In February our Photography Program will welcome Kristen Ashburn, an award-winning documentary photographer, and Robert Pledge, a photo editor and major presence in the photography community. Kristen Ashburn is an American photojournalist who in 2001 began photographing the impact of AIDS in southern Africa, and since then has produced stories on the spread of tuberculosis in the Russian penal system, Jewish Settles and suicide bombers in Israel’s Occupied Territories, and the aftermaths of the tsunami in Sri Lanka and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Her work has appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker , Time, Newsweek, and Life.

Tony Award-winning actor Ruben Santiago-Hudson is also a Humanitas Award-winning writer, acclaimed theater director and artist lauded for relentlessly telling the true story of the African-American experience in America. He will visit the Television program later this year to teach master classes and host screenings. Santiago-Hudson’s television work includes Law & Order, NYPD Blue and The West Wing and he has appeared in such films as Coming to America and The Honeydrippers.

Craig Holden Feinberg is the senior art director at UNISON in Washington D.C. This noted graphic designer has created social awareness campaigns for the Red Cross, World Health Organization, Doctors without Borders and Habitat for Humanity, and he has worked extensively for the United Colors of Benetton. In May, Feinberg will come to Westphal to host workshops with students, exhibit his work in the Pearlstein Gallery and give a public talk on how visual communications can impact the social issues and problems the world faces today.

Finally, internationally recognized toy designer and illustrator, Emilio Garcia will travel from Barcelona, Spain to host a 4-day workshop with students on making vinyl toys, along with a public lecture and demonstration for our Product Design program. Since 1999, Garcia has worked with such well-known international companies as Hitachi, Diesel, Inditex, Metro, Vans and The North Face among others specializing in motion graphics and multimedia content. His work is published in Taschen Favourite Websites and Web Design Index Books. You may know Garcia for his popular "Jumping Brain" figures.