At the heart of the Willamette experience are the deep collaborative relationships students develop with the distinguished faculty on the Salem and Portland campuses.

We’re proud to welcome new faculty for the 2024–2025 academic year — including a former public defender, an Emmy award-winning animator, a global public health advocate, and a Disney artist.

These energetic teachers, mentors, practitioners, and scholars will guide students through teaching and advising as they achieve their goals and learn to turn knowledge into action.

Meet the newest members of the Willamette community below!

College of Arts & Sciences

Hayley Freedman

Public Health

Hayley Freedman BA’09 is a Willamette alum and the Mark and Melody Teppola Presidential Distinguished Visiting Professor in Public Health. She has worked as Program Manager for Global Capacity Development and Patient Support at the American Cancer Society in Washington, D.C., where she supported patients from diagnosis through the end of treatment and worked to remove barriers to care.

Freedman has significant experience in program monitoring and evaluation, training design and delivery, and the provision of technical assistance in sub-Saharan Africa. She holds a dual international Master of Public Health degree from the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom) and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), a Bachelor of Arts from Willamette University, and a certification in nonprofit management (CNP credential) from the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. Hayley served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia and Mozambique and speaks advanced Portuguese and intermediate Spanish.

Florent Ghys

Music

Florent Ghys is an assistant professor of music. He is a multimedia artist and double bass performer who combines moving images and music in his work. He composes pieces using notated music, videos, and double bass performance. Ghys is particularly fascinated by the use of recorded media, integrating samples from radio, TV shows, weather forecasts, and field recordings into his audiovisual compositions.

Central to Ghys's work is the incorporation of playfulness in the creative process, which was the focus of his doctoral research at Princeton. There, he developed the “Ghys Entertainment System,” a digital environment that enables the real-time creation of audiovisual works.

Hannah Penn

Music

Hannah Penn is the Zeller Chair in Dramatic Arts. A Mezzo-soprano, she enjoys a diverse career as a performer of opera, oratorio, and recital literature. Frequently praised for her musicality and the timbre of her voice, Penn has recently received critical acclaim from Willamette Week and The Oregonian.

She has sung more than twenty operatic roles with Glimmerglass Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Portland Opera, Tacoma Opera, and other companies. She also enjoys a full concert schedule, having been featured with orchestras around the country, including several appearances with the Oregon Symphony, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Sunriver Music Festival, the Florida Philharmonic, and the Seattle Baroque.

Michelle Talal

Environmental Science

Michelle Talal is an assistant professor of environmental science. Talal grew up in Oregon and is excited to be part of the Willamette University community. She is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist with a focus on urban ecology and sustainable management. She uses mixed methods to investigate urban biodiversity patterns, nature accessibility, and ecosystem services.

Previously, Talal was a postdoctoral associate at Duke University and a Zuckerman Postdoctoral Scholar at Tel Aviv University. She also worked as an environmental consultant and educator throughout the Pacific Northwest. Talal received her BA in Biology from Occidental College, Master of Environmental Management from Duke University, and PhD in Environmental Sciences from Oregon State University.

Pacific Northwest College of Art

Andy Bialk

Illustration

Andy Bialk is a 2-time Emmy Award winner with 25+ years in the animation industry. His influential designs can be seen in some of the most memorable TV and Feature Films, including the 2019 Academy Award winner Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, Under The Boardwalk, Minions: The Rise of Gru, The LEGO Movie 1 & 2, The Emoji Movie, The SpongeBob Movie, The Book Of Life, Madagascar 2, How To Train Your Dragon, Shrek 4, and Megamind. In Television, his work can be seen in the Mickey Mouse shorts, Shimmer & Shine, Dragons: Riders of Berk, The Ricky Gervais cartoon, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, Samurai Jack, The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory among others.

Bialk has given lectures at Art Center College of Design, DreamWorks Feature Animation, Concept Design Academy, and Loyola Marymount University, where he earned a BA in Studio Arts.

Christiane Cegavske

Animated Arts

Christiane Cegavske is a Guggenheim Fellow and San Francisco Art Institute Alum. She is best known for the award-winning stop-motion feature Blood Tea and Red String (2006). Her career as an animator and sculptor for television and film includes work for NBC, The Oxygen Network, VH1, the Disney Channel, and Fox, as well as a number of independent productions, including The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) and CIVET (2018).

Her work leans toward surrealism, with her paintings tending to be rendered realistically and her films usually involving anthropomorphic creatures in fancy costumes. The imagery is inspired by her own mythic imaginings, which she has drawn from many sources. She joins the PNCA faculty after ten years teaching at Kansas City Art Institute.

Briana Corcoran

Illustration

Briana Corcoran is a Japanese-American artist, born and raised in Southern California. She attended the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and studied graphic design and illustration. As an artist, she tries to challenge herself with different media and approaches to the drawing process. Her work tends to be more linear with a play on shape — the interaction between the two interests her. She tries to push limits between movement and balance and include an essence of effortlessness and simplicity.

illustration, product illustration, visual displays, beauty as well as live drawing at events all over the country.

Jack Ellis

Animated Arts

Jack Ellis is a 2D Supervisor Animator and Lead who’s currently working with Deep Sky Studio has had more than 10+ years of experience in the animation industry. His work includes games such as Day of the Tentacle, TV shows like Jeff and Some Aliens, animated short films, one of which won a regional Emmy “Growing Up George”, and music videos like Smashing Pumpkins’ In Ashes series.

He loves collaborating and working with passionate teams because it’s a great environment to grow in, and he hopes to continue developing that with the PNCA faculty, staff, and student body.

Christopher Ian Foster

Critical Studies

Christopher Ian Foster is the author of Conscripts of Migration: Neoliberal Globalization, Nationalism, and the Literature of New African Diasporas (2019). He served as an Assistant Professor of English and Africana Studies at Jackson State University and James Madison University after receiving a PhD in English from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2015.

He has published widely in postcolonial and Black diaspora studies and has taught courses on globalization in the International Studies Program at Colorado State University; he recently taught in the Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Oregon. He lives in Portland, OR with his partner and was most recently a faculty member in the Black Studies and International & Global Studies departments at Portland State University.

Elizabeth Malaska

Painting

Elizabeth Malaska earned her BFA from California College of the Arts and her MFA in Visual Studies from PNCA. She is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, the recipient of a Painter's and Sculptor's Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and the Hallie Ford Fellowship from The Ford Family Foundation.

Malaska's work is in the permanent collection at the Portland Art Museum, the Schneider Museum of Art, and the Hallie Ford Museum. Her work has been featured in Ms. Magazine, Art in America, ArtForum, and ArtMaze among others.

Nina Martinez

Illustration and Graphic Design

Nina Martinez is an illustrator from Metro Manila currently based in Portland, Ore. Martinez is interested in exploring and questioning the boundaries of graphic narrative, creating comics with interactive elements and unconventional materials. She graduated in 2016 with a BFA in Visual Communication from the University of the Philippines Diliman. She drew for Rappler before going freelance, illustrating for children's books, comics, editorial, animation, and musical productions. Her clients include The Globe & Mail, Adarna House, MUJI Philippines, and more.

Her comics have been published in the Philippines by Bad Student Press and Gantala Press, and elsewhere by Drawn & Quarterly, Zubaan Books, and Jaja Verlag. She received her MFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2024.

Salvador Orara

Graphic Design

Salvador Orara is a distinguished practitioner and mentor with a nomadic career in the design industry and academia spanning over two decades. He has experience across many areas, including sonic interaction, experimental web experiences, IoT, interactive museum installations, automotive HMI and Infotainment, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality.

With a robust background in graphic design, interaction and user experience design, creative technology, and product innovation, his journey reflects a passion for creativity, a commitment to education and mentorship through servant leadership, and the critical exploration of the intersection between design, technology, and the human experience.

Yong Hong Zhong

Foundation

Artist Yong Hong Zhong was born in Canton, China, and immigrated to the United States when he was twelve years old. He developed a keen interest in drawing at an early age. His determination to pursue his dream of being an artist prompted him to attend LaGuardia High School and the Pratt Institute in New York.

During his third year at Pratt Institute, Disney Animation Studios selected him and fourteen other college students from all over the country to study under their artists. The animation industry reinforced his love for the arts. Upon graduation, he was offered an internship at the Disney Animation Studios in Florida. He also worked for MTV Animation Studios as a storyboard artist. At MTV, he helped design backgrounds, and props and also had an opportunity to be a voice-over. He rejoined the Walt Disney Company a year later and has worked on featured films since 1995.

College of Law

Reid Krell

Law

Reid Krell teaches Torts, Professional Responsibility, and other courses in litigation, dispute resolution, and public law. Prior to joining the faculty at Willamette, he held appointments at Washburn University, Vassar College, and the University of the West Indies. His research focuses on judicial decision-making and litigant behavior, and has appeared in Loyola Law Review, Political Science Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, Elon Law Review, George Mason Civil Rights Law Journal, and The Journal of the Legal Profession.

Krell received his bachelor's degree from George Washington University and earned both the JD and the PhD at the University of Alabama, where he was the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Alabama Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Law Review. He is licensed to practice in Mississippi and admitted to appear before seven federal district courts in the Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Circuits. He is an arbitrator for the Financial Regulatory Authority, part of the remote pro bono appellate team for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and Of Counsel with the law firm of Wallace, Martin, Duke, and Russell in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Kurt Wohlers

Clinical Law

Kurt Wohlers is the assistant professor of Willamette’s new Criminal Defense Clinic. Before starting at Willamette, he was an attorney at the Metropolitan Public Defender in Hillsboro, Ore., where he represented indigent clients in all stages of felony and misdemeanor criminal proceedings, including jury trials. He was also a Director on the Board of the Washington County Bar Association.

In law school, Wohlers worked at the Colorado State Public Defender, the Federal Community Defender for the Eastern District of Michigan, and as a research assistant to two professors. He was a Senior Editor of the Michigan Law Review and a competitor and coach on the mock trial team.

Atkinson Graduate School of Management

Raffaella Misuraca

Marketing

Raffaella Misuraca is a visiting assistant professor of marketing who will teach courses in marketing and consumer behavior. Her research interests lie at the intersection of consumer behavior and decision-making, with a focus on how choice overload, choice architecture, and individual differences influence consumer choices and satisfaction.

Her research has also been featured in media outlets, such as the London School of Economics Business Review. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Palermo, Department of Psychology, in 2002. In 2003, she conducted her postdoctoral research at the National Research Council at the University of Bourgogne in France.

School of Computing & Information Sciences

Rachel Brown

Computer Science

Rachel Brown is an assistant professor of computer science. She is a researcher in computer graphics, vision science, and human perception. She became interested in vision science in college when she realized that she was stereo-blind and recovered her stereo vision through vision therapy exercises.

She graduated from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, in 2011 with dual BS degrees in Biology and Psychology. In 2018, she finished her PhD in Vision Science and an MS in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. During her PhD, she completed summer internships at Adobe Seattle (2015) and NVIDIA Santa Clara (2016). She has also worked as a Research Scientist at NVIDIA in Portland, Oregon.