Director

Ann DeMarle
Dr. Roger H. Perry Endowed Chair 2006

Ann DeMarle is the director of the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College. In 2006, she became the first recipient of the Roger H. Perry Endowed Chair, which was established to support initiatives promoting innovation, change and entrepreneurship at the College. Formerly the Director of the Multimedia and Graphic Design and founding director of the Electronic Game and Interactive Development program, Ann is using the endowment to create a new on-campus center dedicated to emergent media.

Ann will direct her energies to core components of the Center's mission, among them project-based learning, industry partnerships, academic exchanges, education impacting game development and creation of “serious games” -- games that create positive change. Ann hopes the Center will allow the College to lead the way -- “to impact and help define future uses of game technologies and content creation.” She is creating a master’s degree in bridging art and technology and certificate programs as part of her work as the Perry chair.

Ann holds a BFA from State University of New York at New Paltz and an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology. She has been dancing between education and computer graphics ever since. In her early 20s she was a special education aide at the elementary and middle school levels and, as a graduate student, she taught art to disadvantaged high school students in the inner city of Rochester, New York. She’s had a long career in computer graphics that includes creating multimedia programs for AT&T, video graphics for Lockheed Martin and 3D animations and illustrations for IBM Research.

Much of Ann’s work has involved the integration of education and technology. Ann has been the director of the Governor's Institute of Vermont in Information Technology for outstanding high school students since the program’s inception in 2002. She also trains Vermont teachers on using technology in the classroom to enhance student learning -- as an instructor and mentor for the Web Project and as an organizer of Champlain College/VITA-Learn Dynamic Landscapes program. In 2004, Ann received one of Apple Computer’s Distinguished Educator awards.
 

Faculty

Josh Buck
Assistant Professor, Division of Communication & Creative Media

Josh Buck brings a wealth of industry expertise to the classroom. For seven years he worked as a production artist and lead animator at Stainless Steel Studios in Boston.  He designed, created and animated hundreds of characters, buildings and vehicles for several award winning, AAA-rated, personal computer game titles and real-time gaming environments. Empire Earth, which won the 2001 Gamespy Award for PC Game of the Year, and Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, one of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’ 7th Annual Top 5 Computer Strategy Games of the Year, are both used as classroom teaching tools at the US Air Force Academy. Empire Earth has sold over two million copies and has been published in over seven languages.

Before coming to Champlain in fall 2006, Josh lived in Portland, Maine, where he worked as a freelance animator and contract artist for various game companies in the Boston area. His artwork has been published in games by Sierra, Activision, Midway and VUG (Vivendi Universal Games). As an assistant professor in the Division of Communication & Creative Media Josh teaches Introduction to 3D, 3D Modeling, 3D Animation and 3D Character Development. He’s also developing new classes to build on the curriculum.

What does he like about Champlain? “The campus, the faculty and in particular the students. I am consistently surprised by their level of interest in the e-gaming program,” he says. “Most of them are very serious about their education and what this program can offer them. They keep me on my toes!”

Josh holds a BFA with a concentration in Oil Painting from the University of Rhode Island and an MFA in Computer Art & Animation from Savannah College of Art & Design.

In his free time, he enjoys playing electric guitar, producing music on the computer, designing and building furniture and spending time with his wife and two kids. He also likes motorcycles and scooters, game and film concept art, Lucian Freud and Tim Burton. When it comes to his favorite video game, there’s no question: it’s Outlaws by Lucasarts.

Faculty Web site: www.cgartistry.com
 

Amanda Crispel
Assistant Director, Electronic Game & Interactive Development program

Amanda Crispel has 16 years of experience in the electronic entertainment industry, specializing in projects for children and families. She’s been on development teams at Mattel, Leap Frog, Lego, Brøderbund Software, The Learning Co., Animated Speech Corporation, Digital Chocolate and Plan B Enterprises. She has designed numerous popular CD-ROM titles in favorite family lines such as Carmen Sandiego, Kidpix, Lego Mindstorm, Rugrats, Leapfrog and Dr. Seuss. Several of her software titles have earned consumer software awards for excellence, including the Family PC Recommended award for her first title, Math Workshop. Other projects include designs for the web, mobile phones, console platforms and traditional board and card games.

Amanda joined the faculty at Champlain College in 2005 and is currently teaching courses in game design. She is the assistant director of the Electronic Game & Interactive Development program and is responsible for developing curriculum for the program as well as establishing contacts with industry leaders.

She believes play can provide a profound insight into understanding human culture. “Through the academic investigation of play and games we have great opportunities to not only create great games for entertainment,” she says, “but to also use what we have learned in more meaningful ways such as in education, training, mass media and design.” Amanda's goal is to educate her students in both the theory of play and games, as well as the production of rich and rewarding interactive environments.

Before joining Champlain College, Amanda taught at Maple Woods College in Missouri. She earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design at the University of California, Davis and is completing a master’s degree in electronic media through the University of Missouri. She is a member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA).
 

Joe Manley
Adjunct Faculty, Division of Communication & Creative Media

Joe Manley is a Flash Developer/Designer, professor and artist. He has taught in Champlain College’s Multimedia and Graphic Design program for over three years. Most of his work centers on creating interactive Flash games and educational software. In 2005, Joe worked with a group of Champlain faculty and students to develop and create an animated video and “serious” video game about the dangers of mercury for the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.

Besides teaching three classes a semester at Champlain, Joe is a full-time Flash Developer for the University of Vermont. He’s taught at the University of Colorado, Denver University, Red Rocks Community College, the Vermont Clay Studio and the Vermont State Craft Center at Frog Hollow. Joe’s educational background includes a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
 

John Rogate
Program Director, Electronic Game Programming

John Rogate has been looking at computer games from the inside out since the first computer game -- Pong -- hit the market in the early 1970s. A self-described “avid computer gamer,” John has owned “almost all of the consoles since their inception to the current versions.”

What John likes best about teaching at Champlain is the size of the school. “Classes are small, which helps enhance the learning experience. In addition, I get to know my students well throughout their four years at Champlain College.”

John joined the Champlain faculty as an adjunct instructor in 1999. Now a full-time faculty member, assistant program director in Computer Networking curriculum and program director of the e-Game Programming major, John is also responsible for course proposal, development and instruction in both the traditional and online environments.

John holds a BA with a double major in English and Economics from Herbert H. Lehman College and a master’s in Information Systems Technology from Iona College. He has an Education Specialist Certificate (EdS) and is now working on a dissertation for his PhD in Computing Technology in Education from Nova Southeastern University.
 

Eric Sample
Faculty Associate, Division of Communication and Creative Media

Eric Sample’s background is in painting and drawing. After a stint in the Caribbean, he was drawn to the bright lights of New York City, where he studied digital design at the School of Visual Arts. He later took design courses at University of California, Berkeley, and then, over the next six years, worked as a freelance designer for more than 100 companies including Clairol, Colgate, DBD Needham, Lowe-McAdams and Pittard-Sullivan.

Eric has worked for many clients and has his own manifesto for choosing a job. “When their coffee maker works -- good sign,” he says. “When their coffee maker doesn’t work, or there isn’t one -- very bad sign.”

Eric came to Champlain in 2000 to fulfill his passion for teaching. “I love to teach. Been doing it most of my life in one form or another,” he says. He has taught Web Design, Interactive Design, New Media Output Techniques and Portfolio Design classes. In 2005, Eric worked with a group of Champlain faculty and students to develop and create an animated video and “serious” video game about the dangers of mercury for the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.

Being in the heart of Burlington and being small, Eric says, the College has a true Vermont feel. “I am fascinated by architecture, and the buildings here are awesome,” he says. “The faculty is great also. I love all the people I work with.”
 

Bob Selby
Adjunct Faculty, Division of Communication and Creative Media

An artist at heart, Bob Selby spent most of his undergraduate years at Catawba College in North Carolina taking Philosophy and Political Science classes (the school eliminated its art department after his first year). Bob received his BA in English in 1971 and landed his first job as a copywriter in a local radio station. He remained determined to make his way in art, however, and developed a portfolio independently.

Bob eventually returned to his New England roots and freelanced briefly for the Boston Globe, Yankee Magazine and Providence Journal in Rhode Island before taking a staff illustrator position at the Journal in 1976. For the subsequent twenty years, Bob produced illustrations of all descriptions including court sketches, history paintings and even a weekly comic strip. Assignments took Bob to places as disparate as the U.S. Supreme Court, Guatemala, America's Cup races and homeless shelters. The Society of Illustrators of New York, the Society of Newspaper Design, Print Magazine and the Associated Press have recognized his work. Brown University owns and houses one of his original history paintings, The Battle of the Great Swamp of 1676, in the John Hay Library.

Bob began teaching caricature and 3D illustration as an adjunct at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he stayed for fourteen years. In 1993, Bob received a journalism research grant and spent four months living in Madrid researching the history of caricature and graphic humor in Spain. He left the Providence Journal in 1996 and began teaching illustration full time at the College of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

Finally in 2000, Bob realized his lifelong dream of moving to Vermont. He now teaches Introduction to Graphic Design and Drawing at Champlain College and has developed two new courses, Introduction to Illustration and Drawing for Game Design.

Bob and his wife love the outdoor life and spend their leisure time canoeing, hiking, camping and skate skiing in the winter. Bob’s recent freelance work includes two commissioned history paintings, now owned by the U.S. Coast Guard Museum, as well as magazine, newspaper and greeting card illustrations. He is currently writing and illustrating a book on Vermont history.