vikram Channa, Master's in Film & Television Production, MBA

Associate Dean of the Akira Kurosawa School of Film
Industry Expert

Vikram Channa serves as Associate Dean of the Anaheim University Akira Kurosawa School of Film. In the professional industry, as Warner Bros. Discovery Networks Vice President and Head of Content & Products for East and South East Asia, Vikram Channa leads all Discovery content, productions, broadcasts, and curation for the region. Since joining Discovery in 1995, he has taken on various roles within the company from on-air promotions to programming and production. Together with his team, ...

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Alison Marek, MFA

Carrie Hamilton Entertainment Institute Co-Director / Professor

ALISON MAREK (MFA, New York University) is an award-winning writer and director who's combined words and images professionally since she was in her late teens. Her short films have played in festivals around the world and aired on cable TV. Her writing and directing have won grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Showtime Networks, Inc., been nominated for a Los Angeles Emmy Award, and received a Gold Aurora, Bronze Telly, and other awards and nominations. She's produced shorts, features, and TV. She also built and ran the video department at an online magazine, where she shot and e...

Learn More

 

Dallas King, MFA

Carrie Hamilton Entertainment Institute Co-Director / Professor

Holding an MFA in Directing / Production from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Dallas King is an award-winning director, producer and experienced film instructor. Dallas has directed, written, and produced, and completed two feature films, KISS KISS, a hyper-stylized action thriller that premiered in Los Angeles and is available on every major platform including Amazon and iTunes. Following this, INK & RAIN, a sci-fi fantasy feature premiered in Beijing, China and is exclusively available on China's largest web network, iQiYi. Dallas produced the award-winning feature fi...

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Henryk Cymerman, MFA

Professor

Henryk Cymerman was born in Poland and immigrated to New York in his mid-teens. He moved to Jerusalem to study sculpture at Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts and Design. Henryk discovered his interest in film through his exploration of mixed media art which prompted him to pursue his Masters in film at Tisch School of the Arts. After graduation, he made the transition into feature films as a Director of Photography and earned a spot in the International Cinematography Guild. In 1993, he moved with...

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Robert Jones, MFA

Professor

Robert Jones has been teaching and making award-winning films for over 50 years. He has an MFA in Film Producing from UCLA, as well as an MS in Film Production and a BA from Boston University. He has taught film at Loyola Marymount University and California State University Northridge, in Los Angeles, and at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL. His films can be seen at vimeo.com/manage/videos/410748357

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Raphael Raphael, Ph.D.

Professor

Raphael Raphael (Ph.D., University of Oregon; MFA, Plymouth University; Master's, Teachers College, Columbia University) is a film and media scholar who also lectures at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. His work frequently looks at making connections between genre, culture and disability. His most recent book, Transnational Horror Cinema: Bodies of Excess and the Global Grotesque (2017), with Sophia Siddique, looks at intersections of the horror genre, disability and trauma across borders. Other writing includes Transnational Stardom: International Celebrity in Film and Popular Culture ( ...

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Ryan Daniel McKinney, MFA

Professor 

Ryan Daniel McKinney is an award-winning director and producer based out of Los Angeles, CA. His narrative films have screened at festivals in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Kansas City, Orlando and Melbourne. He has directed numerous music videos in multiple genres and languages, as well as fashion lifestyle and brand videos and product commercials. Ryan graduated with distinction from National University’s Master of Fine Arts in Digital Cinema program.

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Billy Budd Vermillion, Ph.D.

Billy Budd Vermillion earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011. His dissertation examines the influence of Marxist humanist thought and the legacy of Socialist Realism on art films produced in East-Central Europe between 1956 and 1981. He has also published articles on silent romantic comedy and on the nature documentary “Microcosmos.” He has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ripon College, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Northwestern University.

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Firdosi Wharton-Ali, MFA

Professor 

Graduating from UCLA with a BA (Political Science with a specialization in American Politics), Firdosi Wharton-Ali followed that up by becoming a member of the inaugural class of the Certification in Screenwriting Program, UCLA. Later, she obtained her MFA (specialization in Screenwriting) from the prestigious UCLA School of Theater, Film, Television, and Digital Media where she was awarded The APA Marty Klein Comedy Writing Award for outstanding comedic writing. Upon graduation, she optioned her first script to Mark Morgan (Executive Producer of The Twilight Series). Later, she secured a p...

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Details

Created: 23 July 2011

David Desser, Ph.D.

Dean of the Akira Kurosawa School of Film

Dr. David Desser has taught at the University of Southern California (USC), University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Kansai University in Japan, Hong Kong Baptist University and the University of Illinois where he is Professor Emeritus of Cinema Studies. He received his Ph.D. from USC in the Cinema program with a minor in Japanese. As Dean of the Anaheim University Akira Kurosawa School of Film, Dr. Desser oversees the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Digital Filmmaking.

Learn More

 

Vikram Channa, Master's in Film & Television Production, MBA

Associate Dean of the Akira Kurosawa School of Film
Industry Expert

Vikram Channa serves as Associate Dean of the Anaheim University Akira Kurosawa School of Film. In the professional industry, as Warner Bros. Discovery Networks Vice President and Head of Content & Products for East and South East Asia, Vikram Channa leads all Discovery content, productions, broadcasts, and curation for the region. Since joining Discovery in 1995, he has taken on various roles within the company from on-air promotions to programming and production. Together with his team, ...

Learn More

 

Alison Marek, MFA

Carrie Hamilton Entertainment Institute Co-Director / Professor

ALISON MAREK (MFA, New York University) is an award-winning writer and director who's combined words and images professionally since she was in her late teens. Her short films have played in festivals around the world and aired on cable TV. Her writing and directing have won grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Showtime Networks, Inc., been nominated for a Los Angeles Emmy Award, and received a Gold Aurora, Bronze Telly, and other awards and nominations. She's produced shorts, features, and TV. She also built and ran the video department at an online magazine, where she shot and e...

Learn More

 

Dallas King, MFA

Carrie Hamilton Entertainment Institute Co-Director / Professor

Holding an MFA in Directing / Production from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Dallas King is an award-winning director, producer and experienced film instructor. Dallas has directed, written, and produced, and completed two feature films, KISS KISS, a hyper-stylized action thriller that premiered in Los Angeles and is available on every major platform including Amazon and iTunes. Following this, INK & RAIN, a sci-fi fantasy feature premiered in Beijing, China and is exclu...

Learn More

 

Henryk Cymerman, MFA

Professor

Henryk Cymerman was born in Poland and immigrated to New York in his mid-teens. He moved to Jerusalem to study sculpture at Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts and Design. Henryk discovered his interest in film through his exploration of mixed media art which prompted him to pursue his Masters in film at Tisch School of the Arts. After graduation, he made the transition into feature films as a Director of Photography and earned a spot in the International Cinematography Guild. In 1993, he moved with...

Learn More

 

Robert Jones, MFA

Professor

Robert Jones has been teaching and making award-winning films for over 50 years. He has an MFA in Film Producing from UCLA, as well as an MS in Film Production and a BA from Boston University. He has taught film at Loyola Marymount University and California State University Northridge, in Los Angeles, and at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL. His films can be seen at vimeo.com/manage/videos/410748357

Learn More

 

Raphael Raphael, Ph.D.

Professor

Raphael Raphael (Ph.D., University of Oregon; MFA, Plymouth University; Master's, Teachers College, Columbia University) is a film and media scholar who also lectures at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. His work frequently looks at making connections between genre, culture and disability. His most recent book, Transnational Horror Cinema: Bodies of Excess and the Global Grotesque (2017), with Sophia Siddique, looks at intersections of the horror genre, disability and trauma across borders. Other writing includes Transnational Stardom: International Celebrity in Film and Popular Culture ( ...

Learn More

 

Ryan Daniel McKinney, MFA

Professor 

Ryan Daniel McKinney is an award-winning director and producer based out of Los Angeles, CA. His narrative films have screened at festivals in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Kansas City, Orlando and Melbourne. He has directed numerous music videos in multiple genres and languages, as well as fashion lifestyle and brand videos and product commercials. Ryan graduated with distinction from National University’s Master of Fine Arts in Digital Cinema program.

Learn More

    

Firdosi Wharton-Ali, MFA

Professor 

Graduating from UCLA with a BA (Political Science with a specialization in American Politics), Firdosi Wharton-Ali followed that up by becoming a member of the inaugural class of the Certification in Screenwriting Program, UCLA. Later, she obtained her MFA (specialization in Screenwriting) from the prestigious UCLA School of Theater, Film, Television, and Digital Media where she was awarded The APA Marty Klein Comedy Writing Award for outstanding comedic writing. Upon graduation, she optioned her first script to Mark Morgan (Executive Producer of The Twilight Series). Later, she secured a p...

Learn More

 

Douglas Montgomery, MBA

Undergraduate Instructor / Industry Expert

Douglas Montgomery has over 20 years of experience as a leading entertainment business developer. He served for 13 years as the Vice President for Category Management at Warner Bros. in Burbank, where he worked with key Warner Bros. retailer partners around the world as a strategic advisor. Clients included Amazon, Walmart, Microsoft, Sony and others. Mr. currently works as CEO for the media consultancy firm, Global Connects. He has an International MBA from the University of Southern California. He also lived in Japan for 12 years and remains active in the Japanese community in Los Angeles...

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Eric Van Hamersveld

Undergraduate Instructor / Industry Expert

For over 30 years, Eric Van Hamersveld has been involved in all creative, technical and business phases of the entertainment industry. He has been an animator for Warner Bros. Studios, J. Ward Productions, and Hanna Barbara Studios. His credits include: “The Pink Panther,” “Road Runner,” “Speedy Gonzalez,” “George of the Jungle,” and numerous TV series and commercials. As an Imagineer for the Walt Disney Company, he produced visual special effects for EPCOT, Disneyland, and Tokyo Disneyland theme park projects. He has created children’s games and direct-to-videos for Mattel Toys, Fisher-Pri...

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