October 7, 2015

Our congratulations to five talented and dedicated faculty members who were recently promoted to Associate Teaching Professor. They are Fashion Design professor and Fox Historic Costume Collection curator, Clare Sauro, who has spearheaded the Collection’s transformation into a University treasure with a national reputation; professor and Program Director of Interactive Digital Media, Troy Finamore, who has played a key role in the rapid growth of Westphal’s Digital Media programs; Screenwriting & Playwriting professor and Program Director Matt Kaufhold, who has strengthened the program and its connection to other programs in the College; Art & Art History professor Joshua Weiss, who has served as a vital mainstay in all of our students’ foundational design education; and Luke Abruzzo, Music professor and Program Director, who oversees fifteen ensembles, four thriving minors and a robust performance schedule with a passion for our students and music itself.

A committed scholar with more than 15 years of experience in her field, Professor Sauro joined Drexel in 2009 and has served as a mentor to students in the Design Department and beyond. In addition to curating Immortal Beauty, the Costume Collection’s first ever large-scale retrospective exhibition, and a successful lecture series based around the Collection, her many efforts have been invaluable in securing the staffing and resources needed to grow the Collection. In addition to designing new courses for the program she has critically refocused existing courses to be more writing intensive.

Professor Finamore joined Drexel full time in 2007 with more than 20 years of experience in graphic design, web design and advertising. He has been essential to a number of important curriculum revisions, including the creation of three separate Digital Media programs, which has led to an explosion in enrollment and has allowed us to provide specialized courses of study with sufficient depth. He is largely responsible for designing the Interactive Digital Media curriculum, developing the coursework and materials for nearly all of his classes.

Professor Matt Kaufhold joined Drexel in 2005 and was appointed Program Director in 2014-15. In his teaching he helps students to identify their own solutions to story and character deficiencies, instead of teaching prescribed solutions, and he innovatively encourages them to engage with new forms, effectively broadening their potential employment outcomes. In 2013 he was recognized by the Pennoni Honors College with their Outstanding Teaching Award.

An accomplished visual artist who has curated a number of exhibitions of strong regional and national artists, Professor Weiss is tremendously dedicated to the success of his students, encouraging in them during their freshman year a boundless enthusiasm for and knowledge of design. Through teaching an important series of foundation coursework, he has also worked closely with his colleagues in the Digital Media and film programs to tailor his courses to these non-design majors, and he has been instrumental in incorporating digital design tools into our students’ education.